# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/121 "2025-05-06T17:04:45Z")
> **[Noem: Travelers with no REAL ID can fly for now, but with likely extra steps](https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/homeland-security-chief-travelers-real-id-fly-now-121519849)** > > The head of Homeland Security says travelers who aren’t REAL ID compliant by the upcoming deadline this week will still be able to fly but should be prepared for extra scrutiny I’m sure it’s the same as the verification process that was previously used when people showed up at the airport without any valid ID. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > BTW, is there a Congressional ID Card that works for them, or do they need Real ID also? They most likely have a card that qualifies as “Real ID” . The TSA website says a HSPD-12 PIV card is acceptable and it appears that all Federal employees and contractors who need access to Federal facilities are issued one. People sometimes forget that Real ID compliant ID is needed to access many Federal facilities - it’s not just to board a flight. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/122 "2025-05-06T17:06:55Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Breaking news reports that Kristi Noem is saying you can still travel without Real ID but you will go through additional screenings. Just don’t try bringing your dog on board. She has a special plan for dogs that don’t have Real ID… ---
**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 6, 2025, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/123 "2025-05-06T17:09:36Z")
Since this was said by Kristi Noem, is there any separate verification of it working just this way? ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/124 "2025-05-06T17:21:01Z")
I’m not inclined to believe Kristi Noem either - but I know for a fact that there was a process for people who didn’t have ID before because I know a couple of people who were dumb enough to show up at the airport without (valid) ID ---
**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 6, 2025, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/125 "2025-05-06T17:23:19Z")
Was that before the Real ID deadline, or after? ---
**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 6, 2025, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/126 "2025-05-06T17:26:22Z")
From the TSA: “If you arrive at the airport without valid identification, you may still be allowed to fly. The TSA officer may ask you to complete an identity verification process which includes collecting information such as your name, current address, and other personal information to confirm your identity. There are several alternative forms of identification that you can use to fly without a Real ID, including expired government photo IDs, utility bills, prescriptions, library cards, Costco membership cards, work security badges, smartphone photos of IDs, and police reports of a lost/stolen wallet or passport.” [Acceptable Identification at the TSA Checkpoint | Transportation Security Administration](https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/identification) ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/127 "2025-05-06T17:30:50Z")
Before the latest deadline (which is tomorrow) . But after valid ID was required, which is what they didn’t have. _Any_ valid ID. Not even a government ID that expired less than 2 years ago. ETA - where did you find that business with prescriptions, library cards and Costco cards? If that’s true , it’s insane. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/128 "2025-05-06T17:41:20Z")
> [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#): > > Just don’t try bringing your dog on board. She has a special plan for dogs that don’t have Real ID… So you wanna replace her w/ Mitt Romney??? ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/129 "2025-05-06T18:53:51Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > I’m not inclined to believe Kristi Noem either - but I know for a fact that there was a process for people who didn’t have ID before because I know a couple of people who were dumb enough to show up at the airport without (valid) ID I was once one of those dumb people. I had a stripped-down wallet I used on my trips to Las Vegas to which I transferred only the minimum necessary I would need for the trip. Once I somehow forgot to include my state ID (I don’t drive) and didn’t realize it until I arrived at the airport. Obviously I didn’t have time to go back home and still make my flight, so I threw myself on the mercy of airport security. I don’t remember what all I had to go through to be permitted to board my plane. However, this was pre-9/11 so I suspect the process is more involved now. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/130 "2025-05-06T19:42:00Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Breaking news reports that Kristi Noem is saying you can still travel without Real ID but you will go through additional screenings. For now anyway. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > Please provide a link to this “advice”. Sounds amusing. The TSA have been reporting that for a number of weeks now so it’s probably legit. I don’t have any information about what they would be looking for (or how) and they warn the process will be “lengthy” so get there screamin’ early or risk missing your flight. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/131 "2025-05-06T22:50:04Z")
[Moderating] > [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#): > > Just don’t try bringing your dog on board. She has a special plan for dogs that don’t have Real ID… This is wholly uncalled-for in Factual Questions. This is an official Warning. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/132 "2025-05-06T22:50:45Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > So you wanna replace her w/ Mitt Romney??? And this is also problematic. Let’s keep FQ factual, please. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/133 "2025-05-07T06:31:02Z")
I had an issue once upon a time in that somehow in the court records, the **OFFICIAL** ones, the H got left off the end of my name. I had been enrolled in school for several years as Rivkah, was a Girl Scout as Rivkah, and my birth announcements my parents had sent out said Rivkah. No one knew I was legally Rivka until I got my first passport. Naturally, being nine, I threw fit. But was Rivkah at my embassy school, came back to the states, and remained Rivkah. I opened a checking account under Rivkah at age 11, and continued in school as Rivkah, getting high school and college degrees as Rivkah. Had a driver’s license as Rivkah, because they went by my high school. I enlisted in the Army, and was Rivkah, like my license, until some clerk decided that what is on your birth certificate is your name. Time to get the damn thing amended. In New York, you can correct an error pretty easily. You need to document that you have always used the intended name, and get a “free” change (you have to pay for a copy of the amended birth certificate, though-- $10) I sent them baby announcements, a first grade report card, a canceled check from when I was 11, report card from the 8th grade, play bill from a play I was in in high school, newpaper article that ID’d me with the correct spelling, some college stuff, and a photocopy of my interpreters’ certificate, as well as photocopies of driver’s licenses, SS cards. and a money order for $10 They sent it all back (except the money) along with **2** new certficates. So, just saying, if you have a mistake, it’s different from wanting a radical change, At least in NY. ---
