Lois Long and her son Nick spent more than three hours Thursday at the driver license office near the state Fairpark, hoping to get Nick's learners permit renewed, only to be turned away when the office closed at 6 p.m.

Burdened with new legal requirements and a new computer system, driver license staff were unable to process the Longs, inviting them and several dozen other unhappy customers to return another day.

"It's unbelievable. I brought him straight from school to here and I didn't get him in," said Lois Long, who now faces the prospect of having to take Nick out of school Tuesday and return to the office for another long, uncertain wait. "It's really frustrating."

The Longs' case is not an exception. Wait times across the state have skyrocketed since a new law took effect Jan. 1 requiring the division to collect additional proof of citizenship.

In some extreme cases, drivers have waited nearly six hours to get a license. The average wait at the West Valley office clocked in at about 2 hours and 20 minutes, according to official figures for the first six days since the law was implemented.

By contrast, the average wait at the West Valley office last month, before the new requirements took effect, was under 33 minutes.

Catherine Luck spent just under four hours waiting to get a Utah license after moving from Texas -- where she said she only had to wait about an hour.

"I was planning on spending an hour, an hour-and-a-half tops," she said. But staff warned her of the long waits, so she got lunch, then returned and crocheted most of a baby blanket before being one of the last served at the Fairpark office Thursday. "I would've been furious if I'd not gotten in."

The problem stems, in part, from changes made to Utah's driver license requirement that the Legislature made in a broad immigration bill. The law was amended to require residents to provide birth certificates to prove they are legal citizens, as mandated by the federal Real ID Act.

If the state didn't comply with the national law, Utahns faced the prospect of their driver licenses being rejected as identification to board a plane or for other federally regulated activities.

Signs at the driver license offices also warn customers that a new computer system, installed at the first of the year, is causing long delays.

"It's both," said Jeff Nigbur, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety. "Everyone's been talking about the Real ID Act ... but it's a little bit of the new law, it's a little bit of the new technology."

In rural Utah, temporary remote drivers license offices that have operated in Fillmore, Beaver, Loa, Panguitch, Kanab and Nephi have been forced to shut down because they do not have a permanent, secure facility where they can operate. Sen. Dennis Stowell, R-Parowan, says that is an inconvenience to his constituents and questions why the libraries they've operated in don't meet the standards.

Legislators have been hearing from angry constituents about the delays and several pressed Department of Public Safety Commissioner Lance Davenport for details on the implementation of the changes earlier this week.

Rep. Eric Hutchings, R-Kearns, co-chairman of the committee that sets the Driver License Division budget, said the long lines are essentially a tax on people who have to take time off work to stand in them.

"They are paying in real time and real dollars for what, in this case, is a bad government inefficiency," Hutchings said. "If we're going to do it in the State of Utah we need to provide the resources to do it. ... We have the ability to manage it and if it's managed poorly it falls to us. We have to follow through."

Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, said he didn't anticipate the long waits when he sponsored the state's law aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration in 2008, but he said it's a necessary inconvenience.

"Once we wash through this first group this year, it may be a little pain this year, but it's worth it in the long run," he said, pointing to the shooting of Millard County Sheriff's Deputy Josie Greathouse Fox, allegedly by an undocumented immigrant, as an example of the dangers of illegal immigration. "[The shooting] is a perfect example of that. I think it's worth it, I really do, to get it resolved."

Nigbur said the Driver License Division is looking at some measures to try to help manage the waits, including posting on the Web site the average wait at each office, so customers can choose a time and an office that might minimize their delay.

And he said the process appears to be improving.

"It seems like each day that goes by, we're getting better and better," he said. "We've only been doing this for eight days now. We just need to give it time to work it out."