Real ID deadline for domestic travel pushed back again

Just five months before the latest Real ID deadline, the Department of Homeland Security has again extended when travelers will need to have a federally mandated identification card for domestic flights.

The federal agency announced Monday that it would push back the deadline to May 5, 2025, two years after the most recent May 3, 2023, deadline. The agency has already extended its enforcement date multiple times.

The 24-month extension will address “the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the ability to obtain a Real ID driver’s license or identification card” after that process was “significantly hindered” by licensing backlogs from the pandemic, according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security.

Many states’ identification card agencies extended expiration dates of driver’s licenses and identification cards due to the pandemic, or they shifted to appointment-only availability, which affected operations.

“This extension will give states needed time to ensure their residents can obtain a REAL ID-compliant license or identification card,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said in a statement Monday. “DHS will also use this time to implement innovations to make the process more efficient and accessible.”

Travel executives welcomed the extension.

“Extending the Real ID deadline is the right decision,” Tori Emerson Barnes, executive vice president of public affairs and policy for the nonprofit U.S. Travel Association, said in a press release.

More then 100 million Americans do not have a Real ID-compliant driver’s license, and “now is not the time to create significant travel disruptions,” Barnes said. “This delay helps give travelers the time necessary to get the credential needed to fly domestically.”

Under the latest update, every traveler 18 or older will need a Real ID-compliant license or identification card — or another Transportation Security Administration-acceptable form of identification — to get through airport security checkpoints for domestic air travel beginning May 7, 2025.

Real ID-compliant licenses are marked by a star on the top of the card.