{"id":225754,"date":"2026-05-09T15:19:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/225754\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T15:19:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:19:13","slug":"long-islanders-hold-more-real-ids-than-average-new-yorkers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/225754\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Islanders hold more REAL IDs than average New Yorkers"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than half of identity cards obtained by Long Islanders from the Department of Motor Vehicles comply with the federal government\u2019s REAL ID mandate<\/a>, according to New York State statistics.<\/p>\n

Islandwide, 56.9% of Long Island driver’s licenses, learner’s permits and non-driver IDs \u2014 1.489 million of 2.618 million cards\u00a0\u2014 comply with REAL ID, the post-9\/11\u00a0law mandating tighter identity\u00a0verification standards that went into effect a year ago\u00a0after almost 17 years of complaints and delays<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In New York, a person seeking an ID from the DMV can chose to get one that is or isn’t REAL ID-compliant.<\/p>\n

Presenting a REAL ID or another legally acceptable identity document<\/a> like a passport\u00a0is now mandatory\u00a0to pass certain security checkpoints, such as at federal buildings, military bases and airports. Without an acceptable ID, passengers\u00a0must pay a $45 fine<\/a> and answer personal questions,\u00a0or risk missing a flight or being denied boarding entirely.<\/p>\n

The rate of REAL ID compliance in Nassau County (57.5%: 711,491 of 1.237 million cards) is slightly higher than in Suffolk (56.3%: 777,847 out of 1.381 million).<\/p>\n

Each county’s compliance rate is higher than the state average, 53.1%, or 8.6 million<\/a> out of 16.2 million, according to the statistics\u00a0provided, to Newsday by the state DMV.<\/p>\n

Comparable figures for all 62\u00a0New York counties were not immediately available.<\/p>\n

Unlike New York, some states\u00a0issue only REAL IDs and have been doing so for years, among them Colorado, whose residents had a 96% compliance rate as of last year, according to the state\u2019s Division of Motor Vehicles<\/a>, and Texas, which has a 98% compliance rate, according to Houston Public Media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last year, with the May 7 deadline<\/a> looming to have a REAL ID or have trouble being able to fly, the DMV was inundated with appointments, which peaked that month “and remained high though the deadline and summer travel months last year,” said Tim O\u2019Brien, a DMV spokesman.<\/p>\n

“We are not currently experiencing any issues with obtaining appointments,” he told Newsday in an\u00a0email.<\/p>\n

In New York State, obtaining a REAL ID<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0or a more expensive enhanced ID \u2014 which can be used to cross the U.S. border with Canada, Mexico and some Caribbean countries and is also REAL ID-compliant \u2014 for the first time requires an in-person appointment.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s free to upgrade from a standard one to REAL ID if the expiration date is within a year, but an applicant must present additional proof beyond what is required for a non-REAL ID-compliant card, O’Brien said. The fee for those with\u00a0a later expiration date is $12.50, he said.<\/p>\n

The Transportation Security Administration\u00a0said in February<\/a> that between 95% and 99% of travelers at airports are presenting REAL IDs or other acceptable identity documents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

REAL IDs\u00a0are identifiable by the presence of a star or a flag on the document. Non-REAL IDs typically are branded with “NOT FOR FEDERAL PURPOSES.”<\/p>\n

The federal REAL ID legislation was enacted over 20 years ago \u2014 and set to take effect in 2008 \u2014 but kept being delayed because states\u00a0kept objecting over logistics, costs and federalism.<\/p>\n

\"Matthew<\/p>\n

\n\tMatthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than half of identity cards obtained by Long Islanders from the Department of Motor Vehicles comply with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,49,63,134,136,135,608],"class_list":["post-225754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-state","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}