DHS Extends REAL ID Deadline to May 7, 2025

By Yehudit Garmaise

New Yorkers who have been meaning to upgrade their driver’s licenses to REAL IDs just got a two-year extension.

Now that the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) again extended its REAL ID enforcement deadline to May 7, 2025, Americans now have 24 more months to obtain the new form of ID that will be required to board domestic flights for adults 18 and older.

REAL IDs will not replace driver's licenses nor passports for international travel, and children need not provide them as long as they are traveling with adults who can provide REAL IDs.

Several years ago, DHS set its REAL ID compliance date as April 27, 2020, but the pandemic forced the federal agency to extend its deadline multiple times.

The most recent deadline to require REAL IDs, which DHS will require Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents to check before Americans travel domestically, was quickly approaching on May 3, 2023.

Now, however, TSA agents will not check REAL IDs for two and a half more years, announced DHS, which attributed its latest extension to ongoing backlogs in the NY Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), patch.com reported. 

Since 2017, NY DMVs have been issuing REAL IDs, which resulted from a law the US Congress passed in 2005 to increase security measures after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

REAL IDs employ new technology that makes them much harder to forge, said DHS, which added that REAL IDs would feature stars that indicate their compliance.

To obtain REAL IDs, applicants must provide a passport or birth certificate, a Social Security card or tax return, and two documents proving proof of residence, such as a mortgage or rental receipt and a utility bill, DHS explained.