# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/81 "2020-02-28T06:06:04Z")
I didn’t get mine yet but I’m surprised it is required for domestic flights. I thought it was just for Canada and Mexico. There’s been some murmurs here in NY that our IDs will no longer be accepted federally because we now don’t require citizenship for licensing. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/82 "2020-02-28T06:15:23Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > I didn’t get mine yet but I’m surprised it is required for domestic flights. I thought it was just for Canada and Mexico. That’s a separate thing (the terribly-named Enhanced Drivers License). An EDL is REAL ID-compliant, but an ordinary drivers license with the enhanced security features mandated by REAL ID is not an Enhanced Drivers License (i.e. it’s enhanced but not Enhanced). :rolleyes: Except there’s at least one state (Washington?) where the only available form of REAL ID is the EDL. Totally clear, right? Given how few states offer EDLs, and how few people have them in those states, they should probably change the name given how widespread the confusion is. (They won’t.) ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/83 "2020-02-28T07:42:58Z")
you know i dont agree with UV on much but yeah i think the real id is BS overreaction … i mean they see your id when you buy a ticket they should just copy it if needed ---
**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, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/84 "2020-02-28T17:43:08Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > you know i dont agree with UV on much but yeah i think the real id is BS overreaction … i mean they see your id when you buy a ticket they should just copy it if needed No, you see you miss the whole point of RealID. See, in order to reduce the number of unlicensed and uninsured drivers several states dont verify citizenship. In other word, a illegal alien, who is otherwise a verified resident- can get a DrLic. This infuriates the MAGA hat wearers, so they came up with RealID to make sure we annoy them more. It has nothing to do with Security or terrorism. It’s racism. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/85 "2020-02-28T18:57:30Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > I have docs that I think should be everything I need. But I’ve read and heard so many horror stories about how over-the-top nitpicky they can be about what docs they will accept. F’rinsance, you need a “certified” copy of your birth certificate. What will some flunky front-line DMV clerk recognize as a “certified” certificate? I got my birth certificate 40-some years ago and still have it. Are the markings from that long ago still recognizable today? A certified copy of your birth certificate is a copy issued by the city/state/county department that keeps birth records. It typically has a statement certifying that it’s a true copy of the certificate or the facts that department has on record. The reason a “certified” copy is required is because they won’t accept a certificate issued by a hospital or a photocopy of a certified copy. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/86 "2020-02-28T19:12:26Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > I didn’t get mine yet but I’m surprised it is required for domestic flights. I thought it was just for Canada and Mexico. > > There’s been some murmurs here in NY that our IDs will no longer be accepted federally because we now don’t require citizenship for licensing. Depends which NY license you have - there’s the standard license , which will say something like not valid for Federal purposes. It doesn’t require proof of lawful residence. If you’ve just been renewing your license for 30 years without providing any additional info, that’s what you have. The REAL ID license requires proof that you are a in the US legally and proof of your SS number. This ID is valid at airports and for entering Federal buildings and military bases, etc. The Enhanced license ( which I believe is only issued by border states) allows you to return from Canada, Mexico and some Caribbean countries, but only by land or sea. It’s only available to US citizens , not permanent residents. ---
**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 28, 2020, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/87 "2020-02-28T19:46:39Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > This infuriates the MAGA hat wearers, so they came up with RealID to make sure we annoy them more. The RealID legislation was passed in 2005 and implementation was started during the Obama administration. Not to say there aren’t problems with the legislation, but it’s not something recent. ---
**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 28, 2020, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/88 "2020-02-28T20:19:24Z")
Double post. Darn hamsters. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2020, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/89 "2020-02-29T14:32:35Z")
I had to get the real ID license back in September '18. I had the documents, but my issue was that the name on my SS card didn’t match the other documents. When I applied for my Social Security card at age 13 instead of using Fullname Middlename Lastname, I used Full M. Lastname. All the other docs said Fullname M. Lastname. The Department of Driver Services said a middle initial was OK, but the truncated first name wouldn’t work for them. Off to the social security office I go. Sympathetic and understanding they were. I received my new SS card in the mail in less than a week. So, in September '18, I got a new driver’s license with the first new picture since 1998. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2020, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/90 "2020-02-29T16:36:39Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > A certified copy of your birth certificate is a copy issued by the city/state/county department that keeps birth records. It typically has a statement certifying that it’s a true copy of the certificate or the facts that department has on record. The reason a “certified” copy is required is because they won’t accept a certificate issued by a hospital or a photocopy of a certified copy. Anyone have any first-hand experience dealing with this I.D. nonsense … and a birth certificate issued by a foreign country in a different language from English? The DMV clerk won’t be able to read it, of course. How do they even verify that I didn’t draw up a gibberish document my own self? ---
