racheld08

My husband (who came on a K1 visa) recently had difficulty getting a TX driver's license during AOS. We read about a lot of people that were unsuccessful until they at least had the EAD, but he finally managed to get one, so we thought we'd share what worked. (As an aside, he has been driving with an international driver's license that is valid for a year, but we had a hard time finding a bank that didn't require a US driver's license and knew that car insurance would go down over time with experience driving under a US driver's license, so the sooner he had one the better.)

He originally went to DPS with his I-94 that was going to expire in less than a month. He was told his license would expire when the I-94 did, and then he'd have to apply for a new license all over again with other documentation. We had just received the email notice that our AOS, EAD, and AP applications had been received and our NOA1 was on its way. He showed the woman the email to see if the NOA1 would work as proof of lawful presence and she thought it might. Sure enough, the next day the NOA1 arrived and he headed to DPS. Of course, this letter only says you've applied for adjustment of status and your case has been received, and the lack of expiration date plus the giant words at the top "THIS IS NOT A VISA" didn't sit well with whoever he showed the paperwork to that day. He was advised to return when he had a document that showed some sort of approval, like the EAD if not the green card.

I wasn't pleased since the DPS requires "proof of lawful presence," and even though my husband's application for residency is pending, he IS lawfully here in the meantime. I ended up finding a document on the DPS website that showed that for our category (applicants for adjustment of status), the NOA1 served as proof of lawful presence. I circled and highlighted the words "form I-797" (NOA1) and "PENDING adjustment of status" and sent my husband back to plead his case. It worked.

https://www.dps.texas.gov/DriverLicense/documents/verifyingLawfulPresence.pdf

Whereas before he was sent away almost immediately, this time they at least tried to put his information in the computer to check for lawful presence. In his case, it wasn't instantaneous and he was told he would have to wait for a letter in the mail after further verification. (You can read about this process- SAVE- at the top of the document I linked to.) He got his letter a week later, took his driving test, and now has a TX driver's license that's good for a year.

Moral of the story: if you're in Texas and just married your K1 fiance, take all your documents AND the DPS "Verifying Lawful Presence" guide and convince them to put your fiance's A# in the computer for SAVE to decide whether you're lawfully present or not. Otherwise, they're not experts on the K1-AOS limbo and will probably just shoo you away out of ignorance or for convenience.