# Possible Real ID problem? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 29, 2025, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664 "2025-04-29T20:02:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/61 "2025-04-30T16:22:36Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > The REAL ID Act was passed in 2005. My state started to issue them in 2019. Some people like the OP have genuine unique issues that need special attention. The vast majority of people gumming up the works are those who waited until the last minute and are trying to get in before the deadline of something that they could have taken care of years ago. I forgot to respond to this. Yes the act was passed and a deadline was announced. Than it was moved to a later date. This happened over and over. It happened enough times that I and many others wondered if we would ever actually need a Real ID. I honestly do not know when Pennsylania started issuing Real ID’s. I do know that for years there was no reason to spend the extra $30 and take a long trip to the one DMV office I could get the Real ID without waiting for it in the mail- because it was not clear if a final deadline would ever come. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/62 "2025-04-30T16:33:28Z")
What trips me up sometimes is that the last name on my birth certificate has an apostrophe, which tends to confuse computers\*. The Soviet of Washington got around this on my driver’s license by replacing it with a space, which makes it look like I have two middle initials; but the county election register just eliminated it, so I had to have it changed with the county so I could get automatic ballot updates. Back on topic, I got an [Enhanced DL](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_driver%27s_license) ten years or so ago, and IIRC I needed my birth certificate and proof of address, plus a questionnaire I filled out in advance. The “interview” consisted of an agent having my questionnaire in front of him and asking the same questions — maybe to check that I hadn’t cribbed some other person’s, since I can’t think of any other reason. \* Keyboards don’t have an actual apostrophe, so a single quote is used instread. The problem is that most databases use a single quote to indicate the beginning and end of a piece of string data, and having a single quote in the middle can cause data errors if it’s not provided for (which is all to often the case). ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/63 "2025-04-30T17:37:42Z")
> [@OttoDaFe](#): > > - Keyboards don’t have an actual apostrophe, so a single quote is used instread. The problem is that most databases use a single quote to indicate the beginning and end of a piece of string data, and having a single quote in the middle can cause data errors if it’s not provided for (which is all to often the case). relevant XKCD: > **[Exploits of a Mom](https://xkcd.com/327/)** ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/64 "2025-04-30T17:48:16Z")
> [@OttoDaFe](#): > > What trips me up sometimes is that the last name on my birth certificate has an apostrophe, which tends to confuse computers\*. Same issue my wife has. She had the choice to take my non-apostrophe name but declined. ---
**Author:** ![Gr8LakesSrfr7of9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Gr8LakesSrfr7of9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gr8LakesSrfr7of9)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/65 "2025-04-30T18:26:55Z")
Wow, just wow. This opens up another can of worms IF Congress were to require proof of legal name requirements for voter registrations. In my case, my father changed his middle name when I started grade school and since I was a Junior, that changed my name as well. We didn’t do anything legally to make said change. Then about thirty years later, I changed my first and middle names (I always hated my first name and picked a more common “American” name). I used the common law method to make those changes and did NOT go to court for that. Finally, after my spouse died, I then changed my last name by adding his last name to mine with a hyphen but I did get a court-ordered name change which cost me in time and money. All my previous and current drivers licenses were updated with no problem at all as were other pertinent financial and voting databases. There should be a better way to meet the RealID requirements in cases like this, methinks. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/66 "2025-04-30T18:57:06Z")
I have a compound last name like “VanZeeland” (it isn’t) My birth certificate has one word but with the capital Z (has both lower and upper case) My passport (which is what I have been using to travel, I’m not even sure I will get a real ID) is all caps so it shows VAN ZEELAND (all caps with a space) My driver’s (and pilot’s) license has it VANZEELAND (all caps but no space).as does my Social Security card. So far no real issues with this discrepancy, but it does worry me a bit… Brian ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/67 "2025-04-30T19:17:21Z")
> [@Gr8LakesSrfr7of9](#): > > There should be a better way to meet the RealID requirements in cases like this, methinks. I don’t disagree- but I also wonder how I worked with passports in the past. I suspect that the reason people didn’t used to have problems with having the right documents for driver’s licenses etc was because they didn’t absolutely have to use the birth certificate to prove their age\* but many people have no other proof of citizenship. \* For example, SS will accept school/medical/baptismal records as proof of age. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/68 "2025-04-30T23:14:38Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I needed to document my social security number Texas used to have this requirement, but (like Oregon now—it’s an item that appears on another page of the series of questions) no longer requires _physical_ documentation. Instead, they run it through a database to verify the SSN you provide matches your identity. This changed in just the last year or two. Check your state’s requirements again and who knows, maybe it’s changed too? ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/69 "2025-04-30T23:33:04Z")
I got real ID already. I’m bitter about it, but don’t need help. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/70 "2025-05-01T00:00:55Z")
> [@OttoDaFe](#): > > Back on topic, I got an [Enhanced DL](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_driver%27s_license) ten years or so ago, and IIRC I needed my birth certificate and proof of address, plus a questionnaire I filled out in advance. The “interview” consisted of an agent having my questionnaire in front of him and asking the same questions — maybe to check that I hadn’t cribbed some other person’s, since I can’t think of any other reason. Were you placed under oath at the interview? It might just have been for the purpose of being able to nail you for perjury (which must be under oath). They do the same thing at naturalization interviews. They largely just go threw the application, but with the twist being that everything is now under penalty of perjury. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/71 "2025-05-01T00:08:43Z")
