How Much Is a Travel ID in AZ (2026 Data)

An Arizona Travel ID costs $25¹, the same for a first card or a renewal, and it lasts up to 8 years². Since May 7, 2025, that gold-star card, or another REAL ID-compliant document, is what a traveler needs at an airport checkpoint for a domestic flight.³ Flying without one now costs $45⁴ for a 10-day window,⁵ while the state card works out to $3.13⁶ a year, the cheapest accepted ID per year of use on this page.

Crossing a border costs more, and those prices are rising. A visa-free visitor to the United States pays $40.27⁷ for an ESTA, almost three times the 2010 price, and a visitor who needs a visa pays $185⁸ before the interview. A Schengen visa costs €90⁹, its medical insurance must cover at least €30,000¹⁰, and the share of applications refused, 14.6%¹¹ in 2025, is about three times the 2013 rate.

What the Arizona Travel ID costs

The state fee

The state fee for an Arizona Travel ID is $25¹ for a driver license or an ID card, for a first card and for a renewal alike, and it is the same at an MVD office and at an Authorized Third Party office.¹² A duplicate Travel ID costs $12¹. The Travel ID is the state's REAL ID-compliant card and carries a gold star.²

For drivers under 40, the Travel ID costs the same as a standard license: a standard Arizona license issued at ages 16 to 39 is also $25¹. From 40 the standard license gets cheaper, $20¹ at 40-44, $15¹ at 45-49 and $10¹ from 50, so an older driver pays up to $15 more for the gold star. A standard ID card costs $12¹ up to age 64 and nothing from 65.

How long the card lasts

A Travel ID is valid for up to 8 years² in most cases, which works out to $3.13⁶ a year. From age 60 it is issued for 5 years². At 58 or 59 it runs until the year the holder turns 65, and for non-citizens with authorized presence it ends when the immigration document expires, at most 8 years. Authorized Third Party offices may add a convenience fee of their own; those extra charges are not published, so no total beyond the state fee is quoted here.¹²

What to bring

The application needs three kinds of papers:²

• One proof of identity, such as a birth certificate or an unexpired US passport or passport card.
• A Social Security number (the number is enough).
• Two proofs of Arizona residency from different sources.

The card has no RFID chip,² and it arrives by mail in 10 to 14 days.³ So why have more than 3 million Arizona cards been upgraded?

REAL ID at the airport: why the upgrade matters

Enforcement since May 7, 2025

Since May 7, 2025, airport checkpoints for domestic flights accept only REAL ID-compliant licenses and ID cards or another accepted document, such as a passport.³ International travel still needs a passport.² From February 1, 2026, a traveler without an accepted ID can pay $45⁴ for TSA ConfirmID, an identity check that covers a 10-day travel period, can take up to 30 minutes and does not guarantee clearance.^{4 5} In early February 2026, 95% to 99%⁵ of travelers already showed a REAL ID or another accepted ID.

Arizona's count

Arizona had issued nearly 1.6 million¹³ Travel IDs by November 2021, 2,013,187¹⁴ by May 31, 2023 and 2,509,977¹⁵ by March 11, 2025. Enforcement then brought a rush: the count reached 2.77 million³ by May 6, 2025, about 260,000⁶ more in eight weeks, and passed 3 million¹⁶ by July 7, 2025.

Between May 31, 2023 and July 7, 2025, at least 986,813⁶ cards were added, and at least 490,023⁶ of them in the four months from March 11 to July 7, 2025, around the start of enforcement.¹⁶

The national picture

Nationally, REAL ID-compliant cards were about 33%¹⁷ of state-issued licenses and ID cards in October 2019 and 56.42%¹⁷ in January 2024, 23.42⁶ percentage points more in a little over four years. An official projection put the share at 61.2% to 66.0%¹⁷ by May 2025 and said it may rise to 83%¹⁷ by May 2027; those are projections, not counts. About 41%¹⁷ of the US population held a passport in 2023, the other document most travelers can use.

The spread between states narrowed. In October 2019, 31¹⁷ of the 56 licensing jurisdictions had compliant shares under 25% and 8¹⁷ had 75% or more; by January 2024 the low group had shrunk to 9¹⁷ and the high group had grown to 17¹⁷.

