DMV, Homeland Security, and my lost Drivers License

[BTDretire]

 I used my DL for ID at the bank Tuesday, left the bank with several papers and my license.
I later discovered my license was missing. My wife checked at the bank on Wednesday, I checked on Thursday, I went through the parking lot and landscaping. I have checked the car twice and all through the paperwork. I have lost my DL.
  I went to the DMV to get a replacement license. Ah, only 3 people ahead of me good timing for me. At the counter I give him my SS # and he pulls up my DL, Oh, your not gold star rated!
Huh? What's that? In 2010 we sent out mail that you needed to renew with certain documents.
 He gives me a sheet with the requirements. I leave telling him, "those fucking terrorist!"
He says, "I'm sorry, I just have to follow the rules" I respond "ya, I know it's not your fault"
So,  because of Terrorism and Homeland Security rules, the requirements for me to get a replacement DL are:
One of the following for Identification:
Certified US birth Certificate, Valid U.S. Passport, Certificate of Naturalization, Consular Proof of Birth Abroad. So I need a Certified US birth Certificate, I start through my files and find 3 copies but no certified copy. I finally found it folded in half unrecognizable from the outside,
I happened to unfold a paper to see what it was. Alright, I found the hard part. Note, if I didn't find this I would need to get it from a state 1000 miles away.

 Next, One of the following: Social Security Card, W-2 Form, Paycheck showing SS#, Any 1099 form. Well, I laminated my SS card over 40 years ago and have it somewhere. I found it in one of the files, the lamination has fell off, one of the numbers it questionable. But I have it.
 I'm self employed so no W-2, no paycheck, I might have a 1099 from a dividend payer, or is that a 1098.

 And finally Two, of the following to prove my address:
 A Deed or rental agreement, vehicle registration from my state, or a Utility bill.

I have all the requirements rounded up and drive back to the DMV, pull my ticket, not so good this time, I'm 8th in line. Things went pretty smooth, I had to answer about 5 questions, Has your DL ever been revoked, Do you have a valid license any other state, Are you addicted to any drugs, and a couple I forget.

 I'm now gold star rated, it shows it right on my license!  OOOOMMMMM, OOOOMMMM.

$31.25 for the replacement DL and 3 x $10 to put a credit freeze on with Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
  I don't know if that was necessary, but I'd been thinking about it anyway.

[GreenSheep]

Wow. That's a lot of hoops to jump through. When I lost my license 5-10 years ago, I had a photo of it, which meant I had my driver's license number, which meant I could request a new one online for something like $12 in about 90 seconds. I wonder if things have changed since then. I understand not wanting to give the wrong person someone's license, but that's really a lot of hassle for you!

[GetItRight]

I feel your pain, this is one of the many reasons I hate government as it exists in this country. They charged me in the neighborhood of $6k when they required all that extra documentation to renew your drivers license. I went to the DMV about a week before mine expired and had researched the new ID requirements so had all the paperwork to jump through their hoops, and even extra items on their list they deemed redundant or unnecessary given the other items I had. My birth certificate was not good enough for them, the seal was not in mint condition, it was partly worn from sitting in a filing cabinet for most of my life though still clearly visible, so they wouldn't accept it. I asked if they believed I had forged the document and was not in fact who I claimed to be, which they admitted they did not suspect that was the case.

To make a long story short there was no way I could get them to accept the documents and my road tax money for drivers license renewal, nor would they take my money to renew my vehicle registration or give an inspection sticker. I submitted information and payment to my home state for an official copy of my birth certificate, which offered no expedited option after speaking to numerous people, and began the wait of up to 90 days.

In 90 days of commuting to and from work (distance and location meant no other option available) and not driving for any other reason I was harassed and threatened numerous times by police whose response ranged from sympathetic to aggressive, fined about $6,000, and a warrant issued for my arrest at which point I laid low and stayed away from home as a local cop advised me to do. All because the government wouldn't take my money for road tax and decreed I must not go to work, be fired for not showing up for a couple months, and presumably end up on welfare and with a criminal record. Fortunately before things escalated to have a criminal record for driving to work I received a certified copy of my birth certificate, paid the road tax to get my documents renewed, plead my case before a judge, paid some more fines, and went on my way with a new understanding of what government really is.

[BTDretire]

Wow. That's a lot of hoops to jump through. When I lost my license 5-10 years ago, I had a photo of it, which meant I had my driver's license number, which meant I could request a new one online for something like $12 in about 90 seconds. I wonder if things have changed since then. I understand not wanting to give the wrong person someone's license, but that's really a lot of hassle for you!

