Los Angeles Times reader Paul Perez of Whittier just renewed his California driver's license, but now he sees signs up at TSA checkpoints that indicate that state identification must meet federal standards to be used in airports, starting in 2018. The warning sparks confusion - is his license going to be a valid travel document in a year?
This involves the Real ID law that seeks to regulate the issuing of driver's licenses to comply with federal standards, which came about after the 9/11 Commission.
Signs say: "Starting Jan. 22, 2018, you will need an alternate ID to fly if you have a driver's license or ID issued by any of the following states: Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Washington."
These are states that don't meet the minimum security standards set forth by Real ID.
There is a list of compliant and non-compliant states at the Department of Homeland Security, which has a handy map of each state's status. It's pretty straightforward when it comes to red and green states.
As the Times points out, states in red are not compliant and travelers will need to use alternate identification when flying, starting in 2018.
States in green are compliant and good to go.
[READMORE]READ MORE: Real ID Deadline Extended To January 2018 [/READMORE]
However, yellow states are somewhat harder to assess. California is one of those yellow states, and the Times reached out to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to see what the status is.
"The DMV strongly supports the goal of ensuring there is one license, one record and one identity for each Californian. We will continue to implement practices to comply with the intent of the law while ensuring privacy protections and minimizing impacts to the over 30 million Californians who already have a driver license or identification card," is the official statement from the DMV to the L.A. Times.
Basically, it comes down to "We don't know yet."
For more information on the implications of Real ID, read on here.
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