# Will REAL ID (enhanced driver licenses) finally be a thing in the USA? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 23, 2019, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314 "2019-12-23T23:26:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2019, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/61 "2019-12-28T15:59:07Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Arizona licenses are good until a driver is 65 no matter how old they are when they get one. So if you get your unrestricted license at 18, you could potentially keep it for 47 years. **DesertRoomie** is ten years younger than I and when we simultaneously got our Arizona DLs I noticed the difference in years valid and commented on it. The clerk said, “It’s because… your birthday’s further back,” end explained that policy. I said, “What a gentle way to put it.” > [@Lare](#): > > And then you are required to take the vision test, too. (At 65.) Yes, I had to have my license renewed as 65 and yes, I had to pass a vision test. The license is valid for five years and I expect another vision test next year when I renew. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2019, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/62 "2019-12-28T17:58:15Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > Never mind, Washington only lets you get an enhanced license or a non-compliant license. Weird. My hypothesis about that is that as a Border State they probably had already geared up for EDL, and they must have felt adding on Real-ID was a redundant unfunded mandate from DC (there are a LOT of states that are only complying now because they realized the federal government were never going to yield on that the states had to do the migration at their own cost, but to the satisfaction of the feds). > [@UltraVires](#): > > This REAL ID nonsense seems a good candidate for the burn pile. As it has been postponed for 20 years, perhaps it isn’t necessary. The 9/11 hijackers could have all gotten REAL ID compliant licenses and it seems silly to inconvenience millions of people for…reasons. True. They were all lawfully present in the USA. The post-9/11 environment created a small opening for advocates of a proposition that we have often mentioned in threads on this: Universal ID. > [@Nava](#): > > Most if not all the people who wrote before you were male, so highly unlikely to have had name changes. And well, that’s a PITA because you guys are still on pen and paper on so many things (often, purposefully). When I got my own name legally changed so it would show the same in all my Spanish-government-issued ID, and once the Civil Records Office had typed the judge’s order into their computer, it got transferred to every other system the next time the interfaces ran (within 24h). Ah, BUT… you are right that it is partly on purpose – it is also partly an artifact of the way “government” in the USA is jurisdictionally fragmented. The “on purpose” part has to do in turn with this: > [@Broomstick](#): > > It was a back-door means to get a national identity card of sorts that certain folks have been agitating for for years. A large segment of the US population and the political establishment _ **would not** _ want there to be a Universal National ID, and especially not in a way that every single public agency gets updated on everything that happens in your life (of course this is the same population that doesn’t mind revealing everything about themselves in real time to Google and Facebook :rolleyes:) But then you add onto it the jurisdictional issues. First of which is: > [@kanicbird](#): > > IIRC Real ID is state issued ID approved by the fed. Because _there is no authority to issue a National Universal ID Document_, the best the federal government can do is to establish what standards a state ID needs to meet to be in turn accepted by federal agencies. In the USA the national government handles naturalizations and issues the passport, also the social security number which is supposed to be ONLY for tax and disability/retirement benefit purposes, NOT a universal ID number; the States issue the driving license; voter registration is a matter of state law handled either at a state office, sometimes jointly with the driving license, or at a county-level office; the Civil Registry, including the Birth Certificate and the Marriage License, is most often handled at the county/municipal level. That, you may notice, forces the states to determine what document they will issue to be Real-ID compliant, for which they have generally used the Driver License or State Non-Driver ID since that infrastructure was already in place; and that leads to the other factor: > [@nelliebly](#): > > I still don’t understand why getting a REAL ID in one state doesn’t keep you from going through the hassle all over again when you move to another state. That is, yes, of course, you may have to take a written test, vision test, etc., but the hassle of certified birth certificate, name change documentation, etc. would be done because you’d have a DL showing you’d met those requirements in the previous state. Each state issuer is made responsible for having vetted the “Real-ID” part of the document (federally-aceptable information about your identity and citizenship or lawful presence), since it is in fact a _state_ document issued by a state agency for state purposes, it’s NOT a National ID, no sir, nuh-uh, no way… Which means each of them has their own set of state-specific terms and requirements to which the Real-ID process may be added. So while for example the actuak _Driving License_ part of my Puerto Rico or Virginia DL are granted reciprocity by agreement between their respective Directors of Motor Vehicle Services for the purpose of not needing to retest if I move, they would have \*always \*required me to provide evidence of residence; and on top of that, the federal mandate for Real-ID makes _each of them_ responsible for having seen my identity/citizenship paperwork before issuing _their_ card to me stamped with the star. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2020, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/63 "2020-02-25T17:43:19Z")
Interesting, my friend just moved to Kentucky and got a new driver’s license and it wasn’t a REAL ID, this was just last month. I was just at the airport today and they still have signs everywhere about October 1. Ok, insert random KY joke here, but how are they not issuing the new licenses now? I assume this means the deadline is pushed back further. