S.Susan

hello everyone !

I wonder if anyone cam help me here.

I have been to the DMV in Pleasanton today and wanted to take the written exam. after spent 3 hours in the queue finally it is my turn however I was told they can not verify my passport. therefore I can not take the written test!! the stuff told me I can try a different test centre to see or do a manual application which will take upto 6-9 months waiting time.

has it happen to anyone else? is it worth for me to try a different test centre? I have heard someone had the same issue in the test centre in san Jose.

I'm getting worried now . without a CA licence, how many more months I can drive with my UK licence ? if for whatever reason I got stopped on the road by the police, what can I say ???

Noorah101

What is your status in the USA?

Rene

Pulaski

Verified your passport for what?

This is the second question in two days where someone in California has been rebuffed with some nonsense about having to be "verified".

I'd try another test center, and take all your visa/ immigration paperwork with you.

And why has it taken you over three months to get this far? By the letter of the law in CA, you have 10 days to obtain a CA license. Telling the police you are "using your best efforts" to get a license ASAP is fine for a few weeks, but it took you three months to try to take the written test? I think you are already skating on very thin ice!

S.Susan

I booked the appointment in DMV after I arrived in US and the next available appointment they have is today. I was told today in the centre that I m not the first one who has the problem but there is nothing else they can do with the system...I think I will try a different test centre tmr without the appointment.

Pulaski

What's an "LA1" visa?

S.Susan

sorry I mean L1b

S.Susan

just find out that this situation does happen sometimes. apparently the scanner in DMV has problem to read passport which has the glossy page therefore they can not verify my passport. so I have to send a manual application to the head office. finger crossed it will not take that long ...

LA LA LA

I’ve just sent mine and they quoted me 30 days. I’m still not sure why the DMV is in the business of checking legal presence checking, as DHS/USCIS and customs and border patrol should have already checked you.

Rete

They are in the business of vertification because after 9/11/2001 it became a priority to know who is in the US legally or not to obtain driver's licenses as driver's licenses are used for verification in many situations. There is also the issue that many DMV's will ask on the application if you wish to vote. Many illegals reply yes on the form and are registered and no one checks that they are not USC's and do not have the right to vote in federal elections. Some states and local governments will allow legal permanent residents to vote in local elections.

The DMV is state government and the USCIS/DHS/ICE are federal government.

Chesten

It's weird/ interesting how different states operate. I took my passport along in TN expecting it to have everything they required but they weren't interested in it and demanded my i94, which flummoxed me and lost me a day. (Didn't have and hadn't heard of it - I had to get advice from you guys).

Later I realised they could've logged on themselves and used my passport to generate the i94 themselves.

Anyway, it must be very frustrating to you both to have encountered these bureaucratic obstacles and I hope it's resolved pdq.

fbf2006

The I-94 and/or visa should be what is needed to verify status, if that is in fact what they are trying to do. The passport does not do that.

petitefrancaise

The system being used to verify lawful US presence is called SAVE.
You enter in the correct immigration number and it verifies you as being a legal immigrant.
For new arrivals the document needed is the i-94 and your passport for ID.
It does seem that CA is having a problem and the advice given is to try a different centre. Especially if they are NOT asking for i-94 because it means that person doesn't know what they are doing.

wisygreen

My daughters had terrible problems with the CA DMV. They were on temporary licences, which expired every 3 months, for years. Again, they could not verify their passports. I mentioned it to our Assemblyman who actually managed to get the issue resolved our us. It may be worth contacting yours.

Giantaxe

Because to get a "regular" drivers license you must be in the country legally and, as we know, many aren't. California does issue licenses to those here illegally, but they are different form of license that can't be used as an id:

https://www.dmv.org/ca-california/ab...rs-license.php

Anyway, seems to me the DMV should be asking for both passport and I94 in such cicumstances.

S.Susan

hi everyone , I went to a different DMV test centre which is called Tracy today and my passport got scanned in the end!!!!
All in all, the experience in this test centre is much much better than pleasanton . first of all, there were much less people . Secondly, I have dealt with 3 different staff and they were all polite and nice . Especially the guy who processed my application was really patient. He tried at least 4 different machines and asked his colleague for help. I m so thankful he didn't give up easily. what more funny is , before I left he told me he loved english sense of humor and also fawlty towers!!

anyway, if any of you guys have same situation, try a different test centre first before send to the manual verification. I have heard someone did that in August and still haven't got it back.