My daughter ask, "why don't you just do it online" I was at the DMV talking to her when she ask. I'm not sure I could have, the guy at the DMV said, "you already have 1 gimme", from when I had renewed my license online. I don't know that you get two gimmes.
 The second part of my story, after I rounded up all the documents, my wallet wasn't in my pocket, I searched the whole house, twice! Couldn't find it, I figured I left it on the counter at the DMV, I was PO when I left so thought that quite possible. When I drove back, I ask two people at the counter, no lost wallets. As a last gasp, I went back out to the car, I had already
searched from the drivers seat with no luck. I opened the pasenger door and there it was, it had slid down between the seat and the door.
 Today I also had to do a little in the water work on my pontoon boat, managed to slice the bottom of my foot on a barnacle, not to bad, except that I have to walk on it.
 It's getting late in the day,  I'm staying in for the evening   :-)

[BTDretire]

I feel your pain, this is one of the many reasons I hate government as it exists in this country. They charged me in the neighborhood of $6k when they required all that extra documentation to renew your drivers license. I went to the DMV about a week before mine expired and had researched the new ID requirements so had all the paperwork to jump through their hoops, and even extra items on their list they deemed redundant or unnecessary given the other items I had. My birth certificate was not good enough for them, the seal was not in mint condition, it was partly worn from sitting in a filing cabinet for most of my life though still clearly visible, so they wouldn't accept it. I asked if they believed I had forged the document and was not in fact who I claimed to be, which they admitted they did not suspect that was the case.

To make a long story short there was no way I could get them to accept the documents and my road tax money for drivers license renewal, nor would they take my money to renew my vehicle registration or give an inspection sticker. I submitted information and payment to my home state for an official copy of my birth certificate, which offered no expedited option after speaking to numerous people, and began the wait of up to 90 days.

In 90 days of commuting to and from work (distance and location meant no other option available) and not driving for any other reason I was harassed and threatened numerous times by police whose response ranged from sympathetic to aggressive, fined about $6,000, and a warrant issued for my arrest at which point I laid low and stayed away from home as a local cop advised me to do. All because the government wouldn't take my money for road tax and decreed I must not go to work, be fired for not showing up for a couple months, and presumably end up on welfare and with a criminal record. Fortunately before things escalated to have a criminal record for driving to work I received a certified copy of my birth certificate, paid the road tax to get my documents renewed, plead my case before a judge, paid some more fines, and went on my way with a new understanding of what government really is.

That's horrible, didn't the judge want to help you out in any way?

[Paul der Krake]

Stay on top of your paperwork by putting renewal dates in your calendar.
Get a passport.

[GreenSheep]

Stay on top of your paperwork by putting renewal dates in your calendar.
Get a passport.

I agree that passports are helpful for this and many other things. It's a pretty watertight alternate form of ID. In just over a year or so, it may be very helpful to take it with you when you travel withIN the US:

https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/news/real-id-not-needed-for-domestic-flights-until-2018.html

And aside from that, international travel is just so, so worth doing, and it doesn't need to be expensive!

[GetItRight]

That's horrible, didn't the judge want to help you out in any way?

You're funny. Of course not, the judge wanted to teach me a lesson for not submitting and obeying, for continuing to drive to work while I waited for an official copy of my birth certificate. So slapped me with more fines on top of all the tickets for driving an unregistered and uninspected vehicle while unlicensed. These were hefty, but apparently I was supposed to be thankful to pay them a couple grand worth of extortion so they wouldn't put me in jail and make me unemployable in any professional or skilled setting by having a criminal record.

[jexy103]

DMVs can really suck. My most recent experience was almost a year ago.

Backstory: I have been a resident of New Hampshire my entire life. From March 2013 to May 2015, I was a full-time grad student in Hawaii. While there, I met and married my husband in March of 2015.  He is active duty, and received orders to South Korea with an early May report date. I stayed on island through May to graduate, then joined him in Korea.

DMV Suckiness: In December, we flew to NH for Christmas. While there, I went to Social Security Administration to change my name to my husband's. My marriage certificate was from March, but no problem, I showed the military orders and they processed my paperwork. Two days later, I went to the DMV to change my license. They refused to issue me a new license with my new legal name because the marriage certificate was more than 10 days old (apparently you're expected to have a short honeymoon!). I explained that I was an out-of-state student and a military spouse and we went from Hawaii to Korea and this is the first time I've been home. No dice. I asked to speak to a manager, who said that there were 45 days between the marriage and the report date to Korea and I could have come them. Um... No? Full-time student, full-time employee literally across the country- no, I'm not paying $1,000+ to fly home to change my DL when I didn't even know their rules (nothing on their website said anything about a time window, just what documents to bring). They then told me I needed a court order to change my name or a passport showing my new name. I couldn't change my passport without an ID, and I couldn't change my ID without the new SSN card that I had just applied for. Gah! So I returned to Korea, changed my military ID and everything else to my new last name, and my DL is the only thing not changed over. When next I'm home, (maybe in April?), I'll have to go try again now that my passport reflects. Fortunately, I use my military ID for everything here and no one cares that my DL is wrong, but it was still a load of BS to have a stringent time requirement with no exceptions.  Grr.

