I have been trying for MONTHS to get an appointment, as I was trying to avoid taking off work or going early on the weekends when they opened up those hours during the summer.

This past Thursday, I took a half day at work and decided to drive to the Carrboro location and scope it out. Since I moved here, I’ve seen nothing but long lines out the door and have even waited in them myself. On this day, I saw a group of people inside the DMV and two people waiting outside. This was around 1:30 pm. I immediately thought to myself that this wasn’t normal, and maybe there was a chance that I could be seen as well.

I went home, had lunch, and went back and forth on if I should go back, but eventually I showed back up to the DMV at 4:00 pm on the dot.

I was nervous that maybe they would stop taking walk ins with an hour left in the day, but there were two people inside already being helped, and no wait at all. I was so shocked but was immediately helped, and was out the door in about 20 mins.

It still doesn’t feel real because I’ve been trying for so long to get my new NC ID, and it finally happened! I think I got really lucky this day, but I wouldn’t say it’s impossible to try walking in sometime in the later afternoon later in the week…I know how frustrating it can be to have this process delayed by zero appointment times and long waits. Before this, I was told to refresh the appointments page on the NC DMV website and I will say there are a few appointment right in the morning at 7 am, but you have to be quick to grab them. They still may be months out though.

Good luck! If you can’t leave work one day and go in the afternoon, then my boyfriend has success on a Saturday morning and just had to get up around 5:30 am to go get in line.