Planning to travel? Hawaii residents must have a gold-star-marked ID card by October 2020

Oahu residents who want to use their state IDs or driver’s licenses to travel must obtain one by Oct. 1, 2020, with a gold star marking in compliance with a federal requirement, the city Department of Customer Serv­ices says.

The city estimates that in the next 18 months, roughly 10,000 Oahu residents every month are expected to obtain their state IDs or driver’s licenses bearing the gold star as they come up for renewal.

To help residents, the city is advising that they can book an appointment up to three months in advance on the city’s appointment system at honolulu.gov/csd.

More than 190,000 residents already have obtained the REAL ID-compliant driver license or state ID since January 2018, when they first became available.

The city asks people to be patient as it can take six weeks for a permanent card to arrive in the mail.

Congress created the REAL ID Act 14 years ago to provide a more rigorous security measure after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The act requires residents to prove their identity through the gold-star-marked cards if they use it to board domestic flights and enter federal facilities.