The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has pushed back the Real ID full enforcement date by 19 months, giving travelers extra time to secure what eventually will be required documentation for U.S. domestic travel.
Travelers now have until May 3, 2023, to acquire driver's licenses or other forms of identification that are Real ID-compliant, which then will be a requirement for all travelers 18 or older to pass through U.S. Transportation Security Administration checkpoints at airports. Previously, the deadline was Oct. 1, 2021, which itself was an extension by a year, put in place at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Many state licensing agencies closed in the early days of the pandemic last year, and some maintain limited operations, so an extension "will give states needed time to reopen their driver's licensing operations and ensure their residents can obtain a Real ID-compliant license or identification card," according to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
U.S. Travel Association EVP for public affairs and policy Tori Emerson Barnes applauded the move, saying meeting the previous deadline would have been a challenge even without the pandemic.
"We're grateful to DHS for heeding the evidence and the calls from our industry," she said. "Significant travel disruption was likely if the deadline were allowed to hit, which the U.S. economy can’t afford after a $500 billion decline in travel spending last year and millions of travel jobs lost to the pandemic."