Title: Renew Driver's License and Real ID in California, CA

Preparation: About 4 months ago I have received a mail from DMV (Department of Motor Vehicle) that notifies me to renew my driver's license or Real ID which will be needed to board an airplane or access some federate facilities beginning Oct 1, 2020. DMV address in Fremont CA: Department of Motor Vehicles 4287 Central Ave. FREMONT, CA 94536 I summarized the steps to renew Driver's License/Real ID. It was my first time to apply the real ID. 1. When you received the mail, go online to make an appointment, typically more than 3 to 4 months in advance for the real appointment date. Mine was the end of Feb. 2. Print out the application that has the code that will be needed when you go to the front desk of DMV. 3. It would be good to print out the confirmation number in the email after you make an online appointment. 4. On the appointment day, go there earlier, 20 minutes earlier at least because it may take you quite a while to park your car. 5. When it is the appointment time, the front desk staff will call you when you are standing in the appointment line. Once the front staff calls you, they will ask you to show the online appointment information, including the code on the paper, social security card showing your SSN, and two residential address letters. 6. After the verification, the front desk gives you a window number and then you can sit down in the seating area and wait until your window number is called; 7. Required documents for Driver's license and Real ID renew: a. Passport or permanent resident card (Green Card); b. Social Security Card; c. Online Application printout; d. Two mails that show your residential address 8. When you are called by the window, go there, again they will verify your passport or Green card, two mails' 1st page which shows your name and your address. a. You need to pay $37 either in the debit card or check; b. do vision tests for both your left eye and right eye. c. You also need to put your thumb into a surface of a device and wait for a couple of seconds, until it does not have blue lights on anymore thus they get your thumb fingerprint; d.Then go to the Camera line and take a picture. You need to put your thumb to the surface of a device to get your thumb fingerprint to the system again; e. they will give you the temporary Driver's license. So you do not need to worry about your previous Driver's License expired. f. Within 2 - 4 weeks, you will receive your ID. Actually I have received my ID in 12 days. I did not find these explicit documents requirements on the DMV website. The whole process takes about 2 hours.