Getting a driver’s license in this state requires jumping through more hoops than a circus poodle.
I need a social security card, and either a birth certificate with raised seal, or a current U.S. passport. Plus, I need two forms of proof of residency, such as a utility bill, and a tax record.
Fine on the utilities and tax bill. I received my school tax bill right before the holiday weekend. Those are not sent to anyone who doesn’t own property here.
I lost my SS card years ago, so I had to apply for a replacement in person today. Easy enough. It’ll take 10-14 days to arrive in the mail, but I got an authorized letter from the clerk that I can use in the meantime for the DMV.
That’s one step toward my goal. Step two requires obtaining my original birth certificate or a new passport. I have my old U.S. passport, but it expired. As long as I could get into Canada with a photo driver’s license, it wasn’t an issue. That’s no longer the case. As far as my birth certificate goes, all I have is a copy. Therefore, neither of those documents will suffice for the DMV.
I can renew my passport by mail, but even paying expedited fees, plus overnight shipping both ways, it’ll take 2-3 weeks to obtain. My alternative is to make an appointment at the office in Philly, and pretend I’ll be traveling abroad within 14 days. I need a renewed passport, not to travel internationally, but to get my DL in this state, and time is running out rather quickly.
I understand the concept of preventing illegal aliens from obtaining a state DL here (and agree with it), but switching mine, as a born U.S. citizen, over from one state to another is proving to be rather difficult. It takes a lot more time for the paperwork to go through than it really should, especially since most of it’s electronic nowadays.
So, yeah, I’m having a bad day. It happens to all of us every so often.
The good news is that I found a wheat leaf penny in the back pocket of the 30+ year old jeans I chose to wear today to visit the SSA office. Bonus!
I’m done bitching.
Administrative problems are always the bitch, aren’t they?
Hey look on the bright side, when I had to get my ID card here in Italy, they told me it might take 2-3 month for the card to arrive. 1 1/2 years later, the card arrived. All that time before, I was using a piece of paper that said it was only valid for thirty days. Sad, isn’t it?
By comparison, the month I waited for a new Texas DL in ‘05 doesn’t seem so bad.
I don’t remember what the paperwork was like in England. I was in high school at the time. There was something about having to renew paperwork every year, sort of like how immigrants here have to renew green cards and work visas, but I think my dad’s employer took care of that for all of us.
The SSA accepted my current out-of-state photo driver’s license for ID, but the clerk did ask when I was going to get it switched. Apparently, they’re used to people in my situation, who need the card for the DMV.
Why the others ahead of me at the SSA hadn’t already printed out and filled in their paperwork before they got to the window is a mystery to me. Don’t even go near a government office, if you haven’t already done that. All it does is waste everybody’s time.
I do recall that NJ wanted my SS# on the application form, but didn’t require seeing the actual card itself. My passport hadn’t expired, although I think it would have been acceptable, even if it had. I wouldn’t have been able to get one if the feds weren’t convinced I’m a citizen, right? Plus, other than having a few more gray hairs in my bangs, I look the same as I did when it was issued.
NJ didn’t require an eye test, except for when I applied for a learner’s permit. This state will require one, even for switching over a valid out-of-state license. Passing that should be a breeze, as long as I thoroughly clean the protein deposits off my contacts beforehand. Otherwise, it’s a crapshoot.
At least there’s a DMV office right here in town. I’ll probably need the GPS to find it, but it shouldn’t be as bad as finding that SSA office in some town I’d never even heard of. I was driving down hilly, curving country roads, and once I got more than five miles from home, I couldn’t have even told you what town I was in, unless I passed a police or fire station.
I did discover that, oddly enough, the traffic right smack dab through the center of Newtown was a lot lighter than that on the bypass. Go figure. Maybe it was the time of day when I was coming home from the SSA office, vs. going there. Around here, if I’m not on Swamp, Easton, York, or Durham Rd., I’m basically lost w/o the GPS. I know the northern half of the county pretty well, but points south of here are a mystery to me.
I’ve no idea why the GPS sent me home a different way than it used to get me there, but on a “shortest travel time” setting, it was very accurate in its drive time estimate, both ways, as far as I could tell. It took a little over half an hour, each way, as opposed to the “shortest distance,” which would have theoretically taken three times as long, timewise. In the good old days, I would have just printed out a map and directions from Rand McNally, and hoped for the best. Probably would have gotten stuck in traffic, too.
All this . . . for a driver’s license. Seriously.