Last in the nation

In case you aren’t aware, in just two days—on Wednesday, May 7, 2025—a federal law will go into effect requiring a “Real ID” to enter a federal government building or to pass through airline security, even for a domestic flight. Despite the looming deadline, a couple of weeks ago, CBS News reported that, although “they’ve had nearly 20 years to prepare,” most states are not fully compliant with the law.

The state with the lowest compliance rate in the nation at the time of the CBS report?

New Jersey.

Where only 17% of state-issued IDs qualified as Real IDs.

As a New Jersey native, I’d like to say I’m surprised by the lack of cooperation from the citizens of the Garden State, but then I’d be lying. Because as any licensed driver or car owner in New Jersey knows, going to the Department of Motor Vehicles is a total nightmare. Maybe not worst-in-the-nation level, but still quite bad. And despite recent efforts to improve efficiency and the “customer experience,” the DMV remains one of the unhappiest places in the world to visit.

An example:

Despite having previously changed the title for one deceased person’s car and presumably learned the process, doing the same for my brother’s car proved to be . . . challenging. At first, all seemed to be going smoothly. After waiting in a relatively short line (relative being the operative word—this was the DMV after all), a very nice woman listened to my plight and assured me that, despite what I’d been told at another DMV facility when my mother died, the title to my brother’s car did NOT have to be transferred to the estate for the car to be sold; as executor, I could simply put the title in my own name. In order to be sure, the nice clerk disappeared for five minutes to consult with a supervisor who (I was told) agreed that, yes, title to the car could be put in my name.

After spending 45 minutes filling out the back of the title document as specifically instructed and waiting again on the now much longer line, I had just started processing the transaction with the nice clerk when a third DMV employee—who, despite their inability to communicate clearly or make eye contact, seemed to hold some kind of elevated supervisory position—informed the ceiling that title could not be transferred to someone with an out-of-state driver’s license. It took a little while, but the nice clerk and I eventually realized the strange supervisor was talking about me.

Well, that shouldn’t be a problem, I naively thought. I’d brought the paperwork showing my appointment as executor, as well as the tax ID number assigned to the estate by the IRS.

Cue foreboding music.

You don’t think the New Jersey Department of Motor Vehicles accepts the federal government’s tax ID number for an estate, do you? Why would they take the straightforward, logical approach of utilizing a numerical identifier you’ve already gone to the trouble of procuring? No, no, they have their own numbering system that requires submission of an application to some central office in Trenton and 3-5 days to process. So, you have to make another appointment and come back another day. (Note reference to OUT-OF-STATE license above—I don’t actually live in New Jersey.)

Cue customer screaming.

I won’t bore you with the subsequent ridiculous discussion regarding potential penalties that could be imposed if I didn’t complete the change-of-title process within ten days of when I’d started it by writing on the back of the title document AS I HAD BEEN INSTRUCTED TO DO. Suffice to say that when I went back after the ten-day period had expired, the penalties were waived and title of the car was finally transferred the estate.

One transaction: two trips, five to six hours of my time, hundreds of miles on my car. So much for the improved customer experience at the DMV.

Sometimes you just have to laugh, though. Presumably to encourage residents to obtain a Real ID as soon as possible, the home page for New Jersey’s DMV website—like the Real ID page on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s website—currently has a digital clock counting down to the deadline for Real ID enforcement. With its eerie resemblance to the countdown clock in some doomsday movie, I’m not sure the DMV website will have the intended motivating effect. All it makes me want to do is hide under the bed, and technically I don’t even need a Real ID yet since I have a U.S. Passport.

Even so, the law is the law, and we should all get a Real ID promptly. If you live in New Jersey, the DMV is rolling out “Real ID Tuesdays” to make more appointments available for residents. But wherever you live, learn from my mistakes and carefully read what documents you need to bring with you. Because as bad as it is to go to the DMV once, having to make a return trip is even worse.