tigger1969

just a quick update. we went for duckies ssc and it we were surprised. she wanted to see the ead. so we told her nice that we infact did not need ead for duckie as he is k-1 fiance and showing her the printout of the internal note saying so. after a short time (with her supervisor ??) she said it is ok, no problem, k-1 does not need ead for getting a ssn. as the flight home was just friday, we did not bother to ask about the database. but she seamed to know her job - she said it takes a couple weeks for the mail verification of the status and another couple weeks for sending out the ssc. so according to our timeframe the ssc should arrive before the ead comes in.

after visiting the ssa we made a quick stop at the bmv and checked what all is needed to get a drivers licence. and we again had someone nice behind the counter. she told us that we might be surprised how easy it was for obtaining the dl. the international drivers licence together with the licence being from germany voids the need for the road test. all we need is the passport, wedding certificate, and the noa1 of the aos. when take a written test at bmv, and get license. we would not even need a ssn unless we want it to show on the dl. only problem would be that the licence expires when the I-94 does. so it makes sense (at least in ohio) to not get a drivers licence til after the noa1 of the aos arrived and use up till then the "passport-foreign licence-international licence" package to drive.

please keep in mind, that all this only applies for ohio - other states might (and do) have different requirements for the drivers license.

Leanne Grant

"tigger1969" <[email protected]> wrote

    > all we need is the passport, wedding certificate, and the noa1 of the
    > aos. when take a written test at bmv, and get license. we would not
    > even need a ssn unless we want it to show on the dl. only problem would
    > be that the licence expires when the I-94 does. so it makes sense (at
    > least in ohio) to not get a drivers licence til after the noa1 of the
    > aos arrived and use up till then the "passport-foreign licence-
    > international licence" package to drive.

I'm in Ohio too and I just got my driver's license this past saturday. You
don't need to wait until after you're married and file AOS to get a driver's
license. You can get one beforehand - just take along your driver's license,
birth certificate, passport, 1st and 2nd NOA from the k1 process. You will
have to do the written and vision tests and if you pass and are granted your
license, it will cost you $10.75. Mine is valid until the date my k1 visa
expires... which is Nov 26. The I-94 is good until Oct 16 but they said that
since there's a later date in my passport, they can go with that. I was
issued a non transferable non renewable license... which means that I can't
move to another state and automatically transfer to the other state's
license, nor can I renew without proving that I'm legally in the country.
Fortunately by the time this license expires, I should have a receipt back
from filing AOS and thus I will be able to show that I am still here
legally. Yes, it will cost another $10.75 to renew at that time.... but that
license will be valid for 4 years and even though I've paid 10.75 twice at
that point, it's still cheaper than a driver's license in Canada... There it
cost me around $50 every single year. (Here it's 10.75 for 4 years).

So, if you wish to get a license, you could get one now.

Leanne

tigger1969

well, the first $ 10.75 would be only for the first few months. international licence works in ohio for up to 12 months. if your real foreign license expires before that, you can choose to just renew that or get a us licence instead (if I-797 from the aos arrived yet). problem is, that there is no guarantee that you get your noa1 of aos before the first us-license is run out. licenses in germany do not expire. well actually they did not expire til a few years ago (duckies licence is one of them that never expires until it is his fault ). nowadays german licenses need to be renewed too.

and it might be the case that they dont trust canadian licences to have no need for the road test. germany is one of the few countries of the ones that can drive with a international license in ohio that do NOT need a road test.

go figure

Leanne Grant

"tigger1969" <[email protected]> wrote

    > well, the first $ 10.75 would be only for the first few months.

This is true... but even though my combined cost for 4 years is going to be
around $22 here in Ohio, it doesn't seem bad to me considering my combined
cost for 4 years where I'm from would be around $200. See the difference?
See why it wasn't really a big deal?

All I meant was that if you need to get yourself some local photo ID, such
as a driver's license (or even a state ID card), it *can* be done before
you're married. I needed a local photo ID to get added to my fiance's bank
accounts.

    > international licence works in ohio for up to 12 months. if your real
    > foreign license expires before that, you can choose to just renew that

I don't know how it works where you are from, but that's not true from
Canada at all, or at least not Manitoba. They won't renew a driver's license
with a foreign address on it so I would not be able to renew it.

    > and it might be the case that they dont trust canadian licences to have
    > no need for the road test. germany is one of the few countries of the
    > ones that can drive with a international license in ohio that do NOT
    > need a road test.

I don't know what you mean in that paragraph. I didn't need a road test
either.

Leanne