Starting Wednesday, May 7, your license or identification card will need to be REAL ID-compliant to fly domestically in the U.S.
If you don’t have a REAL ID by the deadline and you’re planning to board a domestic flight, you will need to bring your passport or another TSA-approved form of identification when you travel.
Otherwise, you could face “delays, additional screening and the possibility of not being permitted into the security checkpoint,” warns TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein.
In mid-April, a group of state senators from Kentucky asked the agency to delay implementing the new requirements yet again. They said the state has limited appointments available to people seeking the new cards and that there has been a rush to meet the May 7 deadline.
However, TSA spokesperson Dan Velez told the AP that the agency does not intend to delay the REAL ID deadline again.
As of late April, 81% of travelers at TSA checkpoints were presenting acceptable identification, including a state-issued REAL ID, according to DHS.
In Kentucky, 1.3 million REAL ID drivers licenses have been issued to about 36 percent of the state's drivers.
If you’re confused about how to get a REAL ID, why you even need one in the first place, and what happens if you don’t have one by May 7, here are some things to know:
It’s a federally compliant state-issued license or identification card that the DHS says is a more secure form of identification. Besides needing a REAL ID to fly domestically, you will also need one to access certain federal buildings and facilities.
When the REAL ID Act was signed into law in 2005, it enacted a recommendation from the 9/11 Commission that the government set security standards for state-issued driver’s licenses and IDs.
“REAL ID is a coordinated effort by the federal government to improve the reliability and accuracy of driver’s licenses and identification cards,” John Essig, the Transportation Security Administration’s Security Director for airports in the New York City region said in a press release on April 3. “The improvements are intended to inhibit terrorists’ ability to evade detection by using fraudulent identification.”
The REAL ID Act was supposed to begin rolling out in 2008, “but has faced repeated delays due to state implementation challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Nina Ruggiero, senior editorial director for Travel + Leisure. “The combination of varying state processes and shifting deadlines has added to the overall confusion around REAL IDs and likely led some travelers to take the deadlines less seriously.”
If you’ve gotten a new ID in the last few years, it could already be REAL ID-compliant.
“I also hear from travelers who are confused as to whether or not they already have a REAL ID,” Ruggiero said. “Some people who have recently renewed their license may already have a compliant ID and not know it,” so you may want to double-check yours before starting the process.
A REAL ID-compliant driver’s license has a symbol ( in most states, a star ) in the top corner of the card.
Of course, REAL IDs will still be available and can still be applied for after May 7.
On the Net:
Kentucky REAL ID information website
