Lesley Pilgrim, a graduate student living in California, jumped through a lot of hoops to get her Real ID.
Her driver’s license was set to expire this month on her birthday, and she knew she wanted to upgrade to a Real ID. “I travel a lot and have family on the east coast,” Pilgrim said. “And you always see those signs at the airport that say ‘get your Real ID now or else you're gonna be screwed’ and then you’d have to bring your passport when you travel.”
Pilgrim is right about the ticking clock. Beginning October 1, 2021, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will no longer accept previous versions of driver’s licenses as identification. Every air traveler 18 years of age and older will need a Real ID-compliant driver's license, state-issued enhanced driver's license, or another acceptable form of ID to fly within the United States.
Driver’s licenses with stars in the upper corner are Real ID compliant, signifying that they are more secure than older versions. The rules were first announced back in 2005, when Congress passed the Real ID Act on the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission. The law is intended to create a national standard and make sure every state has a more secure form of identification.
Pilgrim spent weeks organizing documents, which turned out to be a lot more complicated than simply locating her passport and social security card. “You need original documents and certain proofs of residency,” she explained, which for her meant printing out a gas bill and making sure all of her identifying paperwork — including her car registration — showed the same address. Easier said than done for a student who has lived in different apartments over the past few years.
Last year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that states can allow Real ID applicants to pre-submit the required documents electronically, which Pilgrim did. “But you still have to bring your documents in physical form when you show up to the DMV,” she said.
When her documents were finally in order, Pilgrim cleared her schedule one Friday and showed up at the Laguna Beach DMV just as it was opening for the day. “But of course, that’s everyone’s brilliant idea. When I got there, the line was already around the building.” She ended up spending more than three hours waiting in various lines, getting her documents processed and, finally, having her photo taken.
So when an envelope from the DMV arrived in the mail a week later, Pilgrim was thrilled. “When I got it, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I'm so happy to cross this off my to-do list because it’s been weighing on me for months.’”
Then she opened the envelope and took a look at her shiny new Real ID-compliant driver’s license. “That is not what I was expecting to see,” Pilgrim said. “It took a while for me to register, like, ‘Oh, man, this is not right. This can’t be real.’”
In her new ID photo, Pilgrim is wearing a face mask.
“I was thinking, there's no TSA agent in the world that's going to accept this,” she said. “And I was even worried about getting pulled over and a cop thinking it was fake and getting in trouble for that.”
Pilgrim knows exactly how the mix-up happened. At the DMV, the Covid-19 protocols were being strictly enforced. “You get to the front of the line, you keep your mask on and wait for them to tell you to take it off,” she said, joking that as a law student who plans to go into the U.S. Army JAG Corps, “I'm all about the rules.”
“It's funny, I remember the guy with the camera was wearing sunglasses, and I don't even think we made eye contact. I think he was just in autopilot mode,” she recalled. “He just said, ‘Look in the camera,’ and then I heard a click.”
“I was like, ‘Wait, wait, he didn't tell me to take off my mask.’ So I hung around,” said Pilgrim. “And then he realized his mistake and said, ‘Okay, you may remove your mask. Look into the camera,’ and then click.” When she saw her Real ID, Pilgrim realized that the DMV must have simply used the wrong photo.
Now, weeks later, California DMV has agreed to fix the error, and this time around, there should be no three-hour wait for Pilgrim.
“I've rescheduled a new picture appointment,” she said. “Hopefully I get in and get out.”
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