California REAL ID Application

This file is the source-review record for this document version, per the manual-source-review-v1 practice.

Current claim

• status: draft
• verification.method: manual-source-review-v1
• verification.lastVerifiedAt: 2026-07-02

The document was derived from the official dmv.ca.gov REAL ID pages listed below. It remains draft, not verified.

Sources examined

• Document (id, version): us/ca/dmv/real-id-application / 1.0.0
• Spec version: GovSchema 0.3.0
• Authority: California Department of Motor Vehicles ("CA DMV").
• REAL ID landing page: https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/driver-licenses-identification-cards/real-id/ — fetched live as raw HTML, 2026-07-02 (HTTP 200, no block). Supplied the overall online-then-office-visit flow shape ("Complete the application online and upload your documents" → "Bring the original documents submitted online to your REAL ID appointment" → "Visit a DMV office").
• "What Is REAL ID?" page: https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/what-is-real-id/ — fetched live as raw HTML, 2026-07-02. Supplied the AB 60 ineligibility rule, the Social Security number requirement (with its unspecified "exceptions may apply" caveat), the high-level ONE-identity/TWO-residency document summary, and links to the checklist and online application.
• "REAL ID Checklist" interactive tool: https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/driver-licenses-identification-cards/real-id/real-id-checklist/ — fetched live as raw HTML, 2026-07-02. This is the richest source: a client-rendered, multi-step wizard whose static HTML/text still carried every question's exact wording, all 12 identity-document options, the name-change sub-flow (up to 5 numbered changes, each with a reason drop-down), the 21 residency-document options, the P.O. Box rule, and the minor/tracing-document rules (out of scope for this v1.0.0 adult-applicant schema).
• "Driver's License / ID Card Application" (online eDL 44) page: https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/driver-licenses-identification-cards/dl-id-online-app-edl-44/ — fetched live as raw HTML, 2026-07-02. Confirmed the online application is a single, login-gated (DMV online account, two-factor authentication) form shared across renewal/new-issuance/REAL-ID-conversion, collects "name, address, and date of birth" plus SSN, and is completed at a DMV field office (signature, testing, photo). The live authenticated screens themselves were not reachable pre-login — same constraint as every other authenticated-portal schema in this registry (e.g. gb/ukvi/standard-visitor-visa, us/cbp/esta-application) — so fields are reconstructed from the checklist tool's prose/questions, not a direct screen read.
• Field extraction method: raw HTML fetch + tag-stripped plain-text extraction (curl, not a summarized WebFetch), so exact bullet-list and question wording is directly quotable — the same gov-source-fidelity-verification discipline used throughout this registry.
• Retrieved / reviewed: 2026-07-02.
• Reviewer: GovSchema Engineering (Standards Engineer — initial authoring source review).

What was confirmed against the source

| Source element | Field(s) / documents[] entry | |---|---| | "Individuals applying for or renewing an AB 60 driver's license are not eligible to receive a REAL ID..." | isAB60LicenseHolder | | "basic information such as name, address, and date of birth" | fullLastName, fullFirstName, fullMiddleName, dateOfBirth | | "You will be asked to provide your Social Security number on your REAL ID application (exceptions may apply)" | socialSecurityNumber (see honesty flag below) | | "the same mailing address that is listed on your REAL ID application" | residenceAddressLine1, residenceAddressLine2, residenceAddressCity, residenceAddressPostalCode | | "Proof of Identity ... Check mark the document below that you'll use as your proof of identity." (12 options) | identityDocumentType, documents[].identityDocument | | "Does your current full name match what is on your identity document?" | fullNameMatchesIdentityDocument | | "Does your valid passport contain your current full name?" | passportContainsCurrentFullName (see honesty flag below) | | "How many times have you changed your full name? ... Please enter a number from 1 to 5." | howManyNameChanges | | "First Full Name Change: Full name at birth: / I changed my full name to: / Reason for name change:" | nameAtBirth, changedFullNameTo, nameChangeReason | | "Ensure you bring at least one of the following to document each legal name change." | documents[].nameChangeDocument | | "Use a P.O. Box? One document MUST show both your P.O. Box and physical (residence) address..." | usesPoBoxForMailingAddress | | "Two Proofs of Residency ... Check mark the TWO different documents below..." (21 options) | residencyDocumentType1, residencyDocumentType2, documents[].residencyDocument1, documents[].residencyDocument2 |

