REAL ID–compliant driver's licenses and state identification cards should be available to Oklahomans beginning July 1.
The Department of Public Safety is in a pilot production phase of the new ID cards at its Oklahoma City office before rolling them out to the public.
"The April 1 deadline got pushed back for us because we couldn’t have these offices open to the general public with COVID," said Oklahoma Secretary of Public Safety Chip Keating.
According to DPS, the pandemic has also limited travel of the vendor that designed their new computer system for REAL ID cards and has kept them from training employees and tag agents on it.
Gov. Kevin Stitt and First Lady Sarah Stitt received their compliant driver's licenses Thursday, though it took quite a bit of time. Keating said he’s not worried that an estimated 600,000 Oklahomans will apply for new driver's licenses and ID cards in a couple months.
"Look, we’re all learning this too, and we’re going to get better with time. And so, by July 1 when the whole public’s coming through, we absolutely anticipate those times coming down," Keating said.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has pushed back its deadline to require REAL ID–compliant identification to board airplaines and enter federal facilities a year to Oct. 1, 2021.
