Last November we wrote an article about the REAL ID Act and the effect it would have on some US citizens but primarily Pennsylvania residents. For those who don’t remember PA’s failure to comply with the REAL ID Act would leave Pennsylvania licenses not being counted as a credible form of identification for things like access to military bases, or even domestic flights (Read the entire article here: http://laurelfinancialgroup.com/content/hopefully-you-have-passport). We wanted to revisit this because many people have expressed interest in the topic, and there have been some developments over the past month.
Luckily for Pennsylvania residents Governor Tom Wolf signed a bill last month to repeal the PA law that prevented PennDOT from complying with certain REAL ID Act provisions. Recognizing this as a major step forward in right direction the Department of Homeland Security granted an extension through October 10th of this year. While this is great news allowing PA residents to continue to use their license to enter military installations, federal courthouses and federal job sites it might not grant reprieve from the most critical aspect, domestic air travel.
As mentioned in the previous article the enforcement for the commercial air travel portion of the REAL ID Act goes into effect January 22nd, 2018. As it currently stands the extension will fall short of this date forcing PA residents to use a passport to fly domestically. If you were hoping that the REAL ID licenses will be available before that goes into effect that won’t be the case. Unfortunately, PennDOT has confirmed they won’t be available until 2019 and you will likely have to request a new REAL ID compliant license which could end up costing more.
While progress is being made PA residents might still be left requiring a passport if we aren’t granted another exemption. Best course of action now is to make sure you’re prepared for the worst.