REAL ID is Coming

[Bill Bridges]

REAL ID for use in airline travel is now October 1, 2020.

I'd forgot about this since I don't travel much any more.

[Ray Tackett]

My home state, Pennsylvania, is one of the laggards which pushed the date back so far. PA just started issuing REAL ID a couple of months ago. They're telling people with passports or permanent resident ("green") cards to use those instead, and to wait for license expiration before upgrading the state ID. They're trying to spread out the inevitable rush. Good thing I have a passport. My license expires in 2022. Meanwhile, the city of Philadelphia is issuing city photo ID cards which are REAL ID compliant, so that people below the poverty line* don't have to pay state fees.

The main reason PA is so late is that there used to be a law which forbade the state from complying. It took years after the repeal of that law for the state government to figure out how to comply.

*Philadelphia has the second-highest large city poverty rate in the U.S., second to Detroit. In my neighborhood, Germantown, 25% of the population tries to live on HALF or less of the poverty line income. That's why I donate excess garden produce to, and volunteer at, one of the many soup kitchens.

[Scott Dyer HPN/NY]

I got mine ....

[Terry Carraway]

Got mine also. My renewal was this past March. Not a big deal, passport, car registration, an electric bill, and W2 (for SSN). I also got my Veteran marking on it.

MD is rolling them out prior to expiration for people after 2020. Some people online are saying they will not bother, but the state has said that once you are scheduled for it, if you don't comply, they will suspend your license.

But did something strange, some people received REAL ID compliant renewal licenses, THEN had to show up at MVA to produce documents stating showing that you met the requirements to have one. ????????

[Mike Overly]

If you have a passport this is pretty painless, but otherwise, prepare to overhear some amusing and enraging things while you stand in line for one of these. The woman next to me had her application rejected because a church typist transposed two letters on the groom’s father’s last name on her marriage certificate in 1964.

[Ralph Jones]

some people received REAL ID compliant renewal licenses, THEN had to show up at MVA to produce documents

A$$ covering. Somebody didn't take a mandatory step and realized it wouldn't pass an audit.

Eons ago I was in the Aero Club at WPAFB, but their slipshod MX drove me away into a civilian club. Couple of years later they asked me to fill out the checkout quiz for an airplane I used to fly there, and would I please backdate it?

[Dave Siciliano]

It amazes me that folks even request things like that. Got a call last week like that. I informed them the business entities that would be responsible were dissolved many years ago. Didn’t matter to them. Just do it for the team.
I won’t bother about the former consultant that asked that I represent to a lender that she still worked for me so she could finance a home.

[Mase Taylor]

I got mine last month. My passport expired so I used a birth certificate and two proofs of address.

[Dave Siciliano]

Just two proof :-). I thought you liked stronger.

[Andy Alson]

Got mine last year. To issue it the DMV required something with my SSAN showing on it and since I haven't been working for a while and don't have any pay statements with it on it, and because for security purposes most tax statements (like 1099s) only show the last 4 digits of the number, I tried to use my social security card which I've had since shortly after I was born. I took it with me to the DMV and they told me it wasn't an official card since it had been torn on the dotted lines and the portion which was removed had information required to make it official. So I had to go to the local SS office to request a replacement card which was mailed to me and which I then took back to the DMV and got my "enhanced" driver's license mailed to me. Just wasted a lot of time for something I guess I didn't really need since I could have just used my US passport as the required ID.

[Ward Miller]

Andy, when I was a kid my folks kept my birth certificate with the family's important paper. I first used it in 1944 when I enlist in the Air Corps. I kept it and used it several more times while in the Army. Used it when I enrolled in college; when I applied for a driver's license on several occasions in several states; when I applied for SSA; when I applied for a job with IBM.

In the 1970's, when I applied for a passport, I presented it and the clerk said it was not valid because it did not have a raised seal! I explained how I had used it for many years . . . and they finally accepted it. <sigh> All those years and all of those times, it was not an official birth certificate!

[Larry sreyoB]

Aren't there some states that will issue a driver's license to people who are not legally in the US? Do they get a Real ID?

[Mase Taylor]

They get a license which is not a real ID.

[Larry sreyoB]

They get a license which is not a real ID.

That makes sense.

[Andy Alson]

New York State now has three types of drivers licenses. Standard, Real ID, and Enhanced. The Real ID and the Enhanced are both federally approved and can be used for identification into federal buildings, the Enhanced one can also be used at US border crossings from Canada, Mexico, and some Caribbean countries instead of needing a passport. The enhanced one costs $30 extra. Different documentation is required to obtain each of them.