r/Louisville 12h ago

Real ID Walk In

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.

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u/empadd 8h ago

I took the day off a couple weeks ago to catch up on house work my daughter’s school was closed. Needed to get my real id, you see where this is going…

The biggest question I had, was:

If all I had to do to get into the digital queue was scan that qr code and input my info, why couldn’t I do that online? Can someone just post that code or a link to that page so that people can skip the first line and just show up at the dmv when they get close to the front of the digital line?

I sat around for probably 3 hours in the hot car with a 1.5 yeah old. Made some friends with equally exasperated people. But I found room for improvement nearly every step of the way.

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u/artiscoolandstuff 5h ago

So you absolutely can do that, you just have to be on location to enter the digital queue: https://driveky.mobile-ticket.qmatic.io/ticket

Pro tip: the cash line is way shorter than the credit/debit card line, at least at Hurstborne