IL Travelers, Here's How To Meet REAL ID Requirements

ILLINOIS— If you've boarded a flight at a Chicago-area airport recently, you have likely seen signs about the deadline to get a REAL ID, which will be required for domestic flights beginning in May 2025.

Adult travelers who normally show their driver's license or state ID when passing through airport security will have to get a new card to comply with the federal regulations, if they have not done so already. The REAL ID-compliant cards will have a star in the top right corner.

Homeland Security officials set May 7, 2025, as the final date for getting the gold star to board domestic flights and enter certain federal offices, after moving the deadline multiple times. The initial deadline was 2020, then extended by federal officials to October 1, 2021, then May 3, 2023, and as of now, May 2025.

Past that date, federal agencies — including the Transportation Security Administration — will no longer accept identification that does not meet the new standards. Travelers can still show a valid U.S. passport, Global Entry Card, or another federally-approved form of identification to pass through a TSA checkpoint.

Some individual states have specific requirements to get a REAL ID card. Illinois residents must show proof of age and identify via:

• A birth or adoption certificate; or a valid passport or one that expired in the past five years; a valid permanent resident card (any one of these is needed)
• Proof of Social Security with a Social Security card, W-2 form, SSA form or pay stub issued in the past three months (any one of these is needed)
• Two documents proving a current Illinois address with a matching name, such as bank statement, utility bill, mortgage statement.

To get a REAL ID in Illinois, residents must bring their documents in person to an Illinois Secretary of State branch. Appointments at an MVA branch can be made online.

After May 7, 2025, federal agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration, will no longer accept identification that does not meet the new standards.

The REAL ID Act of 2005 was passed by Congress in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In addition to the stars, REAL ID cards are built with technology that makes them more difficult to forge, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Illinois residents who don’t plan to fly domestically or visit a federal office don’t need to do anything. A REAL ID isn't required to get a driver's license. Also, the TSA won’t require children under 18 to provide identification when they’re traveling with an adult companion within the United States, but the companion must have acceptable identification.

The REAL ID is not a substitute for a passport required for international travel, and it also does not affect the ability to vote or register to vote, applications for federal benefits, enter federal facilities that don’t require identification, obtain medical care, or participate in police proceedings or investigations.

Here are other forms of identification that will be accepted in lieu of a REAL ID, according to the TSA:

• U.S. passport
• U.S. passport card
• Department of Homeland Security trusted traveler cards (Global Entry, NEXUS, SENTRI, FAST)
• U.S. Department of Defense ID, including IDs issued to dependents
• Permanent resident card
• Border crossing card
• An acceptable photo ID issued by a federally recognized Tribal Nation/Indian Tribe
• Personal Identity Verification Card (HSPD-12 PIV card)
• Foreign government-issued passport
• Canadian provincial driver's license or Indian and Northern Affairs Canada card
• Transportation worker identification credential
• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Employment Authorization Card (I-766)
• U.S. Merchant Mariner Credential
• Veteran Health Identification Card

This story includes reporting by Patch Editor Michelle Rotuno-Johnson.