Ugh... Another Limited Term License extension letter from the DMV

[jordan85 8]

Hi guys,

Not sure if this is in the right area, so mods, feel free to move my post.

So I'm a July filer for I-751 Removal of Conditions.

Earlier this year, I received a notice from the California DMV asking me to show proof of legal presence so they could issue me a new drivers license. It was an absolute nightmare! First off, I sent the documents required on the notice to their Sacramento PO Box... 'The Abyss' would me a more appropriate description! After hearing nothing for close to six weeks and my license soon to expire, I headed into the DMV and renewed in person. So they gave me a temporary license at the end of it, good for 60 days, during which, my newly pressed license should arrive in the mail. Well, after almost six weeks, nothing arrived. So we called and we ended up being on hold for hours... They have us a mystery legal presence hotline that was always busy and took hours of redialing to get through. They had to do something on their computer to "release" my new license.

Anyway, after all that, my new license was only good for a few months, and will expire come November.

I was hoping after that awful ordeal that I would somehow be upgraded to a permanent 5-year license.

But no. Today I received another limited term license extension notice

It seems so silly to go through this again. California now gives drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants (a policy I'm in favor of BTW, keeps the roads safer if everyone's licensed), so me proving my legal presence to them seems a bit redundant! I can't help but feel a little bitter that I have to go through all this again, while others with no legal status seem to have few problems getting their license.

I want to avoid the nightmare that was my last ordeal, and intend to just go in tomorrow, waste no time, and get this sorted. My green card expires mid-October, so I can't show that as proof, so I'll have to show my one-year extension letter I-797.

I am DREADING getting some clerk who doesn't know jack about I-751 and the extension notice. I don't cope well with grumpy government bureaucrats, I just cower in fear.

Does anyone have any experience using their extension letter as proof of legal presence?

[majuki 0]

I want to avoid the nightmare that was my last ordeal, and intend to just go in tomorrow, waste no time, and get this sorted. My green card expires mid-October, so I can't show that as proof, so I'll have to show my one-year extension letter I-797.

I am DREADING getting some clerk who doesn't know jack about I-751 and the extension notice. I don't cope well with grumpy government bureaucrats, I just cower in fear.

Does anyone have any experience using their extension letter as proof of legal presence?

I have a colleague whose wife is going through the removal of conditions as well, and she had no issue showing the extension letter to renew her driver's license.

Generally I would say those at the DMV in California are well versed in such matters due to the number of immigrants and non-immigrant workers, but it all depends on the employee. To demonstrate the inconsistency, my wife's legal name has a hyphen in it. When she went for a driver's license the first clerk said that the name had to match her legal presence document exactly. The issue is that her green card doesn't have a hyphen but rather a space. All of her other documentation has the hyphen. When she went back to take the road test the clerk noticed that the hyphen wasn't there even though it was on her passport and social security card and offered to add the hyphen to her driver's license.

Fortunately, after removal of conditions it should be possible to get 5-year DLs from here on out.