SAINT PAUL, Minnesota — Drivers license offices around the state are packed as people line up to apply for a Real ID by the October 1st deadline.
Michael Murphy of Hugo was one of them three months ago.
"We moved, so I had to update my license," Murphy said. "They took my picture, gave me the paper and said you'll get a Real ID in 6-8 weeks."
Except, instead of a Real ID in the mail six weeks later, he received a letter from the state.
"Telling me I needed one more piece of information, that I had already supplied to them," Murphy said, who added he was a little confused, because he was certain he already supplied the correct documents.
Murphy knew he'd supplied all the necessary paperwork, because he applied with his wife, who did receive her new ID.
He went back to the driver's license office and learned there was an apparent problem with the state office reading the scanned documents.
So he gave them another document. And two weeks later he received another identical letter from the state.
"The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing, it seems like. And that's really frustrating," Murphy said.
In a statement - a DVS spokesperson says there have been some problems with scanned documents not attaching to applications.
"In some cases, the scanned documents aren’t 'attached' to the application when it arrives at DVS. In other cases, the documents were not properly scanned, or not submitted at all. To address this, DVS has assigned staff to review these applications to see if there was a scanning error or if the documents were never received. If it was a scanning error, the application and the documents are matched and the application is processed."
"If the documents aren’t scanned properly or weren’t submitted, DVS notifies the customer by letter and asks them to return to a driver’s license agent office or exam station to submit the required documents and complete their application. That application is then placed at the top of the queue to be processed," the statement said.
Murphy hopes his Real ID will come before his temporary paperwork expires at the end of the month. And he hopes the state irons out these problems -- before they lead to even more critical delays.
"The backlog is going to be amazing when it comes October 1st when it needs to be done," Murphy said.