Travel ID, passport or ConfirmID

Of the options compared here, the Travel ID costs least: $25¹ for up to 8 years. A first-time adult passport book costs $165⁸ (a $50⁸ application fee, an $80⁸ security surcharge and a $35⁸ execution fee) and a passport card $65⁸, both valid for 10 years¹⁸. Per year of validity that is $16.50⁶ for the book and $6.50⁶ for the card, against $3.13⁶ for the Travel ID. One $45⁴ ConfirmID window costs $20⁶ more than the Travel ID itself and covers only 10 days.⁵

From a card that works at home, the price of travel jumps once a border is involved.

How much is a travel visa?

At the rates in force on September 25, 2026, a visitor visa or travel authorization for a short trip costs from about $5⁶ to $185⁸. At the low end are the online authorizations for visa-free visitors: Canada's eTA at CAN$7¹⁹ (about $5), the UK ETA at £20²⁰ ($26.74⁶), the US ESTA at $40.27⁷ and Australia's ETA at AUD 20²¹ ($14.22⁶). Full visitor visas cost more: €90⁹ ($103.18⁶) for a Schengen visa, $140²² for a Chinese visa for US citizens, £135²⁰ ($180.52⁶) for a UK Standard Visitor visa and $185⁸ for a US visitor visa.

Who pays what depends on the passport. US citizens need no visa for a Schengen stay of up to 90 days in any 180-day period.²³ The ETIAS travel authorization for visa-exempt travelers to Europe, €20²⁴ ($22.93⁶), is not yet collected. Its planned late-2026 start was dropped in July 2026, no start date has been announced, and the EU says it will give the date several months before launch.^{25 26} Foreign fees are converted at the exchange rate of September 18, 2026.²⁷

What visitors pay to enter the United States

Fees by visa type

A US visitor visa (B1/B2) costs $185⁸ in 2026, the fee for most nonimmigrant visas that do not need a petition. Applicants in the petition-based H, L, O, P, Q and R categories pay $205⁸, fiancé(e) visas cost $265⁸ and treaty trader and investor visas $315⁸. A Mexican child pays $15⁸ for a border crossing card if the child is under 15 and a parent holds one.

Two decades of fee rises

The visitor visa fee has almost tripled since 2002. It was $65²⁹ until an emergency increase to $100²⁹ on November 1, 2002, then rose to $131³⁰ in 2008, $140³¹ in 2010 and $160³² in 2012. The latest step, to $185³³, took effect on June 17, 2023, after its start date was pushed back.³⁴ In nominal dollars the 2023 fee is 2.85⁶ times the one charged before November 2002.

The trend line only shows the average pace, about $3.79 a year; the fee itself moves in steps set by rule, and it has stayed flat for as long as 11 years between steps.³²

ESTA, EVUS and I-94

Visitors from Visa Waiver countries skip the visa but pay for an ESTA: $40.27⁷ since January 1, 2026, and an applicant who is denied pays $10.27⁷. The charge was $14³⁵ from September 8, 2010, $21³⁶ from May 20, 2022 and $40³⁷ from September 30, 2025, when a new law raised it by 90.5%⁶ in one step. The 2026 price is 2.88⁶ times the 2010 one.

Two smaller charges rose at the same time. EVUS enrollment, which had no fee before, costs $30.75⁷ since January 1, 2026, and Form I-94 at a land border costs $30³⁷, up from $6³⁷.

What is coming

A $250³⁸ Visa Integrity Fee per issued nonimmigrant visa was enacted on July 4, 2025 but is not yet collected: it is to be implemented in a later notice, no official collection notice has been published, and the start date is pending. Once it is, a visitor visa would cost $435⁶ in total. Some B1/B2 applicants can already pay $750³⁹ for an earlier interview, an optional service at selected posts from July 1 to December 31, 2026. Since August 3, 2026, consular officers can also require a refundable bond of $10,000⁴⁰, $15,000⁴⁰ or $20,000⁴⁰ from B1/B2 applicants from listed countries, after a pilot that began on August 20, 2025; it is a deposit, not a fee.

How many US visas are issued

The United States issued 10,969,936⁴¹ nonimmigrant visas in fiscal year 2024, the most in any year from 2004 to 2024 and 2.17⁶ times the 2004 total. The pandemic cut issuance to 2,792,083⁴¹ in 2021; three years later it was 3.93⁶ times higher. The series is shown without a trend line, because the 2020-2021 collapse makes any straight-line fit misleading.

