Just five months before the latest Real ID deadline, the U.S. 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 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 shifted to appointment-only availability, which affected operations.
