Getting a DL in Indiana really sucks

[Dr. Obvious 49]

ROFLMAO. My husband took his drive test and passed. The only thing left to do is change his address. We were going to use the exact same thing we sent to CVP to change his address with. For whatever reason, they refused to accept that although two employees two weeks ago said it would be fine to use and CVP approved his application with it. I DON'T GET IT. WHY DOES INDIANA NOT WANT MY HUSBAND TO GET A GODDAMN LICENSE???!!! DON'T MOVE TO INDIANA.

Edited May 27, 2008 by Wacken

[Dr. Obvious 49]

After three times at the BMV yesterday trying to get this figured out, here was the end result. Please pay attention to this, my dear people in Indiana or considering a move here.

CVP is a neverending thing. It is easily worse than USCIS. For example, when you change your address with USCIS, all you do is fill out the AR-11 and that is that. They don't take away your green card and give a temporary one until they figure out if they are going to accept the proof you have of your change of address. In Indiana, if you change your address here under any valid immigration status, you will have to go back through CVP and everything has to be done all.over.again. They will issue a 60 day temp license that has to be renewed until they send you the plastic license with the correct address on it. This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of, particularly since they will not accept an affidavit of change of address from me, his wife, who has basically had the sorry luck to be a long time resident of this state and whom his whole immigration status is based on. They were willing to do that at first, but the computer refused this, locked them out for referral to CVP. Lo and behold, yep, that is what you have to do. Until you become a citizen, random changes in status at the BMV will prompt a trip back to CVP. So again, ** Indiana.

[PlatyPius 5]

I moved back to Indiana sometime around 1997. I kept my Wyoming DL until it was about to expire. A week before my birthday (and DL expiry) I went to the license branch to get an IN DL. Keep in mind that I was born here and got my first DL at that very branch many years ago. It was, however, July of 2002 when I was doing this. Fear of 'brown people' had led to some stringent new rules for getting any form of state ID (If I remember correctly, all of the 9/11 terrorists had some form of state ID).

I presented my Wyoming DL, my old Indiana DL, the original letter/receipt that came with my SS card (my wallet had been stolen several years before and I never replaced the card), my birth certificate, and whatever cards, etc that were in my wallet.

It wasn't good enough.

I had to have a proper SS card (wouldn't the receipt from 1968 be harder to steal or fake than the card itself???), proof of residency (I lived 2 blocks from the location of the BMV at the time), proof of US citizenship (Birth certificate didn't establish that??), and a zillion other things. They had to make sure I wasn't a terrorist from the Middle East, ya see....

By this time, my birthday had come and gone, so I was technically "illegal" now - no valid DL of any sort. I ended up having to make 2 trips to Indy to the Fed building to convince them I was not a Muslim from the ME or whatever the hell their issue was. In the end I had to provide them with: My Wyoming DL, my old Indiana DL, my new social security card, a NEW copy of my birth certificate, a copy of my selective service registration from the 80s, 3 bills showing my address (difficult at the time, as all of the utilities were still in Grandma's name), a copy of the deed to my house, a copy of the will (Grandma's), paycheck stubs (I worked 5 blocks from the BMV), and the title to my Audi.

ALL of this, and I lived here most of my f##king life AND went to high school with the woman behind the counter at the BMV. It ended up taking me 3 weeks to get a DL. Indiana went WAY overboard post-9/11. After many, many complaints and a few lawsuit threats, they finally relaxed the requirements somewhat. Now it seems that they have a new system of torturing people thanks to the RealID #######....

[Krikit 1,163]

Wow. Sure hope we don't get transferred to Indiana.

[Dr. Obvious 49]

I had to have a proper SS card (wouldn't the receipt from 1968 be harder to steal or fake than the card itself???), proof of residency (I lived 2 blocks from the location of the BMV at the time), proof of US citizenship (Birth certificate didn't establish that??), and a zillion other things.

LOL. You know, it is fairly difficult for my husband to prove residency based on the lists they provided. For example, my husband is a contractor, so no paycheck stub as they pay cash in hand PRN. He'd like a better job, but gee, every one wants an actual license, not a piece of paper. The only utility in his name is the water bill and, as Murphy would have it, on the bill the address is billed. So they mailed the welcome letter to my husband, but the actual bill has no name listed on it, just the address. They said they needed the bill with the name on it. They wouldn't accept coorespondence from the banks except for a bank statement on letterhead that we could prove that they mailed it. They said whatever we brought from the bank before, we could have made up. No we couldn't have. This was an account statement with all of their internal nonsense on it. We could not have made it up because there is no way we could have known that information or even what it most of it meant. A quick call to the bank would have proved the legitimacy of the document, but it is just easier to say that that particular bank statement wasn't on the list because it wasn't mailed. I think the chick there just wanted to be a cnut. Every one to that point had accepted that document as proof of residency and said it would be fine for change of address, including CVP.