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2020, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/64 "2020-02-25T17:52:43Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Interesting, my friend just moved to Kentucky and got a new driver’s license and it wasn’t a REAL ID, this was just last month. > > I was just at the airport today and they still have signs everywhere about October 1. > > Ok, insert random KY joke here, but how are they not issuing the new licenses now? I assume this means the deadline is pushed back further. Because you don’t have to have it. It’s optional. If you want it you have to ask for it and bring the proper documentation. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2020, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/65 "2020-02-25T18:12:24Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > I assume this means the deadline is pushed back further. I don’t think the deadline is getting pushed back again. It’ll be an unpleasant surprise for some folks come October. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2020, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/66 "2020-02-25T18:43:54Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > Because you don’t have to have it. It’s optional. If you want it you have to ask for it and bring the proper documentation. This. You can still get a regular one in California too. ---
**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:** [February 25, 2020, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/67 "2020-02-25T18:54:58Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > Because you don’t have to have it. It’s optional. If you want it you have to ask for it and bring the proper documentation. Not true in all states. In Indiana all people getting their first license and all people moving to Indiana from another state HAVE TO get a RealID. The only people with an option to NOT get a RealID are current residents who already have a valid driver’s license/State ID card. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2020, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/68 "2020-02-25T19:20:51Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > I don’t think the deadline is getting pushed back again. It’ll be an unpleasant surprise for some folks come October. My friend has a passport so he’ll be fine. ---
**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:** [February 25, 2020, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/69 "2020-02-25T19:38:30Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > I don’t think the deadline is getting pushed back again. It’ll be an unpleasant surprise for some folks come October. Just a few days ago the airport’s assoc is asking for a delay because of the significant percentage of the population that still doesn’t have one. Source: [Dayton, OH news site](https://dayton247now.com/news/local/as-deadline-nears-concerns-raised-over-new-real-id-requirement) > [@](#): > > But with the October deadline looming, Airports Council International – North America, the trade association representing commercial service airports in the United States and Canada, is calling for a delay. The group says they have ‘significant concerns’ that low enrollment for the ID will ‘negatively impact passengers and airport operations’. The article continues by stating that \< ⅓ of OH IDs issued in the past 20 months are compliant. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2020, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/70 "2020-02-25T19:50:52Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > The article continues by stating that \< ⅓ of OH IDs issued in the past 20 months are compliant. I’m not sure this means that there will be a crisis. Some people rarely or never fly. Some people have passports or other ID that would work. And, there is still 7 months before the deadline. Personally, I don’t care if REALID ever gets implemented, but it would seem counterproductive to extend the deadline again. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/71 "2020-02-26T03:38:36Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > How are people finding this so easy? I had to do the Real ID thing several years ago (in WY), and a vision test would have been the least of my headaches. I had to supply > > 1. my birth certificate > 2. proof of state residency (I think I used a utility bill.) > 3. social security card copy > 4. legal proof of every name change > and probably other stuff I don’t recall: I Thanks for your timely list! I need to renew my license in April - I had a vision test yesterday with this in mind…I do need glasses as suspected, sigh - but I didn’t know until today that New Hampshire caved after refusing for years and is offering real IDs in 2020. Your list prompted me to look at the doc list and I just ordered a new copy of my long lost birth certificate. It disappeared after a move, and I just haven’t needed it since, at least until now because I definitely want the Real ID so I can fly for work next year. I almost got a copy five years back but at that point you still had to get it in person and I don’t live in my state of birth. I’m glad that NH is _finally_ complying, I wasn’t happy about the prospect of needing to pay without reimbursement(!) for a passport at some point this year just to fly to San Diego for work. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/72 "2020-02-26T10:01:17Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > NJ has (had?) a rule that all official documentation has to have a raised stamp. WA uses (used) a multi-color stamp on official documentation. Had lots of fun getting my NJ driver’s license with my new name. Suggestion: do the name change separate from the move. See, this is the kind of nitpicky details, and similar, that I worry about. I envision some front-line overworked underpaid DMV worker pretty much making up their own rules about ambiguities like this. My birth certificate is a 50-year-old photocopy with a purple rubber-stamped seal on it. Do newer certificates look like that? Will the DMV droid recognize and accept it? I lost my wallet, social security card included, about 40 years ago. The duplicate card I got doesn’t really look like an original, not to mention that it’s faded to nearly unreadable. My documents, even all the various gov’t issued ones, are all over the place on how they write my middle name. Some spell it out in full. Some abbreviate to just the initial. The Social Security Admin itself can’t get consistent. My card, and I think most of their records, include my full middle name. (This matches my birth certificate.) But my SSA-1099 forms, which I may use instead, just have my middle initial. I get all my mail at a P.O. Box. The DMV instructions say that’s okay as long as the bill includes my residence address too. My utility bills list a separate “Service Address”, which is my home address, but it’s at a different place on the page. Will they accept that? I don’t want to have to go there to get my license and then have them not accept because of some nitpicky blather like that. And I don’t know that I have any option to have my docs screened well in advance so I can have the time to cure any screwups. