Monday, July 22, 2019

It's Good To Make A Plan, But Also Good To Be Flexible

If you live in the United States do you have your REAL ID? 

The REAL ID Act was passed by Congress in 2005 to set standards for identification such as drivers licenses and state ID cards. The law says that if I want to fly domestically after October 1, 2020 without my passport I needed to upgrade my license to meet the new standards. Thanks to the reminders my travel agent friend keeps posting on Facebook I decided to upgrade sooner rather than later.

It was a bit of a challenge to gather the required documents to apply for the new license. I dug around in our files to find my passport, certified birth certificate, Social Security card, and two out of the eighteen acceptable documents that proved I lived in Missouri. (The hardest document to find was my certified marriage license, which it turns out I didn't need because I also have my maiden name on my passport)

Last Friday I swung by the license bureau. There are two separate areas for license plate and drivers license business. There were ten people ahead of me doing the same thing I was, and it took 30 minutes for my turn. Unfortunately, I had misread the list of residency documents and only had one instead of two. Before I left I asked the clerk the best time to come back if I wanted to avoid a line. She told me that the office opened at 7:30 in the morning.

I arranged today's schedule so I could make the license bureau my first errand of the morning. However, the best laid plans don't always work. I had trouble getting to sleep when I went to bed and then a huge rainstorm moved in overnight; the heavy rain woke me up, and my last two hours of sleep were restless. It was hard to get up when the alarm went off, and hard to get moving once I rolled out of bed. Instead of leaving the house to get to the office when it opened I pulled out of the garage an hour later.

Imagine my surprise when I pulled into the parking lot and saw a line of people standing outside.

When I walked past the door on my way back to the end of the line I saw a sign that said the office would be opening an hour late because they had to clean up some water. Five minutes after I joined the line the door opened and everyone filed in. In the seating area two large trash cans were placed under missing ceiling tiles, and there were signs that a large mess had been cleaned up, because the roof had leaked during the downpour of rain.

There were seven people ahead of me and only one clerk working on the drivers license side. After waiting for a little over an hour she called my number. The clerk examined my documents, scanned or made copies of each, and asked me to digitally sign new license form. Ninety minutes after I arrived at the office I was walking back to my car.

I'm glad I'm finished with the project. (For now.) I found out that I'll have to go through the whole thing again every other license renewal.

10 comments:

  1. Sounds like you could use a Peach Spritzer. But I bet it felt great to get it done.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was only 10 AM when I left the office...a little early to be drinking :-)

      Delete
  2. Oh wow, what a journey! Good that you planned well in advance. Happy to hear you got it accomplished without further hassle. That has to feel sooo good!

    Wishing you a wonderful evening!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would imagine that the closer it gets to the deadline the worse the wait will be.

      Delete
  3. Keep it all in one file! Sheesh. Guess I'd better get it done too. TN was one of the invalid ID license.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't often dig through the ammunition box file, but I was pleasantly surprised at how organized Tony had it.

      Delete
  4. Funny that they told you to come back when they open, here that is the busiest time of the day. Then 11 am and then 3 pm. Ninety minutes is not bad, sans appointment. The CA DMV process will take about 4 hours without an appointment, from what I am hearing from friends who've tried it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've heard horror stories from my son about the California DMV. At least at the two offices closest to my house making an appointment is not an option.

      Delete
  5. Wow, what a nightmare. I don't think we have that yet here. I don't have a passport and never fly anywhere, so I can't imagine I'd need that. I had to produce an original birth certificate last time I renewed my license, which took some time to get. Wow, I hope this real ID helps but I can't imagine the way things are going that it will since people seem to fake ID's and documents so easily these days.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm pretty skeptical about the "safety" of the new IDs, too, but since I'll be flying to visit family for the foreseeable future I figured I needed to jump through their hoops.

      Delete