Deadline for Receiving Your Real ID Has Been Postponed
President Donald Trump said Monday that the deadline for obtaining this ID will be delayed to prevent people from piling up around motor vehicle departments.
A new date has not been announced.
A real ID is essentially an extended driver’s license. It looks like a regular government ID, but it has a black or gold star on it to indicate it meets high standards to prevent counterfeiting.
The transition from regular old state IDs to real IDs has been going on since 2005, when Congress passed the Real IDs Act setting minimum security standards for state IDs.
The original deadline for converting your driver’s license to a real ID was October 1, 2020. After that date, if you did not have a valid ID, you would need a passport to board the plane, even for a domestic flight – your old state the identifier will not be “reliable enough” to serve as identification at the airport.
Some states started moving to new IDs in 2018, but many state residents who started the process later had a long wait to get theirs.
During this grace period, you can upload your ID documents online for DMV approval prior to your (eventual) face-to-face meeting. Check with your local DMV to see if this option is possible and how coronavirus scheduling changes might affect it.