**Author:** ![CelticKnot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/celticknot/32/3392_2.png) [@CelticKnot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CelticKnot)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2020, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/91 "2020-02-29T16:56:41Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > The statuses of REAL ID licences in all 56 American jurisdictions (50 states, D.C., and the territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa) are given by this map: > > [REAL ID | Homeland Security](https://www.dhs.gov/real-id) > > Only five are not yet compliant. I was so happy to see that someone acknowledged that the CNMI is actually part of the USA. When we moved back from there in 2002, we had to do both a written and a road test to get DLs. > [@Broomstick](#): > > 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. We got REAL IDs when we moved back to IN in 2018. I didn’t intend to, I just looked that website for what to bring. I didn’t see anything about what we were getting. I don’t know about the rest of the state, but the MVD bureaus in northeast IN were amazingly fast, efficient, and friendly. Employees were calling out to each other about the time, and when we presented them with something unusual, (of course I did) they dealt with it quickly and cheerfully. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2020, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/92 "2020-02-29T17:22:35Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Anyone have any first-hand experience dealing with this I.D. nonsense … and a birth certificate issued by a foreign country in a different language from English? > > The DMV clerk won’t be able to read it, of course. How do they even verify that I didn’t draw up a gibberish document my own self? There are different ways to deal with it, but probably the most common is to use a different document altogether. Here’s a [list of documents](https://www.dps.texas.gov/internetforms/Forms/DL-15.pdf) needed to apply for a driver’s license in Texas. You aren’t required to provide a birth certificate - you are required to provide proof of lawful residence in the US, which a foreign birth certificate wouldn’t do. If you were born in a foreign country and are a US citizen or in the US legally, you will have one of the other documents. You can also use a birth certificate as a secondary proof of identity, but again it is not required. The reason you hear so much about birth certificates is because for almost all US citizens born in the US, that’s the proof of citizenship that all others are based on - before I had a passport, my only proof of citizenship was my birth certificate and the issuance of the passport relied on the birth certificate. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2020, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/93 "2020-02-29T20:03:17Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > The RealID legislation was passed in 2005 and implementation was started during the Obama administration. Not to say there aren’t problems with the legislation, but it’s not something recent. Introduced and pushed by Republicans. Forced on the Dems because no one wants to appear weak on National Security. However, if you look at the way it is implemented- it’s racist. For example- you can travel on a Canadian drivers license or a foreign passport. In other words, if you reside in a nation with mostly White people, you are Ok. And foreign passports are easy to fake, so it’s not security. ---
**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:** [February 29, 2020, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/94 "2020-02-29T20:59:42Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > The reason you hear so much about birth certificates is because for almost all US citizens born in the US, that’s the proof of citizenship that all others are based on - before I had a passport, my only proof of citizenship was my birth certificate and the issuance of the passport relied on the birth certificate. Recently this has become an issue also with the matter of **Puerto Rico** Birth Certificates (putting aside that though printed in both English and Spanish, the Spanish text is bigger and bolder, so, “suspicious!”), affecting the large number of people born in PR who pre-REALID got their DL in the Island and never bothered with a passport, and the many among those who then moved to another state and got a pre-REALID DL of their new state of residence and still never bothered with a passport. Now with the “final” REALID-for-flying deadline many of them are in a bit of a pickle since back around 2009 due to a major document-faking and ID-theft issue due to bad security practices, the Commonwealth _voided all previously issued Certified Copies of the Birth Record_(\*) and established a new format and protocol. As it happens, _even people in-island_ remained oblivious to this until someone official would tell them “no, this doesn’t work any more”. Small problem: because of that mentioned security crackdown, the Registry is now quite a bit more careful about having you prove you are entitled to get that paper, and if you happily lived for decades with just a crumbling old Birth Certificate unused in the bottom of a suitcase and a non-REALID license as your only “papers”, it’s tougher to do that w/o showing up in person. (\* Which as we recall from the Birther brouhaha, is what every state actually issues these days, a document on security paper on which they print the major highlights of your Birth Record Document as it appears in their files, not an actual facsimile of the “original”) ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2020, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/95 "2020-03-24T10:27:34Z")
Not this time. Implementation has been [delayed](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/03/23/trump-extends-real-id-deadline-amid-coronavirus-crisis/) indefinitely due to the virus. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2020, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/96 "2020-03-26T20:01:24Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > Not this time. > > Implementation has been [delayed](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/03/23/trump-extends-real-id-deadline-amid-coronavirus-crisis/) indefinitely due to the virus. [NPR says October 2021.](https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/03/26/822031112/tougher-id-requirements-for-domestic-flights-postponed-to-2021?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news) ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2020, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/97 "2020-03-26T20:46:36Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > [NPR says October 2021.](https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/03/26/822031112/tougher-id-requirements-for-domestic-flights-postponed-to-2021?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news) And they really mean it this time! ---
**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:** [March 26, 2020, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/98 "2020-03-26T22:28:48Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > [NPR says October 2021.](https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/03/26/822031112/tougher-id-requirements-for-domestic-flights-postponed-to-2021?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news) Just got an email from Arizona MVD which also says a one year delay. Also asks people delay coming in for a Real ID license (which needs an appointment anyway) until the Covid crisis is over. ---
**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:** [March 26, 2020, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/99 "2020-03-26T23:50:09Z")
Dumb question that may have been addressed upthread; why is a US passport less trouble to get than a Real ID driver’s license? I can sit at home, fill out the passport application and mail it in. No appointment needed. No Social Security number proof needed. No proof of where I live. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2020, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314/100 "2020-03-27T00:56:59Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Dumb question that may have been addressed upthread; why is a US passport less trouble to get than a Real ID driver’s license? I can sit at home, fill out the passport application and mail it in. No appointment needed. No Social Security number proof needed. No proof of where I live. Well, you need a birth cert. Yeah, and in other nations it’s even easier than that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-real-id-enhanced-driver-licenses-finally-be-a-thing-in-the-usa/845314.md?page=6)