One week from today on May 7 is the deadline for all Alaskans to have a REAL ID in order to fly on commercial flights, including some small air carriers. The main place to get a new ID card that meets those requirements is through a state Department of Motor Vehicles’ office.
Wednesday morning, April 30, just after 8:30 a.m., the lone employee at the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Kodiak, Kate Blondin, opens the doors and a few customers waiting in the parking lot trickle in.
Most of the customers who have visited the local DMV this month, like Theresa Peters, are getting their REAL ID cards or REAL ID compliant driver’s licenses. Peters is the first customer Blondin assists on the last day of April.
“Peters: I don’t know what today is, the 29th?
Blondin: The 30th.
Peters: Oh my God.
Blondin: Yeah… it’s been a long two months.”
The deadline to have a REAL ID is May 7 in order to fly on commercial flights, including some FAA Part 135 aircraft, but not the flights operated by Island Air on Kodiak Island.
Alaskans who don’t have a REAL ID compliant card will need another qualifying form of ID, like a passport, when they go through TSA. Sen. Lisa Murkowski confirmed on April 29 during Alaska Public Media’s public affairs show Talk of Alaska, that her office was told that TSA will still allow residents to fly without a REAL ID but it will involve an enhanced screening process and likely delays or possibly being denied entry.
Shannon Kearney, a spokesperson for Coast Guard Base Kodiak said in an email, that civilians will also be required to show REAL ID compliant forms of identification in order to access the base starting on May 7 as well.
Peters came prepared to the DMV on April 30 as she already had her passport, which proves her identity, and two documents that contain her full legal name and physical address, all in a green see-through plastic folder.
All three of these documents are required by the state in order to successfully apply for a REAL ID. Alaskans applying for a REAL ID have to have an official document that proves identity or lawful status, such as a valid passport, birth certificate or green card. In addition, applicants need TWO documents that contain their full name AND physical address.
This can be difficult in rural communities where packages or bills are not delivered to physical addresses, only P.O. boxes. Lauren Whiteside, the Alaska DMV’s Division Operations Manager, told Alaska’s News source this month that a letter from the U.S. Postal Service that verifies the resident’s physical address can be accepted by the DMV instead.
And if your name on your two residency documents don’t match your legal name on your identity document, then you will need to fill out a name change document.
It is a $20 fee on top of whatever your regular license or card costs to make it REAL ID compliant. And it takes days to weeks for the official license or card to arrive in the mail. But the DMV says in the meantime you can use the temporary paper ID the agency provides and a state driver’s license to go through TSA.
The Kodiak DMV, like other offices statewide, offers customers an option to book a 10-minute appointment window. Every day, from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., aside from Blondin’s lunch break from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m., she is booked for a total of 40 appointments, Monday through Friday. According to the agency’s online appointment booking site, as of April 30, there are no available appointments at the Kodiak DMV until Tuesday, May 13.
Blondin said she used to be able to stay on schedule for all appointments, but in the last two months she’s had so many people coming in for services that she hasn’t been able to keep up. Blondin said in recent days she’s been working an hour or more after the office is supposed to close at 4:30 p.m. so that she can get through all of the customers waiting for services that day.
Forrest Wolfe, the public information officer for the state Department of Administration, which covers the DMV, said in an email that a second employee will be joining Blondin in Kodiak starting next week, on May 5. The previous road examiner’s last day was in March 12 and Blondin has been staffing the two-person office by herself since.
The state has said it will continue to offer REAL ID services beyond the May 7 deadline.
If you were unable to book an appointment with the Kodiak DMV, or travel to Anchorage to use DMV services there, prior to the May 7 deadline, then you can rely on other forms of acceptable IDs to travel, such as a passport, a military ID or a Tribal ID from a federally recognized Tribe.
According to the state DMV’s website, the Native Village of Akhiok, Native Village of Karluk, Native Village of Larsen Bay, Native Village of Ouzinkie, Native Village of Port Lions, the Sun’aq Tribe of Kodiak and the Tangirnaq Native Village aka Woody Island are all included on that list.
Editor's note: A previous version of this article stated that some non-scheduled charter flights at Island Air would require its customers to have REAL IDs in order to fly. That rule does NOT apply to Island Air's aircraft and this article has been updated to reflect that.