[BTDretire]

That's horrible, didn't the judge want to help you out in any way?

You're funny. Of course not, the judge wanted to teach me a lesson for not submitting and obeying, for continuing to drive to work while I waited for an official copy of my birth certificate. So slapped me with more fines on top of all the tickets for driving an unregistered and uninspected vehicle while unlicensed. These were hefty, but apparently I was supposed to be thankful to pay them a couple grand worth of extortion so they wouldn't put me in jail and make me unemployable in any professional or skilled setting by having a criminal record.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to be funny. There are reasonable people and then there was your asshole judge. I wish we could get his documents and DL, and let him go through the process, without any special favors because he is a judge.

[GreenSheep]

DMVs can really suck. My most recent experience was almost a year ago.

Backstory: I have been a resident of New Hampshire my entire life. From March 2013 to May 2015, I was a full-time grad student in Hawaii. While there, I met and married my husband in March of 2015.  He is active duty, and received orders to South Korea with an early May report date. I stayed on island through May to graduate, then joined him in Korea.

DMV Suckiness: In December, we flew to NH for Christmas. While there, I went to Social Security Administration to change my name to my husband's. My marriage certificate was from March, but no problem, I showed the military orders and they processed my paperwork. Two days later, I went to the DMV to change my license. They refused to issue me a new license with my new legal name because the marriage certificate was more than 10 days old (apparently you're expected to have a short honeymoon!). I explained that I was an out-of-state student and a military spouse and we went from Hawaii to Korea and this is the first time I've been home. No dice. I asked to speak to a manager, who said that there were 45 days between the marriage and the report date to Korea and I could have come them. Um... No? Full-time student, full-time employee literally across the country- no, I'm not paying $1,000+ to fly home to change my DL when I didn't even know their rules (nothing on their website said anything about a time window, just what documents to bring). They then told me I needed a court order to change my name or a passport showing my new name. I couldn't change my passport without an ID, and I couldn't change my ID without the new SSN card that I had just applied for. Gah! So I returned to Korea, changed my military ID and everything else to my new last name, and my DL is the only thing not changed over. When next I'm home, (maybe in April?), I'll have to go try again now that my passport reflects. Fortunately, I use my military ID for everything here and no one cares that my DL is wrong, but it was still a load of BS to have a stringent time requirement with no exceptions.  Grr.

I'm curious about why you didn't change your driver's license to Hawaii when you moved there. It seems like there is a little bit of a gray area since you were/are a student, but it also seems like it would be easier to just have a local license. I haven't lived in Hawaii, but I've lived on another US-owned island, and it felt like I was treated more like I belonged there when I had a local driver's license. Before that, my license screamed "tourist."

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/drivers-license-faq-29063.html

[Dollar Slice]

You should have seen what I had to do to get my Massachusetts license transferred to New York State. It should be simple, right? First they demand a social security card, which I have never had (I think my parents lost it decades ago). So I had to go to the SSA office. My mom has a smart idea: why don't you come visit for the day and we'll go in the suburbs to the SSA and DMV because surely the lines will be much shorter than in NYC? Great. We do that, wait in line. Turns out - and this never would have even occurred to me to check on - if you live in New York City you MUST, BY LAW only go to SSA offices in New York City. Why? Who the fuck knows. So my poor mom says, well, you already took the day off work, we might as well drive down to the Bronx and go to one of the NYC offices. So we do that, wait in line. They don't actually issue social security cards at these offices, of course, that would be too easy. They give me a letter saying it's being issued by mail, and say the DMV may be willing to take that in lieu of an actual card. So we drive back out to the suburbs where my mom had made an appointment at the DMV. We go there, wait in line. No, they will not take the SSA letter in lieu of a card. GTFO and come back when you have the card. So I have to wait a couple of weeks, at which point I've given up on the suburbs idea and just went to a DMV in Manhattan, which had a pretty long wait but at least I only missed a HALF day of work instead of a whole day.

So, a mere $70 and a day and a half of work missed to transfer a perfectly good license from one state to a nearby state. Good work, bureaucracy.

[Jack]

So... can I assume that for all of you whose representative or senators supported the Real ID Act, you voted for their opponent in the next election?

