What’s Going On With REAL ID? Things To Know In PA

PENNSYLVANIA — The deadline to get a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license has changed so many times it’s almost a punchline for a joke. Now, the date Pennsylvania residents need to remember is May 7, 2025.

After that date, if things stand as they are now, Pennsylvania residents will no longer be able to use their old, non-REAL ID drivers license to board domestic flights or enter nuclear power plants and certain federal buildings. A passport, however, will still work as well as a REAL ID to board flights. Additionally, these federal documents are accepted.

Getting a REAL ID, it must be noted, will be helpful, but is not required. A REAL ID is not required to drive, vote, access the post office or hospitals, or prove your identity.

Congress passed the REAL ID Act, a recommendation of the 9/11 Commission, in 2005. It “establishes minimum security standards for state-issued driver’s licenses and identification cards, and prohibits federal agencies from accepting for official purposes licenses and identification cards from states that do not meet these standards.”

In addition to the stars on REAL ID driver's licenses, the cards themselves will be built with new technology, making them much more difficult to forge, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Here are some things to know about REAL ID and the new deadline:

How Do I Get A REAL ID?

REAL ID cards are issued at driver’s licensing stations in Pennsylvania. Keystone State residents must show proof of a Social Security number, two documents proving a current Pennsylvania address, and proof of all legal name changes.

The cost of a REAL ID is a $30 one time fee, plus the $30.50 fee charged by PennDOT for all card renewals. REAL ID will be valid for four years plus any time remaining on your existing REAL ID identification.

Why Is The Deadline So Fluid?

The Department of Homeland Security has extended the deadline for REAL ID-compliant driver’s licenses multiple times, most recently in late 2022 when the agency moved the implementation date back two years to May 7, 2025.

Homeland Security officials said COVID-19 pandemic-related backlogs have slowed states’ progress in issuing REAL ID-compliant driver’s licenses.

Those backlogs are greater in some states where driver’s license expiration dates were automatically extended, or by shifting operations to appointment only.

Should I Just Wait Until 2025?

With the extended deadline now about a year and a half in the future, the temptation to put off getting a REAL ID may be great. But that could mean longer lines and more competition for appointments in places that require them.

Homeland Security officials estimated that by May 2023, the REAL ID compliance deadline before the latest extension, only about 56 percent of the U.S. population over age 18 would have obtained one.

More than a million Pennsylvania residents have received a REAL ID thus far, according to officials.