Get your FREE New York City Identification Card for FREE admission at more than 40 top NYC museums, zoos and botanical gardens, shopping discounts, even use the card to check out library books.
The IDNYC card also can be used to help you open a bank account, get into a government building, and more.
The IDNYC card is for New York City residents only - sorry visitors - since it requires proof of residency to get one.
The program was launched in 2015 as a way to give us New Yorkers a way to cut the cost of culture, plus it’s a valid identification card for those who don’t have a driver’s license or other government identification with a photo.
The IDNYC card gives you one year of free admission to top museums including The Guggenheim, the Museum of Modern Art, the New Museum, the Brooklyn Museum and the Studio Museum in Harlem. And you can use the card forever as a library card, and as an ID to open a bank account and other ID needs.
More than one million New Yorkers now carry the IDNYC card, so you are in good company.
If you are not a NYC resident, or if you haven’t applied for an IDNYC card yet, you can visit museums FREE on specific days and times.
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Here’s when and where to visit NYC museums for FREE.
Any NYC resident over 14 can get an IDNYC card, and enrollment is free.
See the complete list of benefits here, including how to apply.
You can apply at any one of dozens of library branches operated by the NYPL. Queens Library or Brooklyn Library systems, at some NYC court houses and hospitals, even at a credit union.
See the entire list here, by borough.
The NYPL branch were I applied was super-efficient. It took five minutes on the phone and 15 minutes at a special section in the library to do the paperwork and have my photo taken.
The laminated card arrives in the mail 10 days to two weeks later, and you can start using it immediately.
Be sure to bring adequate proof of residency - a NY State driver’s license with your address will do it. If you don’t have a driver’s license, a US Passport plus a rent or utility bill to prove your address will work, too.
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