There have been multiple stories in the Times and elsewhere that the lines are long and staff are being hired because of the number of undocumented people getting drivers' licenses.
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@Talbot Sounds like that's good for the economy!
I needed to renew my license last month, and decided to get the real ID license. I'm not a morning person, and arrived at the midtown Manhattan DMV in mid afternoon. There was a line around the block, and inside as well, but it moved quickly, and my entire visit only took an hour and a half. I had checked the DMV website beforehand and had the necessary documents with me. I was expecting to have the long wait suggested in the article. However, while it was daunting to see the long line when I first arrived, I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly and smoothly the process went.
1
Hi folks!
I currently work for a neighborhood DMV. Sorry I can not give specific details but these, as an MVR, are suggestions that I think all MVR's in New York would want to share
Get an ID-44 to know what you can bring and COMPLETELY fill out your MV-44 (application) ahead of time.
https://dmv.ny.gov/files/id44pdf - LINK to ID-44
https://dmv.ny.gov/files/mv44pdf - LINK to MV-44
Bring ORIGINAL documents. Anything tattered will not be accepted. Anything laminated will not be accepted.
We also try to help you check to see if you have all the correct documents too, but we can't get to the over 600 people that come through the doors in an instant...no joke!
Make a reservation. Here is a link and you can find your local friendly DMV Office
https://dmv.ny.gov/offices/make-reservation-visit-dmv-office
Bring a Pen (we run out very quickly).
Wear glasses? Make sure you bring them.
Have children? We love the kiddies but the kiddies will not want to wait the expected 4 to 5 hour minimum wait time. I suggest you leave them home.
Some offices have extended hours TEMPORARILY so be sure to double check should you need to leave your local DMV.
Please watch the queue ticker for your number. Please note the numbers DO NOT go in sequential order.
While we would love to have you in and out in a flash please keep in mind long wait times. We are working as fast as we can and are happy to serve New York!
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@An MVR A great post! 100% correct and if you follow these pointers it helps.
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I got the new drivers license about two months ago. The key is have all your required documents when you arrive, fill out the application at home before you arrive and arrive early.
I lined up at 8:15 and the doors to DMV don't open until 8:30. There were already at least 60 people ahead of me. Make sure you go the enhanced drivers license line. It's not the same as the other license renewals.
There's one line where all your documents and application form are checked, then you have your photo taken. The photo is then sent to another line where you wait to be called.
I was in by 8:30 when the doors opened and out by 9:45-10:00. Actually not so bad given the volume that the DMV processes every day.
No one enjoys waiting in lines that never seem to move. But all in all the DMV staff did a good job. But, if I had not gotten there early the entire waiting room would have been full and I'm sure the process would have been much longer.
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I passed on the rfid chipped license for the extra 30 dollars on top of the regular fees. If I want to travel I’ll just get a passport as this was an expensive unnecessary change. If you don’t keep this new license in a special card case it can be easily scanned as well.
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"And if you thought the lines were long before. …"
The author fails to mention the Green Light law that recently went into effect and the impact on wait times.
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Mr. Paybarah,
You may want to let your colleague James Barron, who wrote the article about Real ID driver licenses that you linked to here, that he left out a critical detail in his piece. "Enhanced" driver licenses, which are issued by New York and several other border states and which are valid for crossing the U.S.-Canadian land border, are automatically Real ID-compliant. They bear a U.S. flag symbol instead of the star symbol shown in Mr. Barron's article.
I panicked when I read Mr. Barron's article, because my driver license does not have the star symbol, only to find out that the U.S. flag symbol on my enhanced driver license means it will continue to be valid for accessing airports and Federal buildings.
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I just had my Real ID license renewed at AAA (in Rhode Island). Is that option available in other states?
Also, all the license samples I've seen show people smiling in their license photos. I wasn't allowed to smile (show any teeth) and I had to pull my hair back off my face even though I don't wear it like that. How do they deal with men with beards?
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With Minnesota being one of the last (if not THE last) state to authorize issuing Real ID licenses, we are undergoing the same problems here. The petty bureaucratic nit-picking is getting to be ridiculous. We have decided to wait. We have passports, so will use that when (and if) we fly before going through the process.
