Don’t have a REAL ID yet? That could cause you travel headaches after May 7

NEW YORK – The deadline to get a REAL ID is accelerated approaching aft years of postponements and delays.

Starting May 7, your licence oregon recognition paper volition request to beryllium REAL ID-compliant to alert domestically successful the U.S.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look similar determination volition beryllium different hold successful the deadline this time. So, if you’re confused astir however to get a REAL ID, wherefore you adjacent request 1 successful the archetypal place, and what happens if you don’t person 1 by May 7, present are immoderate things to know:

What is simply a REAL ID?

It’s a federally compliant state-issued licence oregon recognition paper that the DHS says is simply a much unafraid signifier of identification. Besides needing a REAL ID to alert domestically, you volition besides request 1 to entree definite national buildings and facilities.

Why is this happening?

When the REAL ID Act was signed into instrumentality successful 2005, it enacted a proposal from the 9/11 Commission that the authorities acceptable information standards for state-issued driver’s licenses and IDs.

“REAL ID is simply a coordinated effort by the national authorities to amended the reliability and accuracy of driver’s licenses and recognition cards,” John Essig, the Transportation Security Administration’s Security Director for airports successful the New York City portion said successful a property merchandise connected April 3. “The improvements are intended to inhibit terrorists’ quality to evade detection by utilizing fraudulent identification.”

The REAL ID Act was expected to statesman rolling retired successful 2008, “but has faced repeated delays owed to authorities implementation challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Nina Ruggiero, elder editorial manager for Travel + Leisure. “The operation of varying authorities processes and shifting deadlines has added to the wide disorder astir REAL IDs and apt led immoderate travelers to instrumentality the deadlines little seriously.”

How bash I cognize if I already person a REAL ID?

If you’ve gotten a caller ID successful the past fewer years, it could already beryllium REAL ID-compliant.

“I besides perceive from travelers who are confused arsenic to whether oregon not they already person a REAL ID,” Ruggiero said. “Some radical who person precocious renewed their licence whitethorn already person a compliant ID and not cognize it,” truthful you whitethorn privation to double-check yours earlier starting the process.

A REAL ID-compliant driver’s licence has a awesome ( in astir states, a star ) successful the apical country of the card.

If you unrecorded successful Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Vermont oregon Washington, it’s imaginable you could person an “enhanced″ ID paper instead, which permits you to transverse onshore and oversea borders into Mexico and Canada from the U.S. It does not, however, let you to alert into either of those countries.

Enhanced IDs volition person an American emblem icon, arsenic good arsenic the connection “enhanced” astatine the apical of the card.

If I don’t person a REAL ID, however bash I get one?

The requirements alteration by state, truthful you volition request to sojourn the website of your state’s driver’s licensing bureau to find retired the circumstantial steps, including whether you’ll request to marque an assignment astatine a DMV and what documentation you’ll request erstwhile you get there.

What happens connected May 7? What if I don’t person a REAL ID by then?

If you don’t person a REAL ID by the deadline and you’re readying to committee a home flight, you volition request to bring your passport oregon different TSA-approved signifier of identification erstwhile you travel.

Otherwise, you could look “delays, further screening and the anticipation of not being permitted into the information checkpoint,” warns TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein.

The deadline has already been pushed backmost truthful galore times. Could it beryllium delayed again?

In mid-April, a radical of authorities senators from Kentucky asked the bureau to hold implementing the caller requirements yet again. They said the authorities has constricted appointments disposable to radical seeking the caller cards and that determination has been a unreserved to conscionable the May 7 deadline.

However, TSA spokesperson Dan Velez told the AP that the bureau does not mean to hold the REAL ID deadline again.

As of precocious April, 81% of travelers astatine TSA checkpoints were presenting acceptable identification, including a state-issued REAL ID, according to DHS.

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