DL renewal & Save Check issues

[ghostinthemachine 70]

Hi there,

 

I'm hoping someone here will have dealt with the same...

 

To give some background:

 

- Received EAD mid-February 2022 with an expiration date of 02/15/2024

- Applied for a Hawaiian driver's licence in March 2022 after as I was approaching a full year in the US at that point and I wouldn't have been able to legally drive on my German licence for much longer (HI gives you a year essentially) - expiration date of limited-term licence is therefore the expiration of my EAD 02/15/2024

- Received conditional GC mid-April 2022 with an expiration date of 04/18/2024

 

 

So to summarise, I'm a Hawaii resident & conditional LPR. HI allows you to renew your DL 6 months prior to expiration. As we will be moving states literally the week after my DL is set to expire in February 2024 I wanted to get ahead of this to ensure there will be no lapse in validity (so I can do an out of state transfer at our new location eventually).

 

This morning the HI DMV turned me away because whenever they run the Save Check (or whatever it is called on the DMV side of things) it only pulls up the expiration date of my EAD (02/15/2023). Nothing about the April expiry of my conditional GC according to them. They told me to contact USCIS/DHS to get my info corrected and to get lost essentially.

 

Went back to the car and spent almost two hours on the phone to USCIS (who confirmed my info is all correct on their end based on my A number) and gave me another number of someone dealing with SAVE/e-Verify to follow up. This next guy told me it's on the requesting agency (HI DMV) to initiate a 2nd level verification and that there is nothing that I can do as a person to fix this. 

 

Went back to the DMV and told them what both USCIS and the SAVE/e-Verify guy had told me. Even got the supervisor involved, who ended up on the phone to someone for a good 20 minutes trying to figure this out, but in the end we were just going around in circles. On the Save Check website I can see that the case was immediately returned to the DMV here so supposedly they cannot initiate a 2nd level verification of my info. They told me I need to fix this. The people on the phone specifically told me I CANNOT fix this myself. 

 

So here I am. Lost, confused and frankly kinda annoyed. How can I get in touch with someone who can help me figure out what's wrong with my records and help me fix it?! Has anyone of you ever dealt with this by any chance?

[randomstairs 270]

Did you apply for a new DL with your GC (with the new expiration date on it)? That's how the process is initiated in CA. My experience with DMVs in three states so far is that they can't handle anything more complicated than a renewal of a DL. For example, if you tried to request that they extend the validity or something like that, that would probably confuse them. I suggest you try a different DMV and keep it super simple, as in "I'd like to renew my DL. Here's my GC."

 

I had a similar issue in another state when I wanted to get a new license with the H1B approval form. It took 2 hours, with my cab driver patiently waiting outside (I couldn't drive). It turned out they just needed the I-94 portion of the form, whereas I submitted the whole thing. They usually get utterly confused. 

[ghostinthemachine 70]

30 minutes ago, randomstairs said:

Did you apply for a new DL with your GC (with the new expiration date on it)? That's how the process is initiated in CA. My experience with DMVs in three states so far is that they can't handle anything more complicated than a renewal of a DL. For example, if you tried to request that they extend the validity or something like that, that would probably confuse them. I suggest you try a different DMV and keep it super simple, as in "I'd like to renew my DL. Here's my GC."

 

I had a similar issue in another state when I wanted to get a new license with the H1B approval form. It took 2 hours, with my cab driver patiently waiting outside (I couldn't drive). It turned out they just needed the I-94 portion of the form, whereas I submitted the whole thing. They usually get utterly confused. 

 

I only handed over my DL that I'm trying to renew and my current GC. They had no idea what to do or how to help me. I've spent the entire day on the phone to whichever numbers I can find only for people to either tell me that my immigration records on the USCIS side are accurate or that there is nothing they can do to help me.

 

Also didn't mention this above (cos the post was already long <deleted>), but I've been to two different DMVs in my area this morning. Both gave me the same runaround. What an absolute nightmare. I genuinely don't know what to do.

Edited October 4, 2023 by Crazy Cat

[Crazy Cat 39,665]

****One comment edited to remove inappropriate language.  Please post accordingly**

- VJ Moderation***

Edited October 4, 2023 by Crazy Cat

[TBoneTX 43,425]

Contact your Congressman's local office.