Honesty flags (deliberate, recorded rather than glossed over)

• Social Security number exception not modelled. The "What Is REAL ID?" page states an applicant "will be asked to provide your Social Security number on your REAL ID application (exceptions may apply)" but never names the exception (California DMV literature elsewhere references limited cases such as certain non-immigrant visa holders, but that was not independently confirmed on any page fetched this cycle). socialSecurityNumber is modelled as required: true with no conditional exception field, rather than guessing an unsourced gate — the same discipline as sg/ica/passport-application's unmodelled edge cases.
• passportContainsCurrentFullName's trigger condition is ambiguous. The REAL ID Checklist is a client-rendered wizard; a static HTML/text fetch captures every question's wording but not the JavaScript that decides exactly when a follow-up question is shown. In the extracted text, "Does your valid passport contain your current full name?" appears directly after "Does your current full name match what is on your identity document?", suggesting it may only be shown when the selected identityDocumentType is a passport and the name does not match — but that could not be confirmed without exercising the live wizard's client-side logic. Modelled conservatively as visibleWhen: fullNameMatchesIdentityDocument == false, not gated on identityDocumentType, and flagged here rather than guessed silently.
• Only the first name change is modelled (GSP-0009 exclusion). The checklist tool supports up to 5 separate name changes, each with its own "changed to" / "reason" pair (and, for the first only, a "full name at birth" field). GovSchema v0.3 has no repeating-field/array construct (GSP-0009 is still Proposed, not accepted). howManyNameChanges records the count for context; nameAtBirth/changedFullNameTo/nameChangeReason model only the first change. An applicant with 2–5 name changes is out of scope for v1.0.0 — the same exclusion discipline au/ato/individual-tax-return-mytax used for concurrent employers/health-insurance policies.
• Two-different-documents rule recorded in prose only. residencyDocumentType1 and residencyDocumentType2 share one enum and must hold different values per the source ("TWO DIFFERENT printed documents"), but GovSchema v0.3's crossFieldValidation (§8.3, [GSP-0013]) only supports equals/notEquals/ ordering comparisons between two named fields via compare, which would express this — a deliberate simplification for v1.0.0 was made to keep the schema close to the NY/CA renewal precedent of prose-recorded cross-field rules; a future revision could add a crossFieldValidation entry comparing the two fields with operator: notEquals instead.
• Name-change tracing documents for minors, and the "name does not appear on any residency document" tracing-relationship path, are out of scope. The checklist describes both (a minor tracing a parent's residency document via Form SOC 154/154A/156; an adult tracing via a birth certificate/marriage license/domestic-partnership certificate when their own name is absent from every residency document). Neither is modelled in v1.0.0 — this schema assumes the applicant's own name appears on both residency documents, narrowing scope the same way ca/on/mto/drivers-licence-renewal narrowed around its own eligibility gates.
• The source's "Second Residency FAQs" page was not fetched. Linked from "What Is REAL ID?" as a distinct edge-case explainer (/real-id/what-is-real-id/second-residency-faqs/); out of scope for v1.0.0, which assumes a single California residence.
• No documents[] attestation entry. No exact sign-off/certification statement text for the REAL ID application itself was found on any fetched page (the online eDL 44 FAQ says only "You will sign the form once you visit a DMV field office and complete the process with a DMV employee," no verbatim text) — same discipline as de/bmi/passport-application's guardianConsentDocument gap.
• In-office steps out of scope. This schema models only the fields the DMV's own guidance describes as collectible online/ahead of the office visit (identity, address, document checklist). The vision/written test, photo, signature, biometrics, and fee payment that occur at the DMV field office are out of scope for v1.0.0, the same scope line drawn by every DMV schema in this registry whose process concludes with an in-person office visit.

Relationship to us/ca/dmv/drivers-license-renewal

That schema (already published) models an existing licence-holder's renewal-method branch and carries a single boolean gate, upgradingToRealId, that forces renewalMethod: in_person — it does not expand what a REAL ID application itself collects. This schema is the sibling that models that expansion for a first-time REAL ID applicant/converter. A future revision could cross-reference the two more tightly (e.g. a shared identity-document sub-schema) once GSP-0009's composite/repeating-value work lands.

Conformance

See conformance/us/ca/dmv/real-id-application/1.0.0/ for a mock, non-submitted application packet exercising the eligible path with one documented name change.