[Gin1984]

DMVs can really suck. My most recent experience was almost a year ago.

Backstory: I have been a resident of New Hampshire my entire life. From March 2013 to May 2015, I was a full-time grad student in Hawaii. While there, I met and married my husband in March of 2015.  He is active duty, and received orders to South Korea with an early May report date. I stayed on island through May to graduate, then joined him in Korea.

DMV Suckiness: In December, we flew to NH for Christmas. While there, I went to Social Security Administration to change my name to my husband's. My marriage certificate was from March, but no problem, I showed the military orders and they processed my paperwork. Two days later, I went to the DMV to change my license. They refused to issue me a new license with my new legal name because the marriage certificate was more than 10 days old (apparently you're expected to have a short honeymoon!). I explained that I was an out-of-state student and a military spouse and we went from Hawaii to Korea and this is the first time I've been home. No dice. I asked to speak to a manager, who said that there were 45 days between the marriage and the report date to Korea and I could have come them. Um... No? Full-time student, full-time employee literally across the country- no, I'm not paying $1,000+ to fly home to change my DL when I didn't even know their rules (nothing on their website said anything about a time window, just what documents to bring). They then told me I needed a court order to change my name or a passport showing my new name. I couldn't change my passport without an ID, and I couldn't change my ID without the new SSN card that I had just applied for. Gah! So I returned to Korea, changed my military ID and everything else to my new last name, and my DL is the only thing not changed over. When next I'm home, (maybe in April?), I'll have to go try again now that my passport reflects. Fortunately, I use my military ID for everything here and no one cares that my DL is wrong, but it was still a load of BS to have a stringent time requirement with no exceptions.  Grr.

I'm curious about why you didn't change your driver's license to Hawaii when you moved there. It seems like there is a little bit of a gray area since you were/are a student, but it also seems like it would be easier to just have a local license. I haven't lived in Hawaii, but I've lived on another US-owned island, and it felt like I was treated more like I belonged there when I had a local driver's license. Before that, my license screamed "tourist."

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/drivers-license-faq-29063.html

Most graduate students I know don't change their licences unless the school require it.  One of my medical school friends went to school in Tx, her PI moved to NY, she moved with him, is moving back to TX for the rest of med school and yet her licence is Utah. 

[redbird]

Yeah, the Real ID Act is annoying. We recently moved to another state. DH was trying to get a driver's license for this current state. DMV didn't like the fact that he had a "birth registration" instead of "birth certificate". It was never a problem, ever, before now. We even have passports, and got Real ID licenses in other states! And it just so happened that his passport recently expired and is currently in the hands of the State Department for issuing him a new one.

So basically we're forced to wait until either the birth certificate or the passport comes in the mail. :/

In the previous state we lived in, I almost ran into trouble trying to get a Real ID Act driver's license. The pay stub I gave them only showed last 4 of my SSN. They needed a document that showed the ENTIRE SSN. It was good that I realized that the lease for the place we were renting (which I'd brought for proof of residency) had the full SSN on it and I had it with me. Not many documents have the full SSN on it. The stupid thing is, this particular state, on their web site, says that the last 4 of SSN is good enough. But the person at the DMV insisted she needed full SSN.

[Paul der Krake]

In the previous state we lived in, I almost ran into trouble trying to get a Real ID Act driver's license. The pay stub I gave them only showed last 4 of my SSN. They needed a document that showed the ENTIRE SSN. It was good that I realized that the lease for the place we were renting (which I'd brought for proof of residency) had the full SSN on it and I had it with me. Not many documents have the full SSN on it. The stupid thing is, this particular state, on their web site, says that the last 4 of SSN is good enough. But the person at the DMV insisted she needed full SSN.

You can request up to 10 Social Security cards free of charge from the SS administration in your lifetime.

[redbird]

In the previous state we lived in, I almost ran into trouble trying to get a Real ID Act driver's license. The pay stub I gave them only showed last 4 of my SSN. They needed a document that showed the ENTIRE SSN. It was good that I realized that the lease for the place we were renting (which I'd brought for proof of residency) had the full SSN on it and I had it with me. Not many documents have the full SSN on it. The stupid thing is, this particular state, on their web site, says that the last 4 of SSN is good enough. But the person at the DMV insisted she needed full SSN.

You can request up to 10 Social Security cards free of charge from the SS administration in your lifetime.

That's nice to know! Thanks! I still am on my very original card that my parents requested for me when I was a baby. Great that I have plenty of backups!

[GreenSheep]

DMVs can really suck. My most recent experience was almost a year ago.

