What’s the deal with REAL ID?
June 18, 2018
You’ve heard about REAL ID off and on for a while now. You know you will be able to apply for one starting October 1. But a glance at your license tells you it expires this summer. What should you do?
The answer is simple: If you have a driver’s license or ID card that expires before October 1, just renew it as you normally would. Because Minnesota is on track to issue REAL ID-compliant cards later this year, you should be able to use your standard driver’s license or identification card for domestic air travel or access to federal facilities until 2020.
If you want to renew now but also get your REAL ID before your license next expires, you can do so for an additional small fee. The advantage to doing it that way is it adds an additional four years to your expiration date. The fees for early renewals are as follows:
$2 for a renewal 17 months before expiration.
$4 for a renewal 18-29 months before expiration.
$6 for a renewal more than 29 months before expiration.
Let’s say, for example, that your standard driver’s license expires in August of 2018, and you renew it at that time. Then, when REAL ID becomes available, you decide to renew it early – say, November of 2018. At that point, you would pay the $25.25 fee (the same as the cost for a standard driver’s license), plus the $6 for early renewal because it’s more than 29 months before your license next expires. Your new REAL ID would have an expiration date of August 2026.
Using the same scenario, you could choose to renew your license in August of 2018 but not get a REAL ID right away. If that were the case, you could still use your driver’s license for identification purposes and lawful driving privileges until it expires in August of 2022. However, you wouldn’t be able to use it to get on a domestic flight or into a federal facility after October 1, 2020. You would need to present a valid passport along with it, or present an Enhanced Driver’s License or an alternate form of identification as designated by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
As the REAL ID availability date approaches, it’s important to remember you have lots of options. Choosing the best one for your lifestyle and planning ahead will keep things running smoothly.
