A federal law meant to control the issuance of drivers' licenses has proved so difficult to put into practice that Homeland Security has extended the deadline for states to comply from this Sunday to years down the road.

Foreseeing the complications, Georgia's General Assembly voted last summer to delay enacting the REAL ID Act of 2005, but the Assembly did subscribe to one of its requirements: clearing noncitizens who seek drivers' licenses by finding their name in a national database of legal immigrants and visitors such as students.

That requirement became effective in Georgia on Jan. 1.

But the process of verification has hardly run smoothly. And the problems with the process are adversely affecting the lives of legal noncitizens as they struggle to establish themselves in jobs, at work and in school.

"This is the biggest concern right now this immigrant community is facing," said Kevin Kim, the host of Radio Korea, WPBC AM 1310, adding that every foreign-born community is affected.

According to Georgia's Department of Driver Services, there have been complications — from issues of training license examiners and updating its computer programming here to database problems such as misspellings and a lag time in the entry of the data on the federal level.

"There's no one particular thing," said Susan Sports, spokeswoman for the state Department of Driver Services.

Legal immigrants sometimes require a second or third attempt at clearance with the national Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, database.

The upshot is that many legal residents here are delayed in receiving a new license or renewing an old one in danger of expiring.

At the Department of Driver Services in Norcross, a high-traffic zone for foreign residents, more than 90 customers attempted a third try at verification in March, up from 68 in February and 43 in January, according to Driver Services.

Eighty percent of those entered into the database automatically verify, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which supervises the system. And of those remaining, 96 percent clear in three to five days, said spokeswoman Marie Sebrechts.

But foreign residents here are baffled at a bureaucracy that they say routinely leads to months, not days, of waiting for licenses. They talk of friends and loved ones scrambling to make life work in Atlanta without wheels.

Students rely on friends to drive them to class, parents ask neighbors to shuttle their kids to school, and employees worry about getting to work or taking off.

Vikas Arora, a 34-year-old software engineer who moved here from India four years ago on a work visa, waited more than two months to secure his wife's license. Last week, on the couple's fifth visit to Driver Services in Norcross, they finally received it.

But until then, Arora was stuck during what he called "a crucial time period" at his job. While working on a project for a local company worth $1 billion, he would regularly excuse himself from work to take his son home from preschool. "I don't want to miss out on any opportunity" at work or "get delayed" and miss a meeting, he said.

Once state Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) learned of the situation, he sought to ease the problem with legislation that permits legal residents to receive their licenses with a verbal or e-mail confirmation from Homeland Security to cut down on the delay associated with data entry. But that bill, which awaits the signature of Gov. Sonny Perdue, won't go into effect until Jan. 1, 2009.

In a letter dated March 26 to Perdue and the director of Driver Services, the Korean American Association of Greater Atlanta detailed the community's hardship and argued that as many as half the people with valid visas do not turn up in the federal database.

"Almost everyone relies on his or her driver's license or Department-issued ID card to conduct his or her daily business; e.g., going to banks, writing checks, traveling, picking up children from school early, etc.," the letter stated. "Having a valid Georgia driver's license or ID is especially important for those who are lawfully present but have no additional verifying identification such as a Social Security card — this includes all foreign students and dependents of employment-visa holders."

Homeland Security spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said states are getting millions of dollars to improve their technology, and Washington is working to improve its part in fulfilling the REAL ID Act. However, David Quam, director of federal relations for the National Governors Association, said states have yet to see any money.