Another Change Could Be Coming to the Real ID in Illinois

I've never claimed to be a math genius, but I've lost count of the number of times there has been a change announced to the ongoing Real ID effort in Illinois and the word is another one could be in the works.

When I saw an article from Patch talking about "another Real ID change", I will admit that I rolled my eyes. What now? In this case, it could (important word) be a good thing.

Let's revisit some Illinois Real ID history. Do you remember when the Real ID was going to be deployed by the end of 2022, then there was a delay? The new "deadline" was to be May 7, 2025. That's still in place, but maybe not. The Patch article says that the feds are now proposing to allow for the requirements to be administered in phases.

Why another slowdown of Real ID requirements in Illinois?

The inference is that federal agencies like the TSA and others might be overwhelmed with the sudden influx of Real ID requirements so they may allow different aspects of it to be punted to future dates - maybe.

I'm no identification or travel expert, but I predict chaos if the deadline is moved again. I'm not a fan of a unified identification system, but it's obviously coming so I would think the state of Illinois and federal government would want clarity and that simply won't happen if different agencies have different requirements.

Feel free to roll your eyes if you want. I did.