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Most people in other states have had these Real ID licenses for over year. As noted in the story, the law describing the requirements has been in place since 2005. While many states did not finalize approval for issuing licenses with DHS until 2018, they had been following rules for enhanced verification of identity, e,g., use of passport, birth certificate, etc, for nearly a decade. Over that period, they forced everyone to come to the office with documentation, precluding any renewals by mail. Once the states got ok to issue cards with the star, their DMV’s could just send them out in mail to existing holders. It looks like NY and CT did not start using the enhanced verification until forced by impending October 2020 deadline. NJ seems to have started using enhanced verification with the other states and then lost the records of verification. A lot of the delays in these late conforming states are self inflicted.
TX has had its recent DMV issues tied mainly to increased number of people moving to the state and getting licenses. Thank goodness we did not have to handle Real ID and increased overall number of drivers at same time. Vaya con Dios and happy motoring on that problem NY.
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@Michael Blazin
When I converted my NY license to an Arizona license in 2016 they required I show a passport or birth certificate but did NOT issue a Real ID compliant card. Now Arizonians are also scrambling; definitely, self-inflicted pain. I have a passport; I won't get a new license in Arizona until they tell me I can't drive with the one I have. Arizona licenses -- pre Real ID -- don't expire until your 65th birthday!
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I recently opted for the standard license--my old license had been renewed eight years ago, and my sixteen year-old picture looked like I was carrying a picture of my son.
I went to the DMV office, but I chose the path of least resistance. A dumb, lazy mistake. As long as I was there I should have opted for the real or enhanced version. I would not have needed to carry a passport unless I was travelling overseas passport. Could have killed two birds with one stone.
BTW these standard licenses are odd looking--both the license and the picture are a sort of silver-grey color. It makes the picture appear ethereal, as if you are a ghost!
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Appointments are not very available. My license expires more than two months from now, and I had to schedule one in Coney Island in March -- lower Manhattan, midtown Manhattan, Brooklyn Atlantic, all full up through May, as late as the calendars go.
I've been stopping by the 11 Greenwich location since the beginning of the year. It's historically been quite sleepy, but it is now packed all the time.
Reservation link: https://nysdmvqw.us.qmatic.cloud/naoa/index.jsp
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I have no idea why people waited until THIS YEAR to start worrying about upgrading licenses. I did mine almost 6 years ago when I took the kiddo to get her learner's permit (she'll be 21 in July and was 15 then). We went ahead and did hers with her permit so she's always had this type of license (called STAR-ID in some places). We did her boating license at the same time too - one less trip since she'd already had the course and passed the test (we have a personal watercraft so it was a must). Hubby did his the next time he renewed his license about 2 years in. Yes, we all also have passports but why have one more thing to keep up with when you fly?
If this requirement was knowledge in Alabama, it had to be knowledge everywhere else (since everyone thinks we're so backwards - but obviously our state did a decent job on getting the word out).
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@JMiller New York State didn't start offering them until November 2017, as the article notes. I renewed my license in August 2017 and REAL ID wasn't an option.
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Totally stunned you couldn't do it before 2017! My state is not known for being on any leading edge.
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Everyone should get a passport. Period.
Producing a passport to board a flight within the States is a great reminder that travel away from your home area means the culture is different. Viewing yourself as a foreigner, even within the US might help you respect a different way of life...
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If you have a passport, you can also get a passport card (additional fee) - which I believe can be used for entry to Mexico and Canada.
It is convenient as it is a card - less bulky than a passport.
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My understanding is that even if you have the old license, a U.S. passport will entitle you to all the things the new license will.
If that's true then there is no reason to rush out to get that new license if you have a passport. And it appears that it's far less time consuming to apply for a passport than for the new license.
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@Steve
Shh, don't tell--there'll only be longer lines at passport!
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@Steve - What I found out about passports is that unlike the state IDs, even if you look really different than you did when you got your passport, it's a real red tape thing to get permission to get it re-issued so that the TSA folks don't look closely, as they did yesterday, clearly needing to confirm this its the same person as in my 2013 photo, which I can't change until the passport expires in 2023 without lots of red tape. I may be exaggerating for effect, but I really felt it was "Oh you poor dear, what you must have been through these past seven years. I know, we'll have this absurdly well-groomed TSA agent give you a really calming relaxing pat-down. We know you'll enjoy it, and you won't be cheating on your spouse." I have absolutely no idea what the heck the sympathetic male model (who seems to be working for the TSA, presumably when not dancing at Chippendale's) was searching for at like seven therapeutic pressure points though I wondered if I should tip, but thought better of it.
tune of "This Time i Know It's for Real"
What do I need to do
To prove who I am to you?
