On December 5th, 2022, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced their plan to extend the real-id full enforcement date by two years. The extension dates will run from May 3rd, 2023, up until May 7th, 2025. According to the new rules released to carry out this adjustment, states will now have more time to make sure that their inhabitants have driver’s licenses and identity cards that fulfill the security criteria required by the REAL ID Act. Following the enforcement deadline, it will be illegal for federal entities, such as the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), to accept driver’s licenses and identity cards that do not adhere to these regulations.
Not only will this extension provide states with the necessary time to make sure that their citizens may receive a license or identity card that complies with REAL ID, but the extension period also gives DHS the time to adopt changes that will improve the process’ effectiveness and accessibility.
The extension is required, in part, to address the COVID-19 pandemic’s residual effects on applicants’ ability to get a REAL ID driver’s license or identity card. Because of the backlogs caused by the epidemic, state licensing agencies have had to considerably impede identification development during these past two years. In response to the epidemic, several of these organizations adopted a number of actions, such as converting to an appointment-only system and automatically extending the expiration dates of identity cards and driver’s licenses.
