Bob

That's what I just said...and it also has a pic on if if your license is the old fashioned paper one, which mine was...

USBound

I asked the DMV (in LA) and they told me it was a year... only problem was that I couldn't register the car without a US license. Insurance wasn't a problem until the registration went delinquent and they voided the insurance... I got the license about a week later... total time driving without license... 9months... pulled by police once and let off due to UK license, no other complications.

the ease of getting the license told me ALL the reasons why the US has such a high vehicular death rate.

10 on paper test passed after just 30mins reading, 6 minute driving test involving drive around the block, wait at one intersection for 2mins.. and pull into the DMV again.

Scorchio

You can drive for a year in Texas on a UK driver's licence. This was a bit of a concern for me as tomorrow marks the 1 year anniversary of my landing at Houston.

I decided to call in at the DMV yesterday to at least fill in the paperwork and set a date for tests and such. As it happened, it was really quiet in there, and I was given a sight test, a multiple-choice touch screen highway code test, and took an examiner out on a parallel park and trip around the local roads. I was out of the door, $24 lighter, but with a Texas licence in hand almost before I knew what was happening.

All this on the way back from getting my green card approval in San Antonio, too.

HappyHammer

I passed my test first time in England, but failed it in USA, I passed 2nd time. I failed because I drove 30 mph through a 25 mph speed zone. I said ... "Well back in England, the driving tests only go where there are 30 mpg signs", and the examiner replied - "Yes Diery, but you're not in England now".
Tip- Even though it's easier in USA, don't be over confident like I was.

Bob

aye, the big thing they get you here is not stopping dead at the stop sign, and then creeping to the white line to stop again...and in maine, not actually looking over shoulder at junctions rather than relying on mirrors, and being spot on with the speed signs, apparantly.

Still a piece of piss though, no hard things or anything to do...

NC Penguin

I can't believe someone's admitted to failing an American driving test. Was this in IL?




NC Penguin

HappyHammer

No it was in Kansas which is worse.
No problem passing in busy North London with a manual gear shift. I even had the most obnixious person test instructor who practically wrote me off even before I got in the car. Fortunatly it spurred me on even more. However in sleepy Kansas, on a quiet afternoon I blew it big time. I was like there's no way I'm gonna fail.... but I did. My wife of-course passed first time, and she never lets me forget it.

Britdrinker

Did you take the touch-screen test just like that, or had you memorised the wretched highway code book first? I remember having to answer all sorts of odd questions about how how fast a 16 year old can stop a car when he/she's had x number of beers, etc. It would have been funny if I didn't have to learn it all.

Bob

second time passes are supposed to make better drivers...according to the insurance *lol*
excuse I used in blighty, cos I passed second time round there...failed because my reverse corner was to close to the curb and considered in the gutter...I was well chuffed with it myself as it was my best one yet, was shite at the reverse corner....parallel park was always a doddle though *l*

CaliforniaBride

Wow! What a day you had! Congrats.

Scorchio

Heh... my wife picked up a handbook last week, so I'd read through it a couple of times and committed thinking/stopping/braking distances to memory again. I'd read on the forum here about mad questions about fines and such, but there were so many listed in the handbook that I hoped I could get enough of the other stuff right to cover my ignorance of jail sentences. I was asked about a fine for drinking while driving, and I guessed right at $2000. God bless multiple choice. Most of them were fairly easy - the only one I got wrong was how far something could stick out of the left side of your car, which was 3", not 6", which I gather is the right side of the car. Or something like that.

One of the signs questions made me laugh... the vertical sign with yellow and black diagonal lines for marking the edge of a barrier at the side of the road: one of the three possible answers for the meaning of this sign was "roadside barber shop ahead"!

And I didn't need my braking distances at all...