How can I prove it's me
What's been the problem with my state I.D.?
Tell me what you think is right.
Anything to make my flight.
I'm going crazy 'cause I just don't know.
This card's been fine for fifty years or do.
But now you tell me I'm not good to go.
This time you need something REAL.
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@Steve Also, if you have Global Entry, and the GE card, I'm pretty sure that can be used at TSA so you don't have to carry your full passport for domestic flights.
Now, while I was "fortunate" enough to get my enhanced DL a few months ago (only a 90 minute process!), my Global Entry is up for renewal in the next few months, and now that will be quite the cluster due to Impeached Trump.
They can hire a 1000 more people and it won't stop the lines because the facilities don't accommodate the huge numbers of people who were applying for licenses because of the green light law. If you go be sure you make an appointment. We were there only an hour with an appointment. But there were people who had been there for 7 hours and waiting.
The DMV has extended hours from 7:00 a.m. To 7:00 p.m. in Yonkers where we went because we could get an appointment within 2 months. They should keep it open till 10:00 p.m.. The waiting area was filled with people who are applying who are now eligible without being US citizens are having a green card. I commend that law but these folks had to take the whole day off and some still could not get throw. At 3 o'clock they said that the wait was 5 hours and the office would close at 7. Somebody has to do something to fix this for everyone.
You can a make an appointment for 15 minute increment on the DMV site.You could probably drive upstate and back for the time it would take to wait in New York City without an appointment.
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I was going to get the enhanced driver's license, and so I dug up the most recent gas bill, my passport, my birth certificate which Mom had kept, my baptismal certificate that shows my middle name (middle names are assigned at baptism, not birth, in the land of my grandparents), my high school diploma, and a bank statement. Overkill, perhaps.
Then I read that these licenses "for federal purposes" can be scanned from many, many yards away by no-goodniks.
I decided against it, and renewed my regular license by mail, an easy process. If I go anywhere, I do have a passport.
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@B. I have a Real ID driver's license. It is just plastic. Nothing that can be scanned from a distance. I don't know about the enhanced, as it doesn't gain me anything over the Real. (See my other comment.)
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The enhanced license comes in a protective paper sleeve that allegedly protects it against scanners.
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@B. Great idea, and one can get a passport card which is just easy to carry in one’s wallet!
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Re: the READ ID drivers license, I'm not sure why you didn't mention that those folks with valid passports don't need to subject themselves to the lines for an upgraded license. We`re facing the same situation here in New Jersey, but since my passport is recently renewed, I'll just keep the drivers license I have for now and wait for my normal renewal in a couple years to decide whether or not I want to upgrade it.
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@Art Kraus Great that you pointed out the missing bit about using your passport. I’m doing the same as you are by using my current NJ license with my passport. My current drivers license is due to renew next year. If I did the upgrade now, I’d still have to get a new license again next year—and pay twice! My passport is good for a few more years.
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When you upgrade to the enhanced license now they extend the renewal. Mine was expiring in August 2020 and my renewed license goes through 2028.
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@glo Do you have a NY license? I was describing the rules as I read them in Jersey. My Response was to the Art Kraus from Princeton. The rules maybe different in NY and NJ. Just not sure.
"Enhanced: ... You can also use it to enter the United States from Canada, Mexico and some Caribbean countries."
It can only be used to enter these countries by land or sea. Not by air. This dramatically reduces its value. I do not own a car. I am not about to take a cruise. Paying an extra $30 for enhanced makes no sense at all for someone like me.
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Great story to share. My 18 year old son got his enhanced drivers license here in NY in last year. To get the license, you must show the required documents and prove citizenship. He goes off to college and applies for a security guard position and gets said job. The school requires that you prove citizenship and so my son proudly whips out his enhanced license, shows it to the boss (who’s from England) and was denied the job unless he shows a passport or social security. I was livid in that I didn’t think it was prudent to send my son his passport and original SS card. So, I made a copy of the rules and regulations of the enhanced license and sent them to my son who showed it to the school. The school denied his license once again. The moral of the story, the enhanced license can get you into a foreign country but not a job in an American school.
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The ridiculous part of the refusal for your son is that in order to have the enhanced a license he had to show his original social security card. De facto it means that he had one. petty bureaucrats
4
If using a driver's license for ID when hired, you must also show an SS card or birth certificate to the employer. OR just a passport is sufficient. You should check out the current I-9 ID requirements so your son knows for his next job. (Column B, Column A respectively)