Illinois REAL ID

With the May 7th deadline to get a Real ID card in Illinois quickly approaching, the Illinois Secretary of State's office is ramping up reminders, along with expanded hours and locations for those who need and/or want to get one. Here's what you'll need to have to get an Illinois Real ID, along with some ways to determine if you really need one or not.

The deadline to get your new Illinois Real ID is coming up fast, and some Illinoisans are stressing out over getting theirs in time. Here's the thing: not everyone will need an Illinois Real ID. Here's how to tell which group you're in--must have, or don't really need.

We've been kicking the Real ID can down the road for almost 20 years, and May 7th of this year is the deadline for getting yours...or is it? Here's an update to Illinois' Real ID situation.

It seems as if the Real ID deadline gets moved every year but it's coming for real this time. The Real ID deadline is May 7. Have you booked your appointment? Discover a quicker and easier way to get one before the end of February.

After years of delays and postponements, it looks like Real ID will finally be implemented in May of this year...unless they don't, and extend the deadline for another period of time. Regardless, you may have wondered about getting a Real ID, especially if your current driver's license or state ID card hasn't expired yet.

If you've lost track of how many times the deadline for REAL ID has been extended here in Illinois and across the nation, it's totally understandable. The drop-dead date to make the switch from your standard Illinois driver's license over to a REAL ID has been changed multiple times due to the pandemic, the post-pandemic, and now it might be changed again because of a federal rule change.

The pandemic caused all sorts of things to be delayed, and the switch over to REAL ID is certainly one of those things. The deadline kept getting pushed back, and now you have until May of 2025 to decide whether or not REAL ID is something you need and/or want.

Illinois State officials (knowing how people can be when it comes to deadlines) are urging Illinois residents to get busy now so that there won't be a giant logjam of Real ID applications this coming May.

State officials (knowing how people can be when it comes to deadlines) are urging Illinois residents to get busy now so that there won't be a giant logjam of applications in May of next year.

If you recall, the original, pre-pandemic deadline for the move to REAL ID was October 21, 2020. Then, COVID-19 came along and threw a monkey-wrench into things. So, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) pushed things back one year to October 21, 2021 to give people time to get things together while dealing with the pandemic.