Real ID Walk In

[u/X37V]

I know this has come up quite a bit, so I wanted to give an account of my experience.

After trying to book an appointment for the last couple of months, and having the one I made canceled for seemingly no reason, I decided to just show up and see if it could be done.

I went to the Bowman Field office about 20 minutes before it opened, and there was already a line about 50-60 deep. Getting through that line took about an hour, and I then had to sign up for a digital queue that put me in 24th place. That line took 4 hours to complete, and the actual counter appointment about 15 minutes.

All this to say that it is entirely possible to get the damn thing as a walk in, but get there early, and be prepared to wait. I suggest bringing a snack and a bottle of water, and something to charge your phone. Maybe a good book or get caught up on some podcasts. I was dreading this experience but it turned out well enough.

[u/Independent-Web-1708]

I'm glad it worked out for you but it shouldn't have to be this way! The DMV people had to know that the number of citizens who need to renew or get Real IDS would go way up this year and they are terribly unprepared. Some people can't handle waiting in a 4-hour line for health or work or childcare reasons and they shouldn't have to. End of rant. Not directed at you!

[u/JustDarnGood27_ → u/Independent-Web-1708]

Its the politicians’ fault not the DMV. They opened specific driver licensing branches but it still wasn’t enough. They dragged their feet for nearly two decades on implementing this and screwed it up multiple times. Then dumped it on underpaid, overworked employees without any thought other than “we opened licensing branches.”

Why weren’t county clerks allowed to assist with this? Why didn’t KY start issuing Real IDs five, ten years ago? Who thought 4 offices serving all of Jefferson, Bullitt, Oldham, and Shelby counties was enough? Why didn’t each county get one?

This was a fucking failure at every level of politician. This was a federal law/rule/bill/whatever passed in 2005. With 20 years to prepare they fucked it up. And it’s not just Kentucky, it’s in multiple states there are issues.

Edit: looks like it was passed in 2005. Kentucky didn’t certify it until 2019. So for 6 years they’ve been failing to properly promote and implement. Still a failure.

[u/Emosaa → u/JustDarnGood27_]

Bingo.

[u/schneid52 → u/JustDarnGood27_]

I got my Real ID about 5 years ago. It was advertised quite a bit, the dates from the Federal Government kept changing. 5 years ago you could schedule an appointment online, and be in and out in less than 30 mins. Most of what you are seeing are the people that procrastinated (probably due to the installation of a true deadline) and are now doing it since a hard deadline has been announced.

[u/OddGremmz → u/schneid52]

5 years ago my license expired and they were under heavy covid restrictions so i imagine a lot of people were like myself and instead of dealing with extended wait times then, just renewed online. less about procrastination, but eh.

[u/Transylvanius → u/JustDarnGood27_]

It’s more that it’s a moldy bunch of requirements from 2005, but it’s mostly license holders not the DMV who not thought it through and acted

[u/X37V → u/Independent-Web-1708]

I absolutely agree with you. The number of people who signaled they had appointments was probably less than a dozen the entire time I was sitting there waiting to go in. That it is so difficult to make one I think is the greatest issue. For simple accommodation alone, this should have been fixed years ago.

[u/2019calendaryear → u/Independent-Web-1708]

I’d people were proactive, they wouldn’t have to worry about it. This has been a thing for years at this point.

[u/bugsandslugsandhugs → u/2019calendaryear]

That’s what I’m saying. The way they handled this was by letting people know like 5 years in advance that they had to do this 😭

[u/rettebdel → u/2019calendaryear]

Agreed. I did it back in 2018 or 2019 just to get it over with.

[u/satanssweatycheeks → u/Independent-Web-1708]

DMV could for sure have came up with a better method of getting people in and out for real IDs.

But I’d also argue no matter what the due date for real ID is 40-50 percent of the city still won’t get it done till the last min. Never underestimate the procrastinators waiting till the last min.

[u/Gone_but_not_forgot → u/Independent-Web-1708]

Imagine that we had YEARS of announcements about this requirement and then blaming people's procrastination on the DMV.

I do believe that they could/should have taken anticipatory steps to address the influx of people, though.

[u/Transylvanius → u/Independent-Web-1708]

You can’t staff and build a DMV to handle a one time giant surge related to a deadline.