Visitors dominate. B visitor visas, for business or tourism, were 8,453,374⁴⁶ of the fiscal 2024 total, or 77.1%⁶. Temporary workers (H) received 818,396⁴⁶ visas, students (F) 424,792⁴⁶ and exchange visitors (J) 355,332⁴⁶.

By nationality, Mexico led with 1,934,950⁴⁶ B visas, then Brazil with 1,117,727⁴⁶ and India with 899,606⁴⁶. Nationals of Visa Waiver countries rank low because most of them travel on an ESTA instead: Germany received 25,148⁴⁶ B visas, France 10,479⁴⁶ and Japan 5,987⁴⁶.

The map shades every nationality whose country has an outline on the world map. Counts are high across Latin America and South and East Asia, with the Philippines at 157,165⁴⁶ and Vietnam at 119,373⁴⁶, and low for most of Europe, Japan and Australia, whose nationals can visit on an ESTA: Australia received 9,855⁴⁶ B visas. Canada, next door, received only 209⁴⁶.

From fiscal 2015 to 2024 the mix changed. Mexico's nonimmigrant visas rose from 1,479,109⁴⁷ in fiscal 2015 to 2,408,789⁴⁷ in 2024, and India's from 961,423⁴⁷ to 1,374,775⁴⁷. China-mainland went the other way: 818,727⁴⁷ in 2024 is only 31.2%⁶ of the 2,626,584⁴⁷ of 2015.

The United States issued about 11 million⁴¹ visas in fiscal 2024; the Schengen states issued about 9.8 million⁴⁸ uniform visas in calendar 2024. The scale is similar, but the European story is one of demand that has not come back and refusals that have.

The Schengen visa: fee, demand and refusals

A fee up by half since 2010

An adult Schengen visa costs €90⁹ since June 11, 2024, and a child's visa (ages 6 to 11) €45⁹. At the exchange rate of September 18, 2026, the adult fee is $103.18⁶. It was €60¹⁰ from April 5, 2010 and €80⁴⁹ from February 2, 2020, so it has risen by half in 14 years. Since June 11, 2024, nationals of countries found not to cooperate on readmission can be charged €135 or €180⁵⁰, and the fee is reviewed every three years.

Demand is still below 2019

Schengen consulates received 16,955,541⁵² applications for short-stay visas in 2019 and only 2,924,365⁵³ in 2020. Demand has climbed back every year since, to 11,716,723⁴⁸ in 2024 and more than 12 million¹¹ in 2025. That is still only about 72%⁶ of 2019, and more than 5 million⁶ below the 17,285,449⁵⁴ applications of 2013. The number of Schengen states reporting consulate data grew over the period, from 25 up to 2022 to 26 in 2023 and 28 in 2024.⁴⁸

Refusals

The share of applications refused, strictly the share not issued, rose from 4.8%⁵⁴ in 2013 to 9.9%⁵² in 2019, peaked at 17.9%⁶⁵ in 2022 and has fallen every year since, to 14.6%¹¹ in 2025. That is still about 3.04⁶ times the 2013 rate. From 2020 the rate is calculated differently: the new method gives a slightly higher rate than visas not issued divided by applications, so part of the jump between 2019 and 2020 comes from the change of method, not only from the pandemic.

Fewer multiple-entry visas

Multiple-entry visas, which allow repeated trips during their validity, made up 58.6%⁶¹ of uniform visas issued in 2016 and reached 70.5%⁶⁴ in 2021. The share has fallen since, to 51.7%¹¹ in 2025, so a traveler who wants to return within the visa's validity is less likely to get that option than a few years ago.

Where applications are lodged

China had the most Schengen visa applications in 2024, 1,779,255⁴⁸ or 15.2%⁶ of the total, followed by Türkiye with 1,173,917⁴⁸ and India with 1,108,239⁴⁸. In 2025 China again led, with about 1.9 million¹¹.

Where refusals are highest

Refusal shares differ widely by country. Among the 26 countries where consulates received at least 100,000 applications in 2024, the share not issued ranged from 45.3%⁴⁸ in Nigeria and 34.0%⁴⁸ in Algeria to 4.1%⁴⁸ for applications lodged in the United States and 3.5%⁴⁸ in Belarus. These shares are our calculation, visas not issued divided by applications, and can differ slightly from officially published country rates.

How much is the travel insurance for a Schengen visa?