Backstory: I have been a resident of New Hampshire my entire life. From March 2013 to May 2015, I was a full-time grad student in Hawaii. While there, I met and married my husband in March of 2015.  He is active duty, and received orders to South Korea with an early May report date. I stayed on island through May to graduate, then joined him in Korea.

DMV Suckiness: In December, we flew to NH for Christmas. While there, I went to Social Security Administration to change my name to my husband's. My marriage certificate was from March, but no problem, I showed the military orders and they processed my paperwork. Two days later, I went to the DMV to change my license. They refused to issue me a new license with my new legal name because the marriage certificate was more than 10 days old (apparently you're expected to have a short honeymoon!). I explained that I was an out-of-state student and a military spouse and we went from Hawaii to Korea and this is the first time I've been home. No dice. I asked to speak to a manager, who said that there were 45 days between the marriage and the report date to Korea and I could have come them. Um... No? Full-time student, full-time employee literally across the country- no, I'm not paying $1,000+ to fly home to change my DL when I didn't even know their rules (nothing on their website said anything about a time window, just what documents to bring). They then told me I needed a court order to change my name or a passport showing my new name. I couldn't change my passport without an ID, and I couldn't change my ID without the new SSN card that I had just applied for. Gah! So I returned to Korea, changed my military ID and everything else to my new last name, and my DL is the only thing not changed over. When next I'm home, (maybe in April?), I'll have to go try again now that my passport reflects. Fortunately, I use my military ID for everything here and no one cares that my DL is wrong, but it was still a load of BS to have a stringent time requirement with no exceptions.  Grr.

I'm curious about why you didn't change your driver's license to Hawaii when you moved there. It seems like there is a little bit of a gray area since you were/are a student, but it also seems like it would be easier to just have a local license. I haven't lived in Hawaii, but I've lived on another US-owned island, and it felt like I was treated more like I belonged there when I had a local driver's license. Before that, my license screamed "tourist."

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/drivers-license-faq-29063.html

Most graduate students I know don't change their licences unless the school require it.  One of my medical school friends went to school in Tx, her PI moved to NY, she moved with him, is moving back to TX for the rest of med school and yet her licence is Utah.

Eh, to each his/her own, I guess. I changed my driver's license twice for grad school in two different states. I think it helped me feel sort of more "at home." I guess it never occurred to me that I didn't necessarily have to change it. And... I haven't had to change it for about 10 years, so it's probably more complicated now.

[robtown]

Born in East LA

[Metric Mouse]

Stay on top of your paperwork by putting renewal dates in your calendar.
Get a passport.

I agree that passports are helpful for this and many other things. It's a pretty watertight alternate form of ID. In just over a year or so, it may be very helpful to take it with you when you travel withIN the US:

https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/news/real-id-not-needed-for-domestic-flights-until-2018.html

And aside from that, international travel is just so, so worth doing, and it doesn't need to be expensive!

Passports are so worth it.

[Noodle]

Ugh, sympathies to all with DMV troubles. I always use my passport for ID when I travel because I am so afraid of losing my driver's license in the process of removing from wallet, putting back in purse, etc. I would much rather deal with the State Department than the DMV if I have to replace a document. I had everything I needed when I went to get my new license after a move and that's still five hours of my life I'll never get back.

[Nords]

DMVs can really suck. My most recent experience was almost a year ago.

Backstory: I have been a resident of New Hampshire my entire life. From March 2013 to May 2015, I was a full-time grad student in Hawaii. While there, I met and married my husband in March of 2015.  He is active duty, and received orders to South Korea with an early May report date. I stayed on island through May to graduate, then joined him in Korea.

DMV Suckiness: In December, we flew to NH for Christmas. While there, I went to Social Security Administration to change my name to my husband's. My marriage certificate was from March, but no problem, I showed the military orders and they processed my paperwork. Two days later, I went to the DMV to change my license. They refused to issue me a new license with my new legal name because the marriage certificate was more than 10 days old (apparently you're expected to have a short honeymoon!). I explained that I was an out-of-state student and a military spouse and we went from Hawaii to Korea and this is the first time I've been home. No dice. I asked to speak to a manager, who said that there were 45 days between the marriage and the report date to Korea and I could have come them. Um... No? Full-time student, full-time employee literally across the country- no, I'm not paying $1,000+ to fly home to change my DL when I didn't even know their rules (nothing on their website said anything about a time window, just what documents to bring). They then told me I needed a court order to change my name or a passport showing my new name. I couldn't change my passport without an ID, and I couldn't change my ID without the new SSN card that I had just applied for. Gah! So I returned to Korea, changed my military ID and everything else to my new last name, and my DL is the only thing not changed over. When next I'm home, (maybe in April?), I'll have to go try again now that my passport reflects. Fortunately, I use my military ID for everything here and no one cares that my DL is wrong, but it was still a load of BS to have a stringent time requirement with no exceptions.  Grr.