So then we went back later on with the only thing better we could get from the bank, a signed statement confirming his account information by the bank employee. His statements aren't mailed. They don't do that really at my bank anymore if you opted out of it and of course it would take a month or more to get this statement and the drive test is only good for 30 days and they wouldn't issue even the paper document without it... Well, this time, there was another woman who helped us who was actually very nice for a change and said that she would at least try to get the signed bank statement through. So then we did get at least the paper document.

My husband and I joked that we wouldn't be surprised if they wanted our marriage certificate next. But that is all in German so we must have made it up, be damned what DHS and USCIS thought.

[tom&tata 2]

It will be interesting when it is time for me to renew my DL

I got it easy in 2006 - got my greencard, SSN, passport, and bank acct statement showing address and I got DL that expires in 2013. I guess I was pretty lucky or they did not know what they were doing. I was even asked if I wanted to be registered voters Uhmmm yeah...sure why not

[PlatyPius 5]

Wow. Sure hope we don't get transferred to Indiana.

Aww..... but then we could all hang out....and go cow tipping.....and....hmm......watch corn grow!

[Dr. Obvious 49]

It will be interesting when it is time for me to renew my DL

I got it easy in 2006 - got my greencard, SSN, passport, and bank acct statement showing address and I got DL that expires in 2013. I guess I was pretty lucky or they did not know what they were doing. I was even asked if I wanted to be registered voters Uhmmm yeah...sure why not

Joe, Mags, and my husband all applied around the same time last year. I guess that is when the chaos kicked in. Mags only applied for a State ID and still had to go through CVP.

I suppose it would be worth the time to make a list of instances in which you would have to go back to CVP. If this would also include renewals even if your address did not change and if PR holders of out-of-state licenses also have to go through this process.

[Dr. Obvious 49]

I just told a co-worker about all of this and he said "So is it all worth it? Maybe I would go back after all of that and still nothing."

[Dr. Obvious 49]

So the answer to the question about renewal and CVP is:

Any foreign national who is residing in the United States and wants to apply for an identification card, operator license or learner permit - or renew a document that he or she already has - should contact a license branch and ask to apply through the Central Verification Process (CVP) to verify the applicant's immigration status.

They make it almost sound like they won't do it regardless if you ask or not. At this point, it seems to be noted in the computers to ask or demand. Yesterday, it basically locked the employee there out from edititng information without going through CVP first in that instance. Though 2013...still plenty of time to leave the state!

[tom&tata 2]

So the answer to the question about renewal and CVP is:

Any foreign national who is residing in the United States and wants to apply for an identification card, operator license or learner permit - or renew a document that he or she already has - should contact a license branch and ask to apply through the Central Verification Process (CVP) to verify the applicant's immigration status.

They make it almost sound like they won't do it regardless if you ask or not. At this point, it seems to be noted in the computers to ask or demand. Yesterday, it basically locked the employee there out from edititng information without going through CVP first in that instance. Though 2013...still plenty of time to leave the state!

I think 5 years is doable.....we are moving to our house hopefully by end of the year. If we can get 5 year out of that house, it's good enough

[Dr. Obvious 49]

Here we go.

Maybe the BMV saga is over for now. My husband's operator license came in the mail yesterday a bit sooner than expected. Apparently, someone is wrong. Either the people working at the BMV branch are wrong or CVP is wrong, but CVP did accept as proof of residency what the branch itself would not.

So, all of this took from November 2, 2007 to June 11, 2008.

Finally.

[raphandarrin 0]

my 2 cents about it....

I didn't receive my EAD or GC yet, but my J-1 visa was still good, so I went there, took my written test and passed, waited for my LP to get here and it finally did, my road test was scheduled and guess what?My lovely smart husband loses my wallet with the LP in it, I can't take the test without it, have to go back and renew it wait AGAIN, now my visa expired, I don't have my EAD, don't have my GC and don't have my DL, or LP that didn't get here til now ( it's been about 3 months now) my paper expired and I don't know if I should go there and ask for another one, since now my J-1 expired.I'm hoping my EAD gets here soon, so I can at least try, I'm stuck at home, can't even drive with my hubby anymore, that really sucks, does anyone have a piece of advice?Should I just go there and ask for another paper or wait?