SACRAMENTO, California — A major administrative correction affecting hundreds of thousands of state residents sees the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) announcing this week that it has identified a longstanding system error requiring the reissuance of approximately 325,000 Real ID driver’s licenses and identification cards.
The department made it clear that the glitch does not reflect fraud or lack of verification of legal presence but instead stems from a software configuration issue dating back nearly two decades.
Real ID is a federally mandated identification standard that California began enforcing statewide in May 2025. Under the Real ID Act, compliant state IDs are required for air travel and access to certain federal facilities. The law was signed into federal statute in 2005 but was delayed for years before full enforcement in 2025.
The DMV’s own review of internal data systems uncovered that a small subset of Real IDs issued to lawful residents with fixed authorized stays were assigned standard expiration dates instead of expiration dates that matched the holders’ legal stay authorizations.
That legacy logic was embedded in a software configuration implemented in 2006. Because of that misalignment, those cards, though legally verified as Real ID compliant when issued, technically fail to meet federally prescribed standards for expiration date accuracy.
Image Credit: Dugan Meyer – Own work, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia.
According to DMV Director Steve Gordon, the discovery was proactive. “We proactively reviewed our records, identified a legacy system issue from 2006, and are notifying impacted customers with clear guidance on how to maintain a valid California-issued credential,” Gordon said in an official statement. “For nearly 99 percent of Real ID holders, no action is required.”
The department is sending individual notifications to those affected over the coming weeks and months. The DMV has pledged to waive all real-ID reissue fees and expedite processing for those impacted to reduce inconvenience. Officials also stressed that notifications will not come via unsolicited calls, texts, or emails asking for personal information or payment.
Who Is Affected and How It Works
The incorrect expiration dates primarily affect noncitizen residents with time-limited legal status, including holders of visas, Employment Authorization Documents (EADs), and lawful permanent residents whose authorized stay does not extend for a full standard renewal period.
In those cases, the DMV’s older configuration defaulted to standard renewal cycles instead of matching the expiration to the end of a person’s authorized federal stay.
About 1.5 percent of all Real ID holders in the state are affected. That translates to roughly 325,000 adults and perhaps tens of thousands of families, given the significant immigrant population in California. State officials emphasized that Real IDs have never been issued to undocumented individuals, meaning all of those who received Real IDs were verified for lawful presence at the time of original issuance.
The error does not mean that Californians were allowed to travel or access federal facilities illegally. It means simply that their state-issued Real ID had an expiration date that did not correctly align with their legal status, which under strict federal compliance is a technical defect.
Computer rendering.
The discovery comes amid wider scrutiny of DMV practices in California, including ongoing legal and administrative issues over commercial driver’s licenses issued to noncitizen residents. Separate disputes have arisen over the revocation and eligibility of certain commercial licenses after federal audits flagged mismatches between work authorization and license records, leading to delays in revocations and lawsuits from immigrant advocacy groups.
While the Real ID reissuance effort is targeted on expiration date technicalities, it underscores broader challenges that large public agencies face in modernizing legacy information systems that were built decades ago.
California’s DMV has some of the most complex records systems in the nation, handling tens of millions of records for drivers and non-driver identifications. Resolving legacy mismatches while maintaining compliance with evolving federal standards requires ongoing investment and vigilance.
What Now?
Residents who hold a Real ID should watch for official mail from the DMV detailing whether their specific card must be reissued. Affected individuals will be instructed on the steps they need to take, which normally will involve visiting a DMV office or scheduling an appointment for document verification.
Current Real IDs remain valid until replaced. Travelers with trips pending in the weeks ahead are advised to carry alternative identification when possible, though the DMV assures that airlines and other entities will accept existing valid identification until new cards arrive.
Source: California DMV