Starting May 7th, you will need to upgrade your ID to a Real ID in order to board a flight. During a news conference at Baton Rouge Municipal Airport, Dan Casey, the commissioner of the Office of Motor Vehicles, said just a small percentage of those without Real ID would represent a lot of travelers.
“Earlier this year on July 7, TSA screened 3 million travelers. If 99% of those travelers had Real ID, it would still leave 30,000 travelers unable to travel.”
Casey said getting a Real ID is easy. All you need to do is to go to your local OMV office and bring with you a birth certificate or passport and two pieces of mail, and your ID will be upgraded to a Real ID.
“Louisiana Real ID license and identification cards have a small gold star up on the right-hand corner to indicate they meet requirements.”
Casey said Louisiana has a long way to go to get everyone updated to Real ID.
“We issued 3.9 million ID’s and drivers licenses. Of that, about a million, 26%, are Real ID.”
The difference between a regular ID and a Real ID is that Real ID verification records are kept by the state. There is no additional charge to update your ID to a Real ID.
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