I once testified that my boss was the person named on the birth certificate he carried. He didn’t have any government-issued photo ID. So i “swore or affirmed” his identity. I imagine that would have been perjury if I’d lied. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/72 "2025-05-01T00:10:09Z")
Not sure what your point is. I am simply explaining what might be a possible reason for being required to repeat at an interview what has already been attested to in writing. Federal perjury law only kicks in if (a) it’s a court or grand jury proceeding (which will be under oath) or (b) you have “taken an oath before a competent tribunal, officer, or person, in any case in which a law of the United States authorizes an oath to be administered”. State law might be different. Not my point. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/73 "2025-05-01T00:25:46Z")
My written answers were reviewed orally and I wasn’t placed under oath. Same with Global Entry and NEXUS. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/74 "2025-05-01T00:49:20Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > I asked if they were paying their parents any rent. They said no. I said that in that case, their parents were considered part of the household and I needed some information on them even if they were not applying. The caller spoke to their parents. The caller put their parents on the phone so I could explain things. The father kept shouting that the caller was not part of his household because he was not claiming them as a tax dependent. I kept calmly repeeating 'I undertsand that sir. Whether you claim them as a dependent or whether they are even related to you does not matter. They are living under your roof and not paying rent. That makes them a member of the same house hold." This went on for quite some time as both the caller and I hoped the father would see reason. He never did. Out of curiosity, were you hoping they’d respond by drawing up, like, a one-penny-a-month rental agreement? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/75 "2025-05-01T01:14:54Z")
Can I ask that we get back on topic? ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/76 "2025-05-01T01:29:43Z")
Perhaps it is out of date, but let me recount my experience. I was born in 1937. At around the same time, my father was trying to get a job, without much success and he dropped a few letters from his name, hoping that a non-Jewish name would help. (It didn’t; when he finally got a job it was in a factory owned by my mother’s uncle.) So there was one name on my birth certificate and a different one all other documents, school records, social security card, draft regisration, etc. In 1964 I needed a passport. The passport office had me fill out a form with notarized signatures by two different people who had known me under both names to attest that I was the same person as the one on the birth certificate. Fortunately, both parents were still alive and able to sign this. Because not a single other person on this earth had ever known me by the name on the birth certificate. The passport was duly issued and all the replacements I’ve had in subsequent years, have been issued based on this one. Never a problem. When I emigrated to Canada, I just showed my passport and have never used the original name in Canada. Now I have a Canadian passport in that name. Then I came to retire. My employer wanted a birth certificate. They wanted proof of actual age for actuarial purposes. So I wrote to the office in Harrisburg that keeps records and explained that I was born on such and such date in a hospital I named to parents named … and I wanted a copy of my birth certificate. They wrote back, saying that they had noted that the name on the check I had enclosed was different from the name on the birth certificate. And that if I could provide evidence that I had been using this name for at least ten years, they would be willing to issue the certificate in my current name. I photocopied several expired passports, my college and graduate school diplomas and sent ti to Harrisburg. In a couple weeks, I had a new birth certificate in my current name. That was all in 1999. Whether it would happen today is not clear. They may have also connected me with my brother who had gone to court and have his name changed legally. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/77 "2025-05-01T15:04:41Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Even though **I enlisted under my current name** , got a driver’s license under my current name and got married (twice!) under my current name? I’m trying to follow the bouncing ball in this thread to determine at which step you first got a form of (official) ID _without using your birth certificate_. In my state (Louisiana), it’s uncommon (**[though legal](https://expresslane.dps.louisiana.gov/cdlforms/identification%20requirements.pdf)**) for people to get their first drivers licenses (or the equivalent ‘state ID’ for non-drivers) without presenting their original birth certificates. OK, so you were not born in Oregon per the OP. Was your very first **[“primary document” ID](https://expresslane.dps.louisiana.gov/cdlforms/identification%20requirements.pdf)** your military ID? And from there, you were able to use that military ID to get your first drivers license? And with that drivers license, all subsequent identification needs (e.g. to present for a marriage license) throughout your adult life have been satisfied? If all in the paragraph above is true … it follows that either (a) you were able to get your first military ID without presenting a birth certificate, or (b) you presented your birth certificate to get your military ID but were allowed to choose an alternate name to appear on your military ID. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/78 "2025-05-01T15:18:13Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Yes, I have a current driver’s license with the name I now use. I don’t understand; an Oregon driver’s license is one of the options listed under “proof of legal name.” And you said you enlisted under your current name, so do you have one of a “Military ID card, Common Access card, Uniform Services ID & Privilege card?” Because that also qualifies as proof of legal name. Really, as I said, you should schedule an appointment and bring whatever documents you have. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/79 "2025-05-01T15:21:21Z")
I would have difficulty providing two documents to prove my residency address. I have our lease agreement, but since our utilities are included, there are no bills. I don’t know if the DL would suffice for that or not. Anyway, I don’t intend to get a Real ID, so I guess it’s moot. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/80 "2025-05-01T15:24:47Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I would have difficulty providing two documents to prove my residency address. I have our lease agreement, but since our utilities are included, there are no bills. I don’t know if the DL would suffice for that or not. For what it’s worth, **[in Louisiana at least, a drivers license showing one’s current address absolutely suffices](https://www.expresslane.org/media/lf1fefjk/real-id-brochure-color.pdf)** as one of the two address-proving documents. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664.md?page=5)