HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) – If you’ve already gone through the process of getting a gold star on your driver’s license, you’re ahead of roughly half of Oahu motorists.

The city is continuing to remind Hawaii residents of the REAL ID changes that will require the gold star verification on cards in order to travel.

“We don’t want residents to panic,” said Sheri Kajiwara, director of the city’s Department of Customer Services. “But if residents choose to use a Hawaii driver license or identification card to board a commercial flight or gain access to secure federal facilities, including military bases, now is the time to act.”

The deadline to have the new card is less than a year away: Oct. 1, 2020.

City officials say nearly half of the residents have gotten the updated driver’s licenses cards. For state IDs, the city said of the 265,765 issued, only 54,857 are REAL ID verified.

To make an appointment or for more information, click here.

The city urges folks not to procrastinate on scheduling an appointment. Appointments are booked over a month in advance.

You could avoid the lines if your documents are on file with City Hall. You can click here if you renewed or got a license between May 1, 2014 and Jan. 31, 2018 but were not issued a gold star.