I'm curious about why you didn't change your driver's license to Hawaii when you moved there. It seems like there is a little bit of a gray area since you were/are a student, but it also seems like it would be easier to just have a local license. I haven't lived in Hawaii, but I've lived on another US-owned island, and it felt like I was treated more like I belonged there when I had a local driver's license. Before that, my license screamed "tourist."

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/drivers-license-faq-29063.html

One issue is that a driver's license is only one aspect of a military servicemember's state residency requirement.  I don't know anything about NH state taxes, but Hawaii state taxes on employment income are relatively high.  It might have taken Jexi quite a few months to be able to obtain residency (let alone a driver's license) in another state, and that could cost thousands of dollars in Hawaii state taxes.

Our daughter is born & raised in Hawaii.  When she was getting ready to graduate college (in Texas) and begin her full-time employment, she thought she wanted to continue to be a Hawaii state resident.  When she did the math on the state taxes, she decided she'd rather be a Texas resident. 

But she has an aloha trim ring around her Texas license plate...

[the_fella]

I feel your pain, this is one of the many reasons I hate government as it exists in this country. They charged me in the neighborhood of $6k when they required all that extra documentation to renew your drivers license. I went to the DMV about a week before mine expired and had researched the new ID requirements so had all the paperwork to jump through their hoops, and even extra items on their list they deemed redundant or unnecessary given the other items I had. My birth certificate was not good enough for them, the seal was not in mint condition, it was partly worn from sitting in a filing cabinet for most of my life though still clearly visible, so they wouldn't accept it. I asked if they believed I had forged the document and was not in fact who I claimed to be, which they admitted they did not suspect that was the case.

To make a long story short there was no way I could get them to accept the documents and my road tax money for drivers license renewal, nor would they take my money to renew my vehicle registration or give an inspection sticker. I submitted information and payment to my home state for an official copy of my birth certificate, which offered no expedited option after speaking to numerous people, and began the wait of up to 90 days.

In 90 days of commuting to and from work (distance and location meant no other option available) and not driving for any other reason I was harassed and threatened numerous times by police whose response ranged from sympathetic to aggressive, fined about $6,000, and a warrant issued for my arrest at which point I laid low and stayed away from home as a local cop advised me to do. All because the government wouldn't take my money for road tax and decreed I must not go to work, be fired for not showing up for a couple months, and presumably end up on welfare and with a criminal record. Fortunately before things escalated to have a criminal record for driving to work I received a certified copy of my birth certificate, paid the road tax to get my documents renewed, plead my case before a judge, paid some more fines, and went on my way with a new understanding of what government really is.

That's horrible, didn't the judge want to help you out in any way?

Lol. Judges are cunts. I was involved in an accident and received a ticket for ACDA. My attorney and the prosecution agreed to let me plead to a non-moving violation instead, which would get no points on my license (I drive for a living). The judge wouldn't allow the charge to be amended. I can't wait until that fucker is up for reelection again. I'm going to write him a letter informing him I'm making a large donation to his opponent.

[jim555]

Next, One of the following: Social Security Card, W-2 Form, Paycheck showing SS#, Any 1099 form. Well, I laminated my SS card over 40 years ago and have it somewhere. I found it in one of the files, the lamination has fell off, one of the numbers it questionable. But I have it.

Never laminate your important documents.  Many places will refuse it if it is laminated.

[Paul der Krake]

Next, One of the following: Social Security Card, W-2 Form, Paycheck showing SS#, Any 1099 form. Well, I laminated my SS card over 40 years ago and have it somewhere. I found it in one of the files, the lamination has fell off, one of the numbers it questionable. But I have it.

Never laminate your important documents.  Many places will refuse it if it is laminated.

Yup. It says to not laminate it on the stub that the card comes with. It also says "DO NOT CARRY WITH CARDS WITH YOU" but that doesn't stop people from putting it in their wallets. It's not like it must me presented on a regular basis. Leave it at home.

[paddedhat]

That's horrible, didn't the judge want to help you out in any way?

You're funny. Of course not, the judge wanted to teach me a lesson for not submitting and obeying, for continuing to drive to work while I waited for an official copy of my birth certificate. So slapped me with more fines on top of all the tickets for driving an unregistered and uninspected vehicle while unlicensed. These were hefty, but apparently I was supposed to be thankful to pay them a couple grand worth of extortion so they wouldn't put me in jail and make me unemployable in any professional or skilled setting by having a criminal record.