**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 28, 2025, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/134 "2025-05-28T01:42:12Z")
This thread has inspired me to see about updating my birth certificate with the name I legally changed to when I was a young thing. Normally there’s no problem, but when I went for my NEXUS interview, I was asked in some detail to explain the discrepancy. (I also have a four-part name, for which different arms of the government use different combinations on documents, but that’s been easier to explain.) ---
**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 28, 2025, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/135 "2025-05-28T01:47:02Z")
Still no response back from Guam concerning my birth certificate. ---
**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 28, 2025, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/136 "2025-05-28T02:51:39Z")
How maddening. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2025, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/137 "2025-05-28T03:55:28Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > The problem is when two or more official documents have different names. If he shows up with a birth certificate with one name, and his driver’s license has another, there’s a definite risk the state will then say “OK, show us the document when your legal name changed”. If you can’t, they’ll give you a RealID in the name on the birth certificate, but not the name the OP has been using all this time. Will they give you that RealID, though? Sure there must be some requirement to prove that you are, indeed, the person named on the birth certificate. Otherwise, you could bring in one you borrowed from a dead cousin or something illicit. Just holding a piece of paper doesn’t mean that piece of paper is about you, especially if the first and middle names (presuming they’re the same, and spelled the same way as those on your other ID) are common. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2025, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/138 "2025-05-28T07:18:58Z")
Yes, that could be a problem. If a birth certificate says Sally Marie Jones and Sally Marie Jones marries Edward Drake Smith, then starts using Sally Smith as her name, dropping the middle name, at least in my state when she goes to get a RealID she’ll be told no, her name is _either_ Sally Marie Jones upon marriage OR Sally Jones Smith OR Sally Marie Jones-Smith OR Sally Marie Smith-Jones, pick one, but she can’t drop the middle name, those are her only choices regardless of what she may or may not have been using all that time. And she better have a valid copy of that marriage license. It does appear that in this case the names are all similar the human discretion can be used. I have no idea if _men_ who change their names at marriage have a problem with that or not. They very much might, given the conservative nature of this state, but I don’t know for sure. If William Conrad Smith on the birth certificate has been signing his name as Bill C. Smith since he was 18 and all his documentation ever since has been as Bill C. Smith his RealID will be presented to him as William Conrad Smith. Will this cause problems? I don’t know, maybe. If the name on the birth certificate is Zaphod Beeblebrox Autophandeelyamber III but since their late teens Zaphod has been going by Zeke Bumblebee D’amber THAT could cause a problem with whether or not Zeke gets a RealID. This can be very problematic in adoption cases, especially those that were “homebrew” and had some potential irregularities. Or instances where a kid was named one thing on the birth certificate to please relatives then referred to by a completely different name the rest of their lives, including getting ID’s in the name they used rather than the one on the birth certificate. In those cases “prove your the person on the birth certificate or bring in a birth certificate with the name you have been using” would apply. I have no idea how people in that position sort that out, but a visit to the courts as a solution would not surprise me at all. I know of an instance where someone with (not their real name) Catherine Beatrice Smith who after marriage went by Cate Betty Jones. Her RealID was issued as Catherine Cate Betty Beatrice Smith Jones which was probably some sort of error on the part of the clerk but it was now official. Catherine Cate Betty Beatrice Smith Jones had to go to court for an official name change to straighten it out, a clerk’s error requiring her to spend several months and hundreds of dollars of her own money to fix. In this state women who’ve been married and divorced multiple times with name changes along the way had better have kept all the legal documentation or they may simply be denied a RealID until they can bring that documentation in. Lost it all in a flood or fire? Sucks to be you, back to court I guess. Og help you if you’ve lost any official court-issued name changes, such as with adoptions. Finally, as an additional stupid entry - I know a man who went to get a RealID and was refused, his birth certificate rejected. Why? He was born in December but there’s a typo on his birth certificate. It says Decemb3r. He was told that unless he gets it officially corrected by the court he will simply never be issued a RealID. Period. Nevemind that up until this point the bureaucracy said “oh, typo” and issued with December as the birth month. Human discretion is no longer allowed. The court system in this state is not exactly thrilled with all the name-change, birth certificate corrections, and other work generated by this strict interpretation of the rules. And those are just the ones I know about, having overheard those problems while trying to get my own RealID problem sorted out. Which cost me six months and $700, but l was in a situation where, as an example, the document that would allow me into the airport had a different name than the document that would allow me to pilot an airplane, which I thought was stupid and I was concerned that sort of discrepancy, with ever-tightening rules would only result in frustration and road blocks further down the road so I said f\*\*\* it, I’m doing something about this _now_. RealID is very much a case of “oh, this is _easy_” until suddenly it’s not. ---
**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 28, 2025, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/139 "2025-05-28T08:24:49Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Finally, as an additional stupid entry - I know a man who went to get a RealID and was refused, his birth certificate rejected. Why? He was born in December but there’s a typo on his birth certificate. It says Decemb3r. He was told that unless he gets it officially corrected by the court he will simply never be issued a RealID. Period. Nevemind that up until this point the bureaucracy said “oh, typo” and issued with December as the birth month. Human discretion is no longer allowed. Wow! There’s… really nothing other than a simple typo that could possibly be the cause of that discrepancy, and i would have expected any sensible system to allow a human to ignore it, and assume it was meant to be “December”. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2025, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664/140 "2025-05-28T08:46:56Z")
Yeah. That’s how it _used to be_ But the “War on Terror” and increasing authoritarian tendencies in this country are erasing common sense. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-real-id-problem/1017664.md?page=8)