[Chancy 6,233]

21 hours ago, ghostinthemachine said:

whenever they run the Save Check (or whatever it is called on the DMV side of things) it only pulls up the expiration date of my EAD

 

IIRC, @Verrou had similar issues with SAVE Check not pulling up up-to-date info.

 

[Verrou 1,901]

please read this : 

 

it's not your fault, nothing u can do ( believed me i tried everything) beside waiting till save check verified. the problem is DHS aka USCIS didnt update your GC record. it happened from time to time even for people who received their conditional GC 8 months ago. 

Edited October 5, 2023 by Verrou

[ghostinthemachine 70]

9 minutes ago, Verrou said:

please read this : 

 

it's not your fault, nothing u can do ( believed me i tried everything) beside waiting till save check verified. the problem is DHS aka USCIS didnt update your GC record. it happened from time to time even for people who received their conditional GC 8 months ago. 

 

Hi @Verrou - sorry to hear you also had a whole lot of hassle to deal with based on that thread.

 

I think my case actually is a little different though. I received my cGC 04/2022, "upgraded" (lol) my social to an unrestricted one 01/2023 here in Hawaii with zero issues.

 

Assuming the SSA had no issues verifying my info based on how painless getting the updated social was... how come the DMV can't do it 10 months down the line. It makes no sense to me. I'm genuinely losing my mind here 😩 

[Verrou 1,901]

it doesnt matter though. the issue right now u cant get DL, correct ? all u can do is ask DMV person to escalate to USCIS Save check. 

even though u got unrestricted SSN, that DMV only refer to 1 thing, which is save check. in my experience, the DMV actually done the save check faster than SSA office. ( i did both in the span of 3 weeks gap)

[ghostinthemachine 70]

46 minutes ago, Verrou said:

it doesnt matter though. the issue right now u cant get DL, correct ? all u can do is ask DMV person to escalate to USCIS Save check. 

even though u got unrestricted SSN, that DMV only refer to 1 thing, which is save check. in my experience, the DMV actually done the save check faster than SSA office. ( i did both in the span of 3 weeks gap)

 

Hmm perhaps I'm misunderstanding how this works then. DMV says they cannot escalate as SAVE immediately pops up as "Returned to Agency" with the outdated info. They ran three CaseChecks on me yesterday at two different locations, all immediately returned to them. Were yours also returned immediately, but were still somehow "pending" in the background without your knowledge?

[Verrou 1,901]

49 minutes ago, ghostinthemachine said:

 

Hmm perhaps I'm misunderstanding how this works then. DMV says they cannot escalate as SAVE immediately pops up as "Returned to Agency" with the outdated info. They ran three CaseChecks on me yesterday at two different locations, all immediately returned to them. Were yours also returned immediately, but were still somehow "pending" in the background without your knowledge?

Yes it’s all returned. 1 month 1 week later I received My DL. No pending on DMV. It was pending on SSA only. Like I said u can’t escalate. Just wait when it come through 

Edited October 5, 2023 by Verrou

[ghostinthemachine 70]

Just wanted to give a bit of an update on this as I figured it might be useful for others who find themselves in the same or similar situation at some point.

 

The DMV was entirely unhelpful throughout this process and would not (could not? I mean who even knows at this point) escalate anything themselves. Called USCIS speak to an agent to start the appointment scheduling for a "Verification Referral" myself. First request for scheduling callback by a Tier 2 was closed after a week with a generic email sent as a response. Called to speak to another agent after this and she put extra detail of my issue in the notes supposedly. Received callback within a couple of weeks and scheduled the appointment at my local USCIS office for early December.

 

So in total I've had to wait pretty much two months on the dot for an appointment at my local office. Afterwards, I booked a new renewal appt to give it another try. The DMV appt was this morning and I now got my new DL that's valid for the whole 8 years. Finally.

[TBoneTX 43,425]

4 hours ago, ghostinthemachine said:

wanted to give a bit of an update on this as I figured it might be useful for others

Very much so -- thank you.

4 hours ago, ghostinthemachine said:

The DMV was entirely unhelpful throughout this process

Welcome to America...

4 hours ago, ghostinthemachine said:

First request for scheduling callback by a Tier 2 was closed after a week

Welcome back to USCIS...

4 hours ago, ghostinthemachine said:

The DMV appt was this morning and I now got my new DL that's valid for the whole 8 years. Finally.

      Finally, indeed!  Congratulations, and thanks again for the valuable update.