Can I just use my passport or passport card for travel instead of getting a new DL?
Yes you can use your passport for travel instead of the DL.
@chardonMN that is my understanding. I haven’t gotten a real ID yet as I know the DMV has been packed and it takes months to even get an appointment. I’m not sure how I’m going to provide all the documentation since my bills don’t come to my home address.
When I got married, I did get a new SS card. I guess I didn’t look very carefully…but my first name was spelled wrong. Let’s just say…I know how to spell my name. Some data entry personal SS decided to freelance.
She I applied for SS 32 years later, this was questioned. I provided documentation of the correct spelling.
I have a letter from SS that lists all my “alias” names. Maiden name, first marriage name, second marriage name spelled wrong and second marriage name spelled right. SS did not send me a corrected SS card!
You can use your passport card only to cross into Canada or Mexico (and back) by land. It is insufficient for international air travel. You can use your passport for everything.
OP, I suggest you get your Real ID in the name that matches your license. Then when your passport is up for renewal, do a name change so everything matches.
Off topic (slightly ) I plan on renewing my DL next month to get the Real ID. In the meantime, I understand it may be linked to your health and vaccination records? I don’t get the flu vaccine - could that keep me from traveling?
Yes, you can always use a passport for travel. My brother doesn’t have a DL and just uses his passport.
Most use their DL from their parents’ residence. You can, however, send yourself a first class letter and use that. My daughter needed to change her address on the license (same state) when she was in college. There was a form she signed (almost like a homeless statement) that she had no mail to that address (just a bunch of ads and fliers) and it was Florida with Real ID. Not a problem. All her bank statements were electronic or still came to my address.
I used to do name changes in court. Most often it was someone post divorce changing back to a maiden name but really there were all kinds of situations,like. changing a spelling that had always been used but when the person went to get a passport the passport could only be issued in the birth certificate name. Simply going from Greg to Gregg required the court order. At that time, before 9/11, all that was required was paying the filing fee (about $25), running it in the legal newspaper for 2-3 weeks, and then coming to court to tell me that you weren’t changing the name to avoid creditor, to get out of a criminal matter, or to defraud anyone. I’d sign the order and then you had to go change other documents like a DL, SSN, passport.
I recommend you have ONE name and stick to that. If you can get the passport in that name, the other agencies will take that (SSN, DL, medical card) and make changes.
Now I believe you also have to get a police clearance from a local or state agency as part of the court petition.
I’ve always used my married last name, but didn’t want to lose my maiden name on marriage, so my after-marriage SS card has 4 names listed (First, Middle Initial, Maiden, Married) with no hyphens. Marriage license doesn’t say what my new name is. It just states both our original names. For me, once married, I simply had two middle names, and a new (single) last name.
After many years, the IRS had an issue. They wanted all tax or bank documents to match my SS card exactly. That was fine. I still used single last name, and double middle names.
When I applied for a passport, they placed my second middle name as a joint last name (Maiden Married) with no hyphen. I didn’t really care. It wasn’t a problem, although it didn’t match my state driver’s license.
When I renewed my DL(before all this Real ID fiasco), I convinced the BMV, after much pressure, and showing all my paperwork, to change my middle name on the DL to my Maiden name, so at least both have my first, middle (now maiden), and last name, although in different “slots”. They wouldn’t change my last name to match my passport. I don’t think their computers allowed a dual last name.
Flying was tricky, but I just made sure all tickets matched my passport. I tested using my DL several times for TSA, and it was no problem. Always kept my passport handy though, just in case.
It is now becoming more of a problem. Old accounts and formal documents have my single last name and two middle names. Medicare would only allow me to apply using a dual last name to evidently match other government records. Old SS summaries have all 4 names, but don’t say what is middle and what is last. Passport uses a dual last name.
We’ll see what happens at my next Real ID renewal.
I’ve suggested my daughter never change her name if she marries.
When we moved to California almost 2 years ago we got a real ID when we got our new DL.
H and I both hyphenated our names when we got married. I had the marriage license to prove my name change. I was asked for it by the clerk at the DMV. H went to the next window over when he was handing his paperwork over. He sailed through without it while the clerk was still questioning me about the marriage license. I asked my clerk why she was still questioning me and my H sailed through? She said cuz he’s a man. I said he still changed his name to something different than his birth certificate, why don’t the rules apply to men? I had more proof of names then he had and he passed and I didn’t?
