California REAL ID nonsense

NJ is slow to implement Real ID. They were bragging its coming summer of 2019. I had to renew my license at the end of September, still no Real ID. It’s now slowly rolling out, but they want a $15 fee to upgrade to Real ID. It’s very insulting, the fee on top of making a return trip. I’ll use my passport till I need to renew it again. And NJ changed to rules for expiring licenses. Now it expires on your birthday. Well my birthday is in April, so this license is only good for 3 and a half years, yet they charge the same as 4 years. Going forward it will be every 4 years.

The MVC has improved in NJ since they privatized it.

 

Yeah, I shouldn't have let my passport expire. I don't plan on traveling abroad any time soon, since my fiance has DACA and can't leave the country (well, she can...but they won't let her back in). This REAL ID thing would have been easier if I had just renewed my passport. Now if I want to get a new one, I'll need...yep, my birth certificate. Oh well...just 4-6 weeks to wait!

 

Ick. I worry about this as well. Mine is due in May and I am not from Cali. I have an active passport, but the birth certificate I have from my home state is literally what I got from them over 20 years ago when I was thinking of marrying my husband. It's a tiny piece of paper with a seal on it but no real details and has my maiden name. I have no idea where our marriage certificate is, because after we legally changed my name - who knew I would need it again???
I was told I would only need my current DL and my passport, but I'm hearing from multiple sources, this isn't correct. Meh.
I guess I'll just start getting all my ducks in a row now.

 

Have people heard of bank safe-deposit boxes for important documents and records? It’s not a hard concept to keep your shit safe and available?

 

Now now. The old sock and panty drawer works just as well. We got a safe deposit box a few years ago. It was at this time I couldn’t find my birth certificate. But it wouldn’t have mattered- it wasn’t a state official one.

 

I've read too many horror stories about bank deposit boxes. Plus they have all sorts of stupid rules about what you're allowed to keep in there. My bank offers one to me for free, but I don't use it. Have the documents handy wasn't my issue in this case...the issue was incomplete instructions / untrained clerk.

I've been looking into getting a safe to keep things in, but good ones are expensive and incredibly heavy. Not sure how I'd be able to get a 300-400 lb. safe into my place and up some stairs. Of course, that's part of the appeal...if I can barely get it in, it must be an even bigger pain to try and remove (once I've bolted it down).