The Brief
Real IDs in Minnesota are still backlogged by 90 days.
Neighboring Midwest states take at most 30 days.
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety says it’s looking at options to lower the wait time.
MINNESOTA (FOX 9) - FOX 9 was the first to tell you about Real IDs in Minnesota, taking three months to show up in the mail, due to a backlog.
For comparison, we checked in with neighboring states to see what their process is like. What we found is that no neighboring state’s DMVs take anywhere close to 90 days.
READ MORE: First-time Real IDs backlogged by more than 90 days
Minnesota Real ID wait times vs. neighboring states
By the numbers
In Iowa, it’s about a week's wait to get an appointment to apply for a Real ID, then it takes up to a month to receive it in the mail.
That's a huge difference from the 90-day delay in Minnesota.
Iowa has not yet responded to questions about how many staff members it has processing applications. But in Minnesota, there are only 24 staffers going through real ID applications.
In Wisconsin, they get their new real ID in the mail within 10 business days. The state also serves 80% of their customers within 20 minutes.
Minnesota vs. the Dakotas
What they're saying
In South Dakota, the person taking the paperwork will hand the customer their Real IDs.
It's the same process in North Dakota, and when they got an influx of applications, the thing that changed the most was the wait time to get an appointment.
"April and in May of this year, we did see in our offices did get busier, just because the law, you know, they did come out and say the date is not moving anymore. So we did see some of our wait times, you know, stretch out a little bit," said Brad Schaffer, Director of Driver and Vehicle Service for North Dakota DOT.
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety released a statement that read, in part: "We are currently looking at options within our process that might help lower the queue of waiting applications. One thing we are already doing is offering overtime to our issuing staff."
FOX 9 checked with multiple states to see if they have a backlog. In Washington, it could take up to 60 days to make an appointment, but the Real ID comes in the mail within 7 days.
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