If you haven’t gotten your REAL ID, this is the year before your traditional driver’s license will no longer work to get on domestic flights. After a series of postponements, the deadline to get a REAL ID has been set for May 7, 2025. That’s when people will need the upgraded photo identification card, a passport, or other federally approved document to get on flights or to access secure federal facilities like federal courthouses, military bases, and nuclear power plants.
The backstory: The new deadline will come about 20 years after the REAL ID Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by then-President George W. Bush. The law was established after the September 11th attacks, as part of an effort to make identification cards more secure and establish federal standards for identification documents. Many states, including California, were initially granted extensions over concerns about implementation.
“The federal REAL ID program has experienced several adjustments to its enforcement deadline,” California Department of Motor Vehicles spokesperson Chris Orrock told KTVU, noting it was extended in 2011, 2014, 2017, and then again in 2023. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) acknowledged the multiple deadline changes could prompt many people to hold off on getting the REAL ID and lead to a delay in implementation or a down-to-the-wire scramble ahead of the deadline.
“Because of the history of extensions related to REAL ID enforcement, DHS believes that the public may continue to expect that additional extensions are likely and not feel urgency to obtain a REAL ID,” a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) spokesperson told KTVU in an email. “DHS believes this pattern is likely to delay increased adoption in many states despite best efforts to inform the public, potentially leading to last-minute surges in demand for REAL IDs leading up to the deadline,” the agency added.
By the numbers: Nationwide, about 56% of drivers’ licenses or IDs in circulation are REAL ID-compliant, and in 34 states, fewer than 60% are compliant, according to the TSA. In California, as of Jan. 1, more than 18.5 million Californians—about 55% of all driver’s license and ID cardholders—have obtained a REAL ID, according to the DMV. The agency said in 2024, the state made steady progress in getting residents signed up, with more than 1.6 million Californians getting upgraded to a REAL ID.
Information for this story came from the California Dept. of Motor Vehicles and the Transportation Security Administration.