The new Real ID law kicks in at airports across the nation on Wednesday, after years of postponements. Authorities now say you can still board a plane with your older ID, but TSA will pull you aside and give you the runaround, so get to the airport a heck of a lot earlier.

We are just hours away from the new, stricter Real ID regulation kicking in at midnight tonight. And the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been saying over and over that “On May 7, 2025, U.S. travelers must be REAL ID compliant to board domestic flights.” Well, here in California, the DMV says that once you upload your passport or birth certificate and proof of residency, just schedule an appointment at your local DMV office to get that now legally required Real ID.

So how are the appointment slots looking at the San Francisco DMV office?

Image: CA DMV

The San Francisco DMV office is not even accepting appointments at the moment. Now sure, to be fair, those DMV offices that are currently offering Saturday hours are generally showing appointment slots available for this coming Saturday, May 10. But still, to demand you make an in-person appointment, and then yank the ability to make in-person appointments at larger offices, feels straight out of the book Catch-22.


Well, the good news is that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said earlier Tuesday that travelers will be able to board flights without Real ID, just albeit with some extra steps, according to ABC News. Why Noem waited all the way until the day before the deadline to declare this is beyond us, but it’s still relieving news. (Also, you're fine using a US passport as well.)

Noem said that those without Real ID or a passport “may be diverted to a different line, have an extra step,” according to ABC News. “But people will be allowed to fly.”

So what is this going to look like? The SF Business Times has two very informative articles today on Real ID Eve, one explaining how Bay Area airports will handle those without Real ID, but the other clarifying that you still could miss your flight without Real ID if you don’t provide enough advance time for TSA hassles.  

The first article spoke with officials at SFO, Oakland Airport, and San Jose Mineta Airport. Each facility said you could still board a flight without Real ID, and that they would beef up their staffing to deal with people being diverted for extra identity verification.

“For travelers who do not have a Real ID or passport, we recommend allowing extra time for their identity to be verified,” SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel told the Business Times.

Okay, just how much extra time? The Business Times says it “could take 45 minutes or more” to verify you if you don’t have Real ID. But even that’s not a guarantee you’ll get security clearance.

"If we cannot verify your identity, you will not be allowed to travel," TSA spokesperson Patricia Mancha told the Wichita Business Journal. "If we can't do it in time for you to get on your plane, then it's very likely that you could miss your flight."

"If we have 100 people who don't have their ID, and you're No. 99, we can't guarantee that we're going to verify your identity in time for you to make your flight," Mancha added.

Again, if you have a valid passport, you can use that as an acceptable form of identity verification for domestic travel. But heads up, this may be shaping up to be a terrible summer for flying at airports. As of now, only about 48 percent of Americans have valid passports.

Related: Digital, Smartphone Driver’s Licenses are Coming to California [SFist]

Image: Lake Elsinore, California, USA - Dec 18, 2022: A closeup of corner California Real ID driver license focusing on the REAL ID logo. (Getty Images)