International Driver Permit K-1

[JMCKNG 156]

My fiance will be arriving soon for POE! After researching on this site, I am aware that each state has their own Driver's License Requirements. After looking at mine, I believe he has to show his proof of residency which can take some time after filing. In the meantime, he stated he is able to get his International Driver's Permit that will allow him to drive out of his native country (if you were to rent a car on vacation). Then, once he is able to apply for an actual State issued Driver's License he will disregard the permit. 

 

Anyone have experience with this?

[p-ana 933]

16 minutes ago, JMCKNG said:

My fiance will be arriving soon for POE! After researching on this site, I am aware that each state has their own Driver's License Requirements. After looking at mine, I believe he has to show his proof of residency which can take some time after filing. In the meantime, he stated he is able to get his International Driver's Permit that will allow him to drive out of his native country (if you were to rent a car on vacation). Then, once he is able to apply for an actual State issued Driver's License he will disregard the permit. 

 

Anyone have experience with this?

As far as I know the international driving permit is nothing more than a translation of his foreign license and it’s supposed to be presented with the foreign one.

 

He has to go by the resident rules from your state dmv. Most likely he can’t be driving on his international license after a month or so. Check your local dmv rules. 

 

 

[TM92 527]

51 minutes ago, JMCKNG said:

After looking at mine, I believe he has to show his proof of residency which can take some time after filing. In the meantime, he stated he is able to get his International Driver's Permit that will allow him to drive out of his native country (if you were to rent a car on vacation). Then, once he is able to apply for an actual State issued Driver's License he will disregard the permit.

Looks like he must apply for a DL within 60 days: https://wisconsindot.gov/Pages/dmv/license-drvs/how-to-apply/ooslicense.aspx. Long term use of foreign license with IDP is only allowed for tourists and foreign students: https://wisconsindot.gov/Pages/dmv/license-drvs/how-to-apply/foreign.aspx

[Daniela M_______ 410]

International driver permit does not exists, it's a scam in most countries... I have found information on Michigan state for when I move, and they refer to International driver permit as a translation of your home country document, they have a list of countries where a translation is not required...

 

They do make emphasis on the fact that there is no document known itself as "IDP" and they (Michigan state) ask people to be aware of the scams.

Edited September 10, 2018 by Daniela M_______
typo

[Villanelle 4,122]

2 hours ago, JMCKNG said:

My fiance will be arriving soon for POE! After researching on this site, I am aware that each state has their own Driver's License Requirements. After looking at mine, I believe he has to show his proof of residency which can take some time after filing. In the meantime, he stated he is able to get his International Driver's Permit that will allow him to drive out of his native country (if you were to rent a car on vacation). Then, once he is able to apply for an actual State issued Driver's License he will disregard the permit. 

 

Anyone have experience with this?

theres something thats called an international driving permit- which is not used in the US- but it is used in Europe. If you have an EU/EAA license then you can pretty much use it all over Europe. When you move country to country they honor the same license. If you are not from EU/EAA you may need the permit, but again this permit isnt used in the US. 

Different states have different rules as you have found out. In most places someone on a K can not get a license until they get EAD. EAD is currently taking around 7 months. So you need to marry, file AOS and wait many months. It stinks but it is what it is. Hopefully you knew there would be a period where he is unable to drive or work when you decided on the K.

Funny story- my husband came on the K visa and has an EU license. I told him he couldnt get a state license for a while but he insisted on driving with his foreign license.  Now hes a stubborn man at times and Ive learned its just better to let him do what he wants. Hes an adult, he knows the rules, he knows how I feel but hes going to do what he wants. So we were in the car, he was driving and I was the passenger and he changes lanes with out signaling because it was late at night and no one was on the road but us. A cop was parked in one of the empty lots on the side of the road and pulls him over. My husband gives him his foreign drivers license and the registration and ins for the car. The cop looked at his DL and was like what the heck is this? And my husband explained its an 'international license' and how he just married and moved here. Then they talked about how he shouldnt have changed lanes w/o signaling even though there was no one on the road. Then the cop asks ME to get out of the car and for my husband to stay in the car... (uh-oh)

He makes me go to rear of the car and hes shining his flashlight on my husbands foreign license and hes got his ticket pad out and he says to me- where does it say on here what his name is? So I show him. And then hes like what does this mean- pointing to something else, and I was just like I dunno I dont speak the language! He made a face and then asked where his DOB was and I showed him and he got real confused because they use day-month-year and not month-year-date. Then he just put his ticket pad away and had me get back in the car and said he was just going to issue a verbal warning. Obviously he didnt know how to write a ticket for someone with a foreign license and couldnt be bothered to look into it. We also had an accident (husband driving, other persons fault) and my husband gave his foreign license to the cops and the ins company paperwork and no one ever asked anything further. Maybe if it was his fault it wouldve turned into an issue? I dunno. 

Please dont take what Im posting as condoning driving with out the proper state license. Unless you are in a border state most landlocked states have no idea about foreign licenses. 

[TM92 527]

29 minutes ago, Damara said:

Unless you are in a border state

Fun fact: Although Wisconsin (where OP resides) does not have an international geographical border, it does have non-airport POEs because Lake Michigan is accessible from other lakes that border Canada.

[Villanelle 4,122]

4 minutes ago, TM92 said:

Fun fact: Although Wisconsin (where OP resides) does not have an international geographical border, it does have non-airport POEs because Lake Michigan is accessible from other lakes that border Canada.

Ah very cool! But I dont know that having a lake POE would cause Wisconsin DMV/local cops to know a lot about foreign drivers licenses! Do people take their cars across the lake on a ferry? Or a passenger ferry and then they rent cars? 

[Kowatti 189]

This forum is so much fun 🤣.  This is the funniest situation I have read thus far, about the cop stopping your husband & not knowing what to do.  I told my overseas fiancé about it & he couldn't stop laughing.  

[AshMarty 360]

 

@Damarathat story is pretty funny.

 

OP: We live in Maryland and luckily my husband could get a temp drivers license for 10 months with NOA1 and valid I-94 (not many states allow this). We actually learned about residency rules late, 7 days before our state required my husband to switch over. My husband was wanting to also be stubborn but we managed to get his license after a little research. Less than a week after receiving his MD license, he was also in an accident when another driver ran a stop sign. After realizing everyone was okay there was def a piece of mind knowing this wouldn’t come back to haunt us during his immigration process and he would be covered driving my car (since it was deemed totaled from the accident). We actually do live in a high  immigration city/neighborhood with people that have come both legally and illegally, so police here might be a little more suspicious of forgein license. 

Edited September 11, 2018 by AshMarty