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/73 "2020-02-26T13:54:38Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > But my SSA-1099 forms, which I may use instead, In case you haven’t been warned, in at least North Carolina the 1099 forms have to have your full social security number, and ones that just show the last 4 digits cannot be used. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/74 "2020-02-26T14:40:43Z")
Chill out, **Senegoid** , the clerks have done thousands of these apiece by now. They just want to get through the day. My birth certificate is a photocopy from the 70s with a purple stamp that was at one time folded into a little square. My SS card is of similar vintage and in terrible shape. Get as much as you can together and you’ll be fine. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2020, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/75 "2020-02-27T16:21:23Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > How are people finding this so easy? I had to do the Real ID thing several years ago (in WY), and a vision test would have been the least of my headaches. I had to supply > > 1. my birth certificate > 2. proof of state residency (I think I used a utility bill.) > 3. social security card copy > 4. legal proof of every name change > and probably other stuff I don’t recall. > > Re: #4, that meant I had to supply my marriage certificate plus the paperwork from my divorce, since I went back to my maiden name. I knew someone who was on her fourth marriage; she had to supply marriage certificates from each divorce, and she couldn’t find the first two, as they’d been decades earlier. … That last one will be annoying. I’m sure I have a marriage certificate somewhere… I remember we had to show it to a Social Security office when we were first married, as otherwise our joint return’s refund would have been delayed. My state now has RealID-compliant licenses. It was optional at first; I don’t know if it still is optional but I’ll found out in a couple of years when I have to renew again. A friend found out the hard way that they are mandatory under some circumstances: she is a naturalized citizen, and had accidentally let hers expire. When she went to fix that, they required more documentation because of the expiration - and refused to accept her original naturalization certificate as evidence since some database was missing her name. She had to get her congressman involved to get them to get their heads out of their… missing database entries :D. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/76 "2020-02-28T00:09:41Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > Hand me a paddle - I’m with you. Total bullshit. I have a passport and fly infrequently, so I’ll go the RealID route whenever my current license expires. > > I don’t generally think of myself as paranoid, but I DO value my privacy/anonymity. The combination of increasing state and commercial intrusions make such concerns essentially illusory, but I do wonder why we so readily cast them off. What tracking can they do with the RealID license that they can’t with the passport? ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/77 "2020-02-28T03:22:05Z")
I went to DMV to get my expiring license renewed and upgraded to Enhanced, and it was crazy busy. It took 3 hours. First I waited in line outside the building for 10 minutes, and then had to wait 2 hours to have my papers looked at, and then another 50 minute wait to see a clerk who processed the application. There were people who had arrived a couple of hours before I did, when it was even busier. They had to wait outside the building for 30 minutes and it took them over 4 hours. An employee talking to a group of frustrated people behind me said that it’s been getting busier every week since the start of the year. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/78 "2020-02-28T04:40:28Z")
sorry double post, 504 error ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/79 "2020-02-28T05:28:43Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > If you lose your REAL ID, you go through enhanced screening. If you don’t have a READ ID for any reason, you go through enhanced screening. Nothing has changed. Not if you have a passport, afaik. I refuse to get a REAL ID as they are racist as fuck. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/80 "2020-02-28T05:31:36Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > But, again, I’m not seeing why this is so suspicious. If you are legally in the United States (from a foreign country), you have a “REAL ID” right, your foreign issued passport? Everyone was required to show ID prior to 9/11, no? Didn’t all 19 of the 9/11 hijackers therefore have “REAL ID” on their person? > > If I have missed something, then I stand to be corrected, but it seems as if this new requirement, which has been delayed for nearly 20 years because reasons, would not have prevented 9/11 but has been instituted because of some fear that people who are illegally present in the country might hijack airplanes and further be able to fake the state issued non-REAL IDs??? I honestly do not understand this need for it. > > … Nothing to do with terrorism. It’s 100% racism, based upon the fear that brown people might be able to fly. You know that “illegals” who are all bad hombre rapists. :rolleyes: That’s the only people who are stopped from flying. Not terrorists. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314.md?page=5)