Apple’s Digital ID Now Available in 15 States. Is Yours on the List?

In a surprise twist, Virginia just became the fifteenth US state to embrace digital driver’s licenses in Apple Wallet, beating Oklahoma, which was widely expected to be next on deck.

It wasn’t exactly a photo finish, though. Even though back-end code showed the digital assets for an Oklahoma ID in Apple Wallet last month, the state’s new mobile ID law doesn’t take effect until November 1, which means that the technology probably can’t roll out before then. This gave another state plenty of time to slip in — and Virginia has done just that.

That officially puts Virginia at number 15, and the second state to come on board this year, following Arkansas in May. The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (VADMV) announced the feature this week, with the usual customized videos to show users how to add a Virginia ID, how to present it to a business, and how to present it to the TSA — one of the few agencies where digital driver’s licenses are somewhat uniformly accepted.

As with the rollout in other states, you’ll need to have your physical driver’s license on hand to add a digital version, since the process requires you to capture the front and back of your card. You can add a digital ID on up to two iPhones and a single Apple Watch. However, unlike Apple Pay cards, a digital driver’s license is linked to a single Face ID profile that’s locked in when you add it, ensuring nobody but you can present your digital ID.

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The VADMV has an extensive FAQ to help users with the process, which also notes that six US airports in Virginia also have TSA checkpoints that will support the new digital driver’s licenses. Businesses and organizations in the state with “compliant mobile ID readers” will also be able to use them for identity and age verification. Virginia is also following the lead of several other states like Ohio in offering a Virginia mID Verifier app on the App Store for businesses that want to be able to scan mobile IDs from an iPhone.

Digital driver’s licenses still aren’t ready to replace physical driver’s licenses, and Virginia’s FAQ also echoes a statement we’ve seen in every other state where the technology has launched:

That’s specifically an issue with law enforcement, as you can’t just show the image on your iPhone screen to a police officer (and probably wouldn’t want to hand your iPhone over to them anyway); special hardware is required to verify a mobile driver’s license, and that’s going to be a much longer road to get law enforcement agencies set up for this sort of thing.

At this stage, the real value in having your driver’s license in Apple Wallet isn’t the ability to leave your physical card at home so much as the privacy of not having to give everything away just to pass things like age verification checks. When you hand your physical driver’s license to a cashier or a bouncer, they get to see everything else written on it. Presenting a digital ID shows only the information they need — your date of birth and photo — and your iPhone even shows you exactly what information the terminal is asking for before you authorize the request.

All US States That Support Digital ID in Apple Wallet

Virginia joins Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, and West Virginia. The feature is also available in Puerto Rico, and with Japan’s My Number Card.

Oklahoma should join by the end of 2026, and there have also been reports that the feature will soon go live in North Carolina and Utah. Connecticut, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Utah were four of the eight states Apple announced were on board when it launched the feature in 2021, along with Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, and Maryland.

Arizona and Maryland were first on deck by a long shot, arriving within a year of Apple’s initial announcement, while Georgia and Iowa straggled a bit, launching in May 2023 and October 2024, respectively. While Oklahoma and Utah should be joining soon, there’s been no word from Connecticut or Kentucky.