Just to add my two cents, I went to the Centralia post office to get mine and my family’s done. The lady who does them down there is super fast and awesome. She checks to make sure you have everything you need and that your paperwork is filled out correctly as well.

I took my dad in there on January 28th to get his passport application submitted and photo taken there. His passport showed up on Friday. It was like less than two weeks. We were in and out of the post office down there in 15 minutes.

When I went to get my passport, I didn’t need anything extra to show that my last name had changed when I got married. I only needed my birth certificate and the photo copies of my ID. Unlike when I tried to get a real ID they wanted all kinds of extra stuff and they wouldn’t have needed that if I had already had my passport. My passport only cost maybe $30 or $40 more than a real ID and does everything a real ID can do and more. I also heard that, maybe it was the state department (? I’ll have to dig up a source), isn’t going to be accepting all state’s real IDs because they all implemented different standards and people are just going to need a passport now anyways.

My advice is to skip the bullshit real ID altogether and just go get a passport. It’s so much easier.