cassia

Hi all,

I just want to share my recent experience with the NJ DMV. If anyone has any advice or thoughts, please let me know.

I recently returned for the uk after 12 years abroad. I have just tried to renew my license at the DMV. It expired c4 years ago. I could not renew it at the time as I did not meet the proof of residency requirement which had recently been change as part of this six point Id which was brought in. I have a British license.

So, they told me I would need a permit because it expired for years ago. Ok fair enough - I thought I would only have to do my written test. Oh but no - apparently because I am returning resident, they will not accept my foreign license to waive the road test!!! They want me to do the whole thing. However, when my husband gets here, he will only have to do the written test because he has never lived in NJ before and has a foreign license.

Is it just me or is that not the most ridiculous thing you have ever heard??? I feel like I am being discriminated against because I used to live in NJ and previously passed my full license exam?!?! How can they waive a road test for someone who has never driven in the USA. I am at my wits end!!!

Sorry for the rant.

X

fatbrit

Why? It's a 5-minute drive round the block in most states.

cassia

It's not the difficulty of it, I could do it no probs. It's the principle.

fatbrit

I'd chose one a little nobler than the DMV if I were you.

cassia

What do you mean?

fatbrit

Whatever holds your fancy. Personally, I find the actions of Ms. Meredith Baker particularly disgusting at the moment and have given my energies to making my displeasure known. The misadministration of local DMVs rarely registers on my concerned gauge.

cassia

I shall have to look into that! Seems a bit dodgy that she left the FCC to join a company where she supported a jv. Hmmm....

This whole license thing is affecting my life in a big way as I can't by a car without a license and it is going to cost me a fortune to rent one again for another month. I just want to have a reasonable convesation with someone at the DMV but maybe that is too much to ask.

md95065

My expectations of the DMV are quite low - I am rarely disappointed ...

Englishmum

My son took his driving test in Wayne, NJ on his 17th birthday. He was on an L2 visa at the time so my spouse and I went along to the test centre too.

We thought it best for him to take his test in the car he had been learning to drive in, so booked an extra hour with his driving instructor and followed the car (from our home in Short Hills) to the driving test centre. We were appalled at the way he was driving - changing lanes without indicating, speeding, not slowing down in time when approaching traffic lights. We were shocked when we arrived and the driving instructor jumped out of the driver's seat!

What was worse, we observed our son and other people taking their test....but they didn't even go on the public road, just a bit of tarmac at the test centre and navigating around a few traffic cones. It took no more than 10 minutes. What a joke. Needless to say, he passed....and I found it alarming that he could have gone straight onto the Interstate highway...in NJ all they have to do as teenagers is to prove they've had 6 hours of lessons before taking the practical test. No wonder the driving standards are appalling.

BTW = O/P do you have to go to a regional DMV (eg. Wayne, Eatontown, Elizabeth?) for your new/first NJ driving licence? I know that due to State budget cuts many of the DMV offices have closed down and our nearest at Springfield (5 mins from my house) regularly has wait times of 3-4 hours.

Sally Redux

Yes.

That has never happened and never will.

sir_eccles

It is fairly common in most states that if your license is expired, there is a grace period in which you can renew it without being tested. Beyond that period, you can't just renew it and you have to be tested again. It doesn't matter if you are a PR, returning resident or US citizen. The fact that you didn't have enough ID to prove you were resident is a separate issue.

Jerseygirl

I'm afraid those are the rules and you have to accept them if you want to live and drive here.

My daughter took her test the day after her 17th birthday. It was in an empty car park. She had to drive about a 100 yards...then parallel park between 2 cones about 30 ft apart. That was it...test over. Hardly rocket science! TBH I think the written test is far harder than the practical test...and that's saying something because the written test is a piece of cake.

Ray

your a women ... its a know fact your driving skills are inferior to
all men ... you should really be tested yearly

cassia

I appreciate those are the rules but it should be the same for everyone, you know what I mean.

The road test is a total joke, I remember when I sat it in rahway on the course - it was literally over in 15 mins. In the UK, my road test was an hour on the roads and so much more thorough.

Anyway, I am going to plug away and see if I can get someone to see sense. I can do my written test in the meantime and hopefully I can get my road test waived or at least make it that my husband has to do the road test when he gets here :

S Folinsky

Daughters took driving tests in 1997 and 1999 -- both flunked the first time out. I guess CA is a tad more strict.