That sucks. Unfortunately, you got pushed to the edge of that cliff, and were lucky enough to not go over. Sadly, there are hundreds of thousands of minorities and/or poor folks in this country that get the full treatment.  They get trapped in a cycle where they have the option of pleading guilty to something they had nothing to do with, or sitting in jail for a few months, or years, until they are given their right to a trial. At that point they are either broke, or a convicted felon, and fucked for life.  So many times it's starts as a case of getting pulled over for a "broken taillight" when the reality is that they were guilty of "DWB" (driving while black) or daring to be in the wrong neighborhood. Makes me sick to see all the mindless idiots scream and clap when that POS Trump rallies the troops for things like restoring stop n' frisk as a legitimate tool to harass and prosecute the innocent.

[Metric Mouse]

Wow, that went off topic fast..

[GetItRight]

I don't understand how it can have anything do with being a particular ethnicity, though being poor can certainly make it more difficult to get past the evil government does. I was certainly poor at that particular instance the government put me through the wringer, but I was lucky in that the timing was such that the documents arrived from my home state in time and I could pay off their surprise extortion tax in a short period of time. If not for that luck of timing I probably would have ended up homeless and unemployable, but fortunately I just ended up poor again rather than starting to get ahead as I was hoping for at the time.

As for the political comments... Yes Trump is a big government statist. He seems to be less evil than Hillary, given her history of treason, lies, and using government violence to keep the sexual assault victims of her husband quiet, but he is still an evil statist who is happy to trample your rights just as Hillary has done and will continue to do so long as she has political power or influence. Honestly at the end of the day Trump and Hillary are more or less the same, with either one as president we all lose. Vote libertarian and be vocal on a local level in your own life about liberty and freedom, it's the only way things can change within the confines of the existing system to go back to respecting the natural rights of individuals.

[Drifterrider]

The bottom of my Social Security card (which I haven't seen in 30 years states in red "not to be used for identification"  (it doesn't have a picture or any descripting information.)

[jexy103]

DMVs can really suck. My most recent experience was almost a year ago.

Backstory: I have been a resident of New Hampshire my entire life. From March 2013 to May 2015, I was a full-time grad student in Hawaii. While there, I met and married my husband in March of 2015.  He is active duty, and received orders to South Korea with an early May report date. I stayed on island through May to graduate, then joined him in Korea.

DMV Suckiness: In December, we flew to NH for Christmas. While there, I went to Social Security Administration to change my name to my husband's. My marriage certificate was from March, but no problem, I showed the military orders and they processed my paperwork. Two days later, I went to the DMV to change my license. They refused to issue me a new license with my new legal name because the marriage certificate was more than 10 days old (apparently you're expected to have a short honeymoon!). I explained that I was an out-of-state student and a military spouse and we went from Hawaii to Korea and this is the first time I've been home. No dice. I asked to speak to a manager, who said that there were 45 days between the marriage and the report date to Korea and I could have come them. Um... No? Full-time student, full-time employee literally across the country- no, I'm not paying $1,000+ to fly home to change my DL when I didn't even know their rules (nothing on their website said anything about a time window, just what documents to bring). They then told me I needed a court order to change my name or a passport showing my new name. I couldn't change my passport without an ID, and I couldn't change my ID without the new SSN card that I had just applied for. Gah! So I returned to Korea, changed my military ID and everything else to my new last name, and my DL is the only thing not changed over. When next I'm home, (maybe in April?), I'll have to go try again now that my passport reflects. Fortunately, I use my military ID for everything here and no one cares that my DL is wrong, but it was still a load of BS to have a stringent time requirement with no exceptions.  Grr.

I'm curious about why you didn't change your driver's license to Hawaii when you moved there. It seems like there is a little bit of a gray area since you were/are a student, but it also seems like it would be easier to just have a local license. I haven't lived in Hawaii, but I've lived on another US-owned island, and it felt like I was treated more like I belonged there when I had a local driver's license. Before that, my license screamed "tourist."

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/drivers-license-faq-29063.html

GreenSheep,
Why change state residency if you don't have to? Other PPs have had miserable experiences when they move, and I knew I wouldn't stay in Hawaii more than a few years (I lived there 2.5 years, 2 of which as a full-time grad student). Also, as Nords mentioned, Hawaii has high income taxes, while NH has... $0. So I was working full-time, paying $0 in income taxes, and legally didn't have to change my residency. It was never a problem, not once, until I went to change my name *after* I had moved away from Hawaii. It just sucks that so many people, who have reasonable documentation and are trying to do the right thing, like the OP and others here, run into administrative barriers by the same organizations who were created to support the population.

