Comments | expats: Stupid DMV...

miastarrx in expats

Stupid DMV...

Apr 20, 2004 17:10

OK, here is my extrapolated little circumstance - I am trying to get a California driver's license and the DMV here are really stupid. That's the short version. I'm hoping that perhaps a foreign national who got their California license can tell me what the procedure was, because the DMV can't seem to get their story straight ( Read more... )

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major_beefcake April 21 2004, 06:55:01 UTC

Only advantage of getting a US license that I am aware of:
When you get your insurance your rate should drop when you have a US license and on renewal they will ask when you first obtained your US license.

Also you can only officially drive on your non-US license for one year.

An intangible advantage is that you will avoid the look that people give (like you are a green skinned alien) when you hand them *any* other form of ID when attempting to purchase alcohol or get into anywhere with an age restriction. Funny I had one person demand to see my drivers license when I tried to cash a travellers cheque...so I gave them my UK one which has no picture (it's a piece of paper) and the look on their face. They made some smart arsed reply about what was that "It's my drivers license what you asked for. Do you think I'd be cashing a travellers cheque if I was American?"

britgeekgrrl April 21 2004, 08:52:39 UTC

An intangible advantage is that you will avoid the look that people give (like you are a green skinned alien) when you hand them *any* other form of ID when attempting to purchase alcohol or get into anywhere with an age restriction.Ooooh! That drove me up a wall ( ... )

major_beefcake April 21 2004, 10:30:22 UTC

>I have a green card. It's a federally issued government ID, with my picture and DOB on it.

Same here and Busch Gardens decided they couldn't accept my drivers license because it had a slight delamination on it (the fact that I was 32 at the time didn't cross their minds). Then they had to discuss whether they could accept my Green Card!

On the Federally issues subject...I previously worked for the US Navy, but my ID badge from that job wasn't sufficient to prove who I was for the purposes of green card finger printing! It had my photo on it and "Department of Navy/DoD" on it! Now my drivers license, that was OK!

>What really got my goat was that I was *assured* (ha!) by the INS that the green card is the equivalent of a military ID or passport for ID

Yeah right! Only if the person has seen one before! I had a roomate who was from Ireland (EIRE) and didn't drive - he got harassed by the cops because they couldn't believe he didn't have any ID on him.

Oh yeah and on your person 24h/day. In my wallet!

britgeekgrrl April 21 2004, 10:32:50 UTC

Oh yeah and on your person 24h/day. In my wallet!

Me too, which makes the possibility of losing my wallet even more horrific. I lost it once and the process of just trying to get the forms for a new green card was bad enough! Fortunately, the wallet was returned intact, so I didn't have to go through the actual replacement process. *shudder*

nellwyn April 21 2004, 13:31:04 UTC

A friend of ours returned from an trip outside the US and on the way home wanted to get some cash out of the bank using the drive-through service. He didn't have his driver's license on him and they would not accept his US passport as a form of identification that he was who he said he was.

miastarrx April 21 2004, 18:57:56 UTC

That is insane!

kitty_kate April 21 2004, 14:01:01 UTC

When we got naturalized we immediatly sent our citizenship papers off for passports. And I mean immediately. I had it for all of 30 sec before an assisstant stuffed it in an envelope ( ... )

kitty_kate April 21 2004, 14:05:34 UTC

Oh! I forgot my favorite!

To get a green card you need a birth certificate. Well Canadian birth certificates are laminated cards just bigger than a credit card.

They wouldn't accept it. Said they needed the origanal. We pointed out it /was/ the origanal. They still refuse.

Eventually we had to go to the hospital and ask for a copy. The hospital pointed out we had one. Yes, we know but they won't accept that. So the hospital could only give us a copy of the Microfesh record they had.

So the idiots wouldn't take the offical document but they'd take a hospital photo copy?!?!?!?

miastarrx April 21 2004, 18:56:24 UTC

Oh man! The other other week in Raley's I was SO MAD... I'm in the check out with a bottle of wine and the bitch checking me out knows me, knows I'm a regular customer and even knows a few bits of personal info about me. I'd been coming in there for over a year! She checks my ID and I hand her my Australian license. I'm 25! She runs off to the manager and they talk animatedly for a minute and come back together. The manager goes off on this rant about how they really shouldn't accept the id, but they will "this time" and how I can't have "out of state" id... Then he tells me I couldn't go to a bar or buy a drink anywhere in Sac using that! Acting all high and mighty like he's doing me the biggest favour in the world and I'm just this dumb Aussie check fresh off the boat or something... Oh whatever ( ... )

britgeekgrrl April 21 2004, 19:22:27 UTC

My theory is that every now and then, the grocery store employees get lectured about taking anything but CA ID/drivers' license, and how they'll get in BIG TROUBLE if they accept anything else, and so they get all fascist about it for a few weeks, then chill.

That's my theory at least.

You know what really makes me laugh? "Oh, it's state law, we can't accept anything but CA ID or license" - which makes me laugh up a lung but only *after* I point out that it's a sad and desperate lie on their part. Go ahead, tell me it's "law" to only take those form of ID, and then have fun trying to stop my husband from using his military ID, right behind me in the line... ;)

miastarrx April 21 2004, 22:44:21 UTC

Personally, I just think the check out chick was just being a bitch. She looked happy when she stomped over to tell the manager about my "out-of-state" id, and then she looked like she was sucking a lemon when she had to sell me the bottle of wine anyway.

ex_ladyvox549 May 9 2004, 11:29:42 UTC

>Funny I had one person demand to see my drivers license when I tried to cash a travellers cheque...so I gave them my UK one which has no picture (it's a piece of paper) and the look on their face.Ha, I hear you!:) I sometimes get really tired of them looking funny at my passport while asking for an ID.. so once when I was trying to buy some alcohol at the Publix I just decided to give them what they asked for: my drivers licence. The Dutch drivers licence does have a picture on it, but is a long, folded in 3 parts, PINK piece of floppy paper. I think I know what kind of look they had on their face when you showed them your drivers licence! *laughs* After the girl had scratched her head and told me that wasn't a drivers licence or that at least she couldn't take it as proper ID, I presented her my passport.. just to confuse her even more. She excused herself and went to the back of the store to ask the manager whether a passport was a proper and valid ID.. Geesh, I was about to go crazy from laughing. Silly Americans sometimes *smiles ( ... )

major_beefcake May 10 2004, 07:37:37 UTC

Oh the other thing I have done is when they have asked me for my social I gave them my English National Insurance number (pretty much the same as a social) and it's of the form
XX ## ## ## X
Letters in a SSN? Not enough characters! OMG. Hello? I'm not American!

I still pull little stunts like that every now and then. Usually when the person is being a jerk and then I become all "high and mighty" Brit and rip them a new arse hole :)

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