The US Department of Homeland Security has pushed back the Real ID full enforcement date by 19 months, giving travellers extra time to secure what eventually will be required documentation for US domestic travel.
Travellers now have until 3 May 2023, to acquire driver's licences or other forms of identification that are Real ID-compliant, which then will be a requirement for all travellers 18 or older to pass through US Transportation Security Administration checkpoints at airports. Previously, the deadline was 1 October 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 licencse or identification card," according to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
US 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 US economy can’t afford after a $500 billion decline in travel spending last year and millions of travel jobs lost to the pandemic."