[ooeei]

I feel your pain, this is one of the many reasons I hate government as it exists in this country. They charged me in the neighborhood of $6k when they required all that extra documentation to renew your drivers license. I went to the DMV about a week before mine expired and had researched the new ID requirements so had all the paperwork to jump through their hoops, and even extra items on their list they deemed redundant or unnecessary given the other items I had. My birth certificate was not good enough for them, the seal was not in mint condition, it was partly worn from sitting in a filing cabinet for most of my life though still clearly visible, so they wouldn't accept it. I asked if they believed I had forged the document and was not in fact who I claimed to be, which they admitted they did not suspect that was the case.

To make a long story short there was no way I could get them to accept the documents and my road tax money for drivers license renewal, nor would they take my money to renew my vehicle registration or give an inspection sticker. I submitted information and payment to my home state for an official copy of my birth certificate, which offered no expedited option after speaking to numerous people, and began the wait of up to 90 days.

In 90 days of commuting to and from work (distance and location meant no other option available) and not driving for any other reason I was harassed and threatened numerous times by police whose response ranged from sympathetic to aggressive, fined about $6,000, and a warrant issued for my arrest at which point I laid low and stayed away from home as a local cop advised me to do. All because the government wouldn't take my money for road tax and decreed I must not go to work, be fired for not showing up for a couple months, and presumably end up on welfare and with a criminal record. Fortunately before things escalated to have a criminal record for driving to work I received a certified copy of my birth certificate, paid the road tax to get my documents renewed, plead my case before a judge, paid some more fines, and went on my way with a new understanding of what government really is.

This is very surprising to me.  I'm terrible about renewing registration and licenses, and have probably driven for 1-2 years of the last 6 with something out of date.  I was pulled over once in that time for a 4 month expired registration/inspection, and given a warning. 

I'm not saying it's impossible that you just hit a perfect storm of awfulness, but I get the feeling that there's more to the story than you having an expired DL (with a good story to back it up). 

[GreenSheep]

DMVs can really suck. My most recent experience was almost a year ago.

Backstory: I have been a resident of New Hampshire my entire life. From March 2013 to May 2015, I was a full-time grad student in Hawaii. While there, I met and married my husband in March of 2015.  He is active duty, and received orders to South Korea with an early May report date. I stayed on island through May to graduate, then joined him in Korea.

DMV Suckiness: In December, we flew to NH for Christmas. While there, I went to Social Security Administration to change my name to my husband's. My marriage certificate was from March, but no problem, I showed the military orders and they processed my paperwork. Two days later, I went to the DMV to change my license. They refused to issue me a new license with my new legal name because the marriage certificate was more than 10 days old (apparently you're expected to have a short honeymoon!). I explained that I was an out-of-state student and a military spouse and we went from Hawaii to Korea and this is the first time I've been home. No dice. I asked to speak to a manager, who said that there were 45 days between the marriage and the report date to Korea and I could have come them. Um... No? Full-time student, full-time employee literally across the country- no, I'm not paying $1,000+ to fly home to change my DL when I didn't even know their rules (nothing on their website said anything about a time window, just what documents to bring). They then told me I needed a court order to change my name or a passport showing my new name. I couldn't change my passport without an ID, and I couldn't change my ID without the new SSN card that I had just applied for. Gah! So I returned to Korea, changed my military ID and everything else to my new last name, and my DL is the only thing not changed over. When next I'm home, (maybe in April?), I'll have to go try again now that my passport reflects. Fortunately, I use my military ID for everything here and no one cares that my DL is wrong, but it was still a load of BS to have a stringent time requirement with no exceptions.  Grr.

I'm curious about why you didn't change your driver's license to Hawaii when you moved there. It seems like there is a little bit of a gray area since you were/are a student, but it also seems like it would be easier to just have a local license. I haven't lived in Hawaii, but I've lived on another US-owned island, and it felt like I was treated more like I belonged there when I had a local driver's license. Before that, my license screamed "tourist."

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/drivers-license-faq-29063.html

GreenSheep,
Why change state residency if you don't have to? Other PPs have had miserable experiences when they move, and I knew I wouldn't stay in Hawaii more than a few years (I lived there 2.5 years, 2 of which as a full-time grad student). Also, as Nords mentioned, Hawaii has high income taxes, while NH has... $0. So I was working full-time, paying $0 in income taxes, and legally didn't have to change my residency. It was never a problem, not once, until I went to change my name *after* I had moved away from Hawaii. It just sucks that so many people, who have reasonable documentation and are trying to do the right thing, like the OP and others here, run into administrative barriers by the same organizations who were created to support the population.

No worries, I was just curious!

I completely agree that it's frustrating that the organizations that are supposed to serve the people are wasting our time.