ljaw2002uk

How on earth are they going to fine me? They don't know where I live! Prison for giving an incorrect address on a drivers license? Don't be daft man! They don't even jail rapists over there anymore. The DVLA can't check council tax records, what a load of codswallop, this is the DVLA! They struggle to issue a tax disc reminder, and are horrendously understaffed. Your premise is based on every license holder also being a tax payer? Not the case, you forget about shared houses. Are you getting confused with the electoral roll maybe?

Sheer fantasy. There is no sharing between the DVLA and the USCIS. 1) The data protection act in the UK would not let the DVLA disclose your information to some foreign government agency, and 2) The USCIS probably don't give a s**t who or what the DVLA are. NOTHING can or will come of maintaining a license in the UK, jesus everyone, get a grip!

ljaw2002uk

Uh, I can and I do!

Jerseygirl

Bully for you...but's illegal and your DL is invalid.

tom_1984

Ok, thanks! I'm fine with just using my Texas license, I just find the UK DL is a useful ID when I'm visiting the motherland. As long as there's no time limit and I can renew it at any time (should I need to) then I'm happy.

I seem to have opened a can of worms with this question...

materialcontroller

I don't drive. But I had a provisional licence for a time about 10 years ago. In the years since then I'd changed my address many times and never bothered to tell DVLA as I had given up on learning to drive and didn't use the licence anyway. I thought that was the end of it and the licence would just expire.

Imagine my surprise when I received a renewal notice from DVLA at my current address, stating that the ten years were up and my provisional licence needed to be renewed. I called up and asked them how they'd managed to track me down, even though I'd had 6 or 7 different addresses in that time. The answer? Credit reference agency files.

So DVLA can and do track you from address to address.

Duncan Roberts

Maybe it is the electoral roll but the point is, there are very easy ways to see who is living at an address and who is just using the address for convenience.

I never said that the DVLA shared info with USCIS but the applicant is required to share a ton of personal information including their legal past, which this would fall under. Fraud against the government is not looked at in a good light, no matter how minor and entitled to do it you feel you are.

Regardless of any fines (which they have) and jail time (which has been on the table in the past) it still makes no sense to willingly go against the law to renew a license that will have no use until you move back to the UK at which time you can renew it without any problems. The biggest question I have is what's the point of doing it other than to give the DVLA some extra money for nothing?

ljaw2002uk

Really? I don't think so. Please do tell how the travelling communities in the UK are able to maintain their GB licenses? I will tell you - by using a bricks and mortar address for this purpose, without any fear of fines or otherwise, and of course they don't live there (btw that is something in the region of 85,000 people).

"Fraud", "legal past"? I don't recall anything in my visa process to do with my drivers license, or that I have to give up having an address in the UK. The US government couldn't give a s**t if I keep my GB license, you are talking out of your a**e!

The legal system in the UK cannot even cope with the hardcore criminals, jail time for keeping a GB license is never going to happen, a fine is so unlikely it is laughable. Someone would have to prove I have done something wrong, and that would take some serious doing!

Good question! 1) You never know what changes the DVLA might make in future, I don't want to risk having to re-take my test at somepoint down the line. 2) Keeping a handy UK ID, US licenses look cheap and fake, and aren't widely accepted in the UK. 3) Nostalgia I suppose, I worked hard for my GBL and I want to keep it.

BritishGuy36

An ironic statement, since you don't seem to be able to 'grip' the fact that any UK license renewed using an address you don't live at is invalid, and therefore is useless.

Since you aren't interested in reasonable dialogue on this subject, further discussion is irrelevant and a waste of time.

ian-mstm

I'm constrained to point out that: 1) you have admitted to the act in a public forum; and 2) the BE administrators likely know who you are.

Ian

Jerseygirl

You forgot 3) Site Rule #3.

ljaw2002uk

Links to inappropriate content?

ljaw2002uk

It would be extremely difficult to make a case that I have broken the law. Who decides where I reside but me? You know as well as I do it could never be sucessfully brought to court. The whole subject is daft.

materialcontroller

Links to adult content, pages with links to adult content, near adult content, warez, hate sites or messages describing anything against the law is not allowed and will be removed.

Duncan Roberts

So you don't recall having to get a police certificate or the questions about committing crimes? If you are caught as having made a fraudulent statement in order to renew a drivers license, that would need to be included on an application. I know the US couldn't care about you having a UK license but they do if you obtained it fraudulently.

You also seemed to have missed the part of my original post that says the chances of it catching up with you is remote, but the chance is still there.

ScousePete

There are photos on the UK driver's license?

I've obviously been away too long