She talked with the other clerk and passed me. The other clerk called my H back and made him show her the marriage license.
I just recently flew with my passport card. Domestic flight. No questions asked.
My DL is up for renewal in the summer. I have no desire to pay the fees until I have to. Will probably have to battle with the DMV about one letter my middle name… sigh. What a PITA. SS card, passport, and pretty much everything else got that letter right.
Forget RealID and biometrics. Someday, we all will be microchipped like cats and dogs.
I am guessing you have this issue because your social says Sally Mary Jones? When i updated my social, i asked them to use Sally Smith Jones and all my documents going forward say the same. ?guessing?
My wife only goes by “Connie”. Don’t you dare call her “Constance” which was only on her birth certificate and original ss card. All state licenses and passports said, “Connie”. But when we got to North Carolina 11 years ago (obviously long before real ID) they would not issue her a license because the name on her passport and old New Jersey license (Connie) did not match her ss card (Constance). She had to legally change her name to “Connie” and go to the Social Security office and get a new card that said “Connie”
And an aside, while at the Social Security office I asked about my name, because I was born WITH NO MIDDLE NAME!! My birth certificate says, “John Doe” which really bugged me because I was the only person I knew with no middle name and to make things worse, such a common name with no middle name. So at about 8 years old I just started using HAROLD as a middle name, and became “John HAROLD Doe”. Back in those days passports for children were obtained by parents signature, so my passport says “John HAROLD Doe”. I never had my name changed legally. Only my birth certificate has no middle name. When I asked about this at the Social Security office they told me they don’t care about middle names, only first and last. So now even my SS card has my middle name. Never legally added. Names changed to protect the guilty!
Really fascinating how many of us in this security obsessed world are walking around with names we were not born with on so many documents!
My oldest son is a Jr. and has always been called a nickname of his middle name – my agreement with H that he could be a Jr was based on him being called that nickname. Luckily for him at least the nickname starts with the same letter as his middle name but he’s finding out he has to be careful with when to use the legal name and when his name. And the Jr. and Sr. with my H also is a mess sometimes.
My father in law didn’t have a middle name and during World War II draft registration he was told he had to have one so he took his wife’s maiden name, which was a man’s name, as his middle name.
This is what I’d ideally like to do if the passport agency will let me. We shall see.
My D wants to change her last name, to hyphenate both her parents’ last name. I dread it.
I got my Rela ID and they extended my driver’s license until 2027!
Jimmy Carter had to use his ‘real’ name on several ballots. Some people didn’t know who James Earl Carter was.
I brought this up last night with my sister who married (and took his name) two years ago and has changed her things on some things, but not on others. She and her dual-citizen husband travel with their dual-citizen child all the time and they just bring passports, even when traveling around the US. She’s not bothering with real ID.
I’m so glad Mr R and I never changed our names. They handed us a sheet about changing your name when we got our marriage license and it was a headache just trying to read it let alone doing it!
My mother not only had no middle name but she had no first name! Her original birth certificate said “Girl Smith” because she still was unnamed when she left the hospital.
She was never given a middle name.
Speaking of middle names, S23’s middle name is my father’s first name, which is a very long, uncommon name, but a name most people have heard. My father has always gone by a shortened version, but my son’s middle name is the long version. He was at drivers ed one day last year and had to fill out paperwork that was being sent to the MVA for his official file for his license. That night at dinner, he was panicking that he spelled it wrong. He had no idea how to spell it and guessed. I had to write it down for him so he could take it to the instructor to make sure he could check and change it if necessary. Dh and I had a good laugh about that - 16 years old and he couldn’t spell his middle name!
Harry Truman had no middle name. That’s why you will usually find his name written as “Harry S Truman” (no period) since the S doesn’t stand for anything.
I got a Real ID today (well, applied for one - they send it in the mail). The DMV clerk changed my driver’s license name (middle initial only) to my full passport name (with middle name - I ditched my maiden name when I got married). She also fixed my eye color on my driver’s license, which has been wrong for 20 years.
Yes, but you may not want to have to carry your passport for domestic travel or to enter a federal building.