For generations, a basic state identification card — typically a driver’s license — was sufficient to allow any American citizen or permanent resident to board a domestic airline flight.

But in 2005, in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Congress passed and then-President George W. Bush signed legislation requiring stronger proof of identity and legal residence for state-issued identification to be valid for air travel or entry to certain government facilities.

Fifteen years later, the Oct. 1, 2020 deadline for travelers’ state-issued IDs to comply with that law is fast approaching.

Jake Rollow, director of communications and external affairs for the Michigan Department of State, said people wanting to avoid getting caught in a surge of license applications later this year would be wise to upgrade their identification now.

“We do expect to see an increase in REAL ID conversions as the Oct. 1 deadline and winter travel season approach,” Mr. Rollow said.

Both he and Lindsey Bohrer, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Public Safety, recommended license-holders to their agencies’ online check-in systems to reserve times at licensing offices rather than wait in physical lines at those offices.

ID REQUIREMENTS

To get an Ohio or Michigan driver’s license compliant with the federal Real ID Act, you must present the following documents: 

• Proof of identity and date of birth. An original or certified birth certificate or a current, valid U.S. Passport are most commonly used to satisfy this requirement, but naturalization certification and permanent-resident cards are also valid 
• Proof of legal presence. A valid birth certificate, passport, or immigration documents also accomplish this purpose. 
• Social Security number. A Social Security card, a W-2 income-tax form with the SSN printed on it, or a printed (not hand-written) Internal Revenue Service Form 1099 showing the SSN all satisfy this requirement 
• Two proofs of residence. A current, valid driver’s license and the W-2 tax form both fulfill this requirement. Current utility bills, school transcripts, or various government-issued licenses and documents also apply. 
• Proof of name change, if applicable. Anyone whose current identification shows a name that doesn’t match their birth certificate or naturalization documents must provide a legal record showing the name change, including all intermediate changes that may have been made.

Michigan’s “enhanced” driver’s license, valid as border identification for land and sea passage to or from Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean, already is Real ID Act compliant. Ohio does not offer an “enhanced” driver’s license. 

SOURCES: Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Michigan Secretary of the State office.

Through January, Mr. Rollow said, 47 percent of eligible Michigan residents had obtained state identification compliant with the Real ID Act since it first became available there in August, 2017.

“It’s difficult to say with any certainty that we’ll get to a specific number of residents with one, because many who travel will choose to use their passport instead, even for domestic flights, and others don’t plan to travel by air,” he said.

In Ohio, where Real ID Act licenses and non-driver identification cards have been issued since July 1, 2018, 32 percent of cards issued have been compliant. During the first week of February, the newer-style cards accounted for 47 percent of such issuances, Ms. Bohrer said.

“We are encouraging customers who are not up for renewal, but travel and/or need access to military or federal facilities to come renew early and obtain the compliant card,” she said.

And the federal Transportation Security Administration warns on its website: If you show up at an airport on Oct. 1 or thereafter, don’t plan on being able to board your flight if you don’t have the right ID.

Right now, someone claiming to have forgotten or lost their identification “may still be allowed to fly” by following an identity-verification process” for the TSA inspector after which additional screening will be required at the airport security checkpoint.

But once the Real ID requirement takes effect, “passengers who do not present an acceptable form of identification will not be permitted through the security checkpoint,” the TSA asserts.

Along with a compliant driver’s license or a passport, other acceptable ID includes U.S. Department of Homeland Security Trusted Traveler cards and military identification. Mere participation in the DHS Pre-Check program at airport security checkpoints, however, will not waive the ID requirement.

A TSA spokesman did not respond to a Blade query last week about what contingency plans the agency has, if any, to deal with any substantial volumes of travelers showing up at airports in early October without the required identification.

The Real ID standard requires states to issue identification with stepped-up security features intended to make the cards extremely difficult to counterfeit or tamper with.

In Ohio, that has also meant producing the cards at secure facilities rather than issuing them immediately at deputy registrar offices once the application process is complete.

Applicants for new or renewal cards in Ohio now go home, as their Michigan counterparts already did, with their expired old licenses and a temporary, paper form valid for driving on an interim basis until their new license cards arrive in the mail several weeks later.

And plan your travel wisely: the temporary identification forms will not be valid for air travel.

In both Ohio and Michigan, as in other states, identification compliant with Real ID is marked with a cut-out star inside a small circle.

Some Ohioans and Michiganders who have sought to obtain the compliant licenses when their old ones were about to expire have been turned away for lack of sufficient supporting documents.

The key there is to bring along documentation required by the federal law: proof of name, date of birth, Social Security number, and legal presence, as well as two pieces of evidence that one is an Ohio or Michigan resident, as appropriate.

The most common stumbling block has affected people who have changed their names over the years, whether because they got married, divorced, or for any other reason.

“If you have had more than one marriage you may need to bring documentation from each marriage and/or divorce to connect your birth certificate, passport, or US DHS [U.S. Department of Homeland Security] documents to your current name,” Judge Jack Puffenberger of the Lucas County Probate Court said in a statement warning of pitfalls related to name changes.

The new state cards don’t cost anything more than the old ones. But if your current license is not due to expire before year’s end, you’ll have to pony up extra to get a Real ID replacement.

In Ohio, the standard replacement fee is $26, plus the usual registrar fees. Or, for just $1.50 more, Ohioans can get an early renewal of their driver’s licenses that is valid for only three years instead of the normal four, Ms. Bohrer said.

That could be a much better deal overall than replacing a card that has an expiration date in just a year or two. Ohio only allows full-term renewals up to 90 days before a license’s current expiration date.

In Michigan, it’s a lot simpler — it costs $10 to get an upgraded replacement card if the current one is not due for renewal.

Michiganders who already hold the state’s “enhanced” driver’s license, meanwhile, are already good to go for Real ID Act identification.

The “enhanced” license, which is valid for land or sea travel between the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean, has been issued statewide in Michigan since early 2009. It meets the Real ID standards and, as cards are renewed, the Real ID stars are included on them.

Ohio does not offer an “enhanced” license for North American and Caribbean land or sea border crossings, and the upgraded identification now available in Ohio is not valid for that purpose.

But don’t think that not carrying the new identification will get you excused from federal jury duty. Federal courthouses are not among the federal facilities where the high-security cards will be necessary come October, according to the Michigan Department of State.

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