Take everything you need for Real ID with you and stop off at your local DMV.

You can talk to someone in person who should be able to pull up your file and see what's up.

And maybe they can take you back and process your new ID right there.

That's what we did awhile back. Mom's license was expiring and she figured she might as well get a Real ID. I still had a few years left on my license but I grabbed my social security card, passport etc and went with her to the DMV. It was snowing that day so there was only like 2 other people there so it was a short wait.

They called us up, we explained why we were there. He checked to make sure we had everything and then took us back. They copied what they needed to copy, entered what they needed to enter etc... I'm pretty sure I stayed on the testing side but mom might have had to go over to have her photo taken.

Took maybe 30/45min and we were done. They gave us a sheet of paper, that verified mom's expiring ID was being processed. He wasn't sure if my ID needed it since it still had a few years left but gave me one to, just in case.

A week or so later our new IDs showed up in the mail.

I was curious how the expiration date would be on mine since I got it on mom's birthday rather than mine ... But they just added 4 years to it, as if I had gone in at a normal time... So instead of expiring this year on my birthday it expired in '26 on my birthday ...

[I should try to renew my passport early hopefully they do similar with that since I somehow managed to get one that expires on 4 July. Thought that was fitting for a US passport]