Schengen visa applicants must hold travel medical insurance that covers at least €30,000¹⁰ (about $34,392⁶). The law sets what the policy must do:¹⁰

• It covers repatriation for medical reasons, urgent medical attention, emergency hospital treatment and death.
• It is valid in all Schengen states for the whole stay.
• For a multiple-entry visa, it covers the first intended visit.

The law sets the cover, not the price. One insurer's published prices start at €4.90⁶⁷ ($5.62⁶) for a one- or two-day trip on its basic €30,000 plan, and a 30-day trip on that plan costs €62.50⁶⁷ ($71.65⁶), about €2.08⁶ a day, and a 3-month trip, the longest Schengen stay, €99⁶⁷, more than the €90 visa fee. Plans with more cover cost more: €99.50⁶⁷ for 30 days with €100,000 of medical cover and €149.95⁶⁷ with €2 million. An annual multi-trip plan starts at €349.95⁶⁷ ($401.18⁶) a year.

Age and destination can change a quote, so these are one insurer's list prices, not a market average.

UK, Canada, Australia, India and China

The UK raised its Standard Visitor visa, for stays of up to six months, to £135²⁰ ($180.52⁶) on April 8, 2026, from £127⁶⁸ in April 2025 and £115⁶⁹ in the January 2024 fee table. Its electronic travel authorization for visa-free visitors doubled over the same tables, from £10⁶⁹ to £20²⁰, and the table for October 8, 2026 leaves both unchanged.⁷⁰ Longer visitor visas cost £506²⁰ for two years, £903²⁰ for five and £1,128²⁰ for ten.

India's e-Tourist visa costs US citizens $10²⁸ for 30 days from April to June, $25²⁸ for 30 days in the rest of the year, $40²⁸ for one year and $160²⁸ for five years. The standard five-year fee is $200²⁸, paid by nationals of 142²⁸ of the 175²⁸ countries on the fee list. Another 22²⁸ countries pay nothing, and the UK and four Crown dependencies and territories pay $484²⁸.

China charges US citizens a flat $140²² for any entry type, from a single entry to a multiple-entry visa of 12 months or more, while other nationals pay from $23²² to $68²² depending on the number of entries. Express service adds $25²² and rush service $37²². Canada's eTA costs CAN$7¹⁹, and Australia's ETA carries a service charge of AUD 20²¹ for stays of up to three months per entry.

What it adds up to for a traveler

An Arizonan who only flies within the United States pays $25¹ once for up to eight years of domestic flights, or $45⁴ for every 10-day trip without a compliant ID.⁵ A visitor to the United States pays $185⁸ for a visa or $40.27⁷ for an ESTA, with the $250³⁸ Visa Integrity Fee written into law but not yet collected.

A Schengen applicant pays €90⁹ for the visa plus travel insurance. On one insurer's basic plan that is €4.90⁶⁷ for a 1-2-day trip, €62.50⁶⁷ for 30 days, 69%⁶ of the visa fee, and €99⁶⁷ for 3 months, more than the fee itself. In 2025, 14.6%¹¹ of applications were refused. For a US citizen the same trip needs no visa at all, only a passport.²³ The €20²⁴ ETIAS travel authorization will be added once it starts; no start date has been announced.²⁵

Conclusions

1. A $25 Travel ID costs the least per year. Of the documents that clear an airport checkpoint, it costs $3.13 per year of validity, against $6.50 for a passport card and $16.50 for a passport book, and one $45 ConfirmID window costs $20 more than the card itself.^{1 8 4}
2. Online authorizations are rising quickly. The ESTA costs 2.88 times its 2010 price, the UK ETA doubled from £10 to £20 between the January 2024 and April 2026 fee tables, and the €20 ETIAS charge is set with no start date announced.^{7 20 24 25}
3. Schengen refusals stayed high as demand lagged. Applications in 2025 were about 72% of the 2019 level, while the refusal rate, 14.6%, is about three times the 2013 rate; part of the step in 2020 comes from a new way of calculating the rate.¹¹
4. On a longer trip, insurance costs about as much as the visa. One insurer's basic plan that meets the €30,000 rule starts at €4.90, but only for 1-2 days; 30 days cost €62.50, 69% of the €90 visa fee, and 3 months €99, more than the fee.^{10 67}
5. US visa demand is back, with a new fee waiting. The United States issued 10,969,936 nonimmigrant visas in fiscal 2024, and a $250 Visa Integrity Fee would lift a visitor visa to $435 once it is collected.^{41 38}