Real ID Deadline For Travel Has Been Pushed Back Again

Traveling is one of those things that we really missed last year. There wasn't a whole lot of that going on during the pandemic. Most people put travel as one of the top things that they can't wait to start doing regularly again.

We have been hearing way before the pandemic hit about new regulations needed in order to travel. We started hearing about this Texas Real ID that we needed. Pretty much we need to make sure that we have a yellow star on our drivers license in order to use it for travel. We can also use a passport and not even worry about the license part. This will be needed to travel from Rick Husband International Airport or any airport really.

Our first deadline was set for October of 2020. Of course that got delayed because nobody was travelling during the pandemic. It was also hard to get an appointment with the number of offices closed.

Earlier this year we were told that again we were on a deadline. We need to get our Real ID to travel again. The deadline was set for October of 2021. So we had some time. Again though, if we didn't have a passport already this was going to be needed.

It looks like we will see another reprieve. This time until May of 2023. According to the Department of Homeland Security:

The pandemic has significantly impacted states’ ability to issue Real ID-compliant driver’s licenses and identification cards, with many driver’s licensing agencies still operating at limited capacity," DHS said in a statement on Tuesday.

So if you haven't gotten this done yet you are in luck. I will tell you my trick. This saved me from standing in line at the DPS. I went online and requested a new license by mail. When it came in....guess what? It came with the yellow star. Win. I tried it again with my daughter's and again it had the star when it came in.

Your Texas Real ID will be needed in May of 2023 unless you have a passport or passport card. I have all three. I feel our deadline will not be pushed back again. I also hope that most people have it already. If not hopefully their license will expire before then. I know mine will. Fingers crossed I can renew it again online as well. Cheers to getting back to getting to travel like we used to.