what to use as identification

[missouriviaperu 1]

So my lovely (thick sarcasm) state of Missouri has made things pretty confusing for us for getting my wife a state ID. Long story short, we first got a non-driver's license, then she got a driver's permit in late april, only a few weeks before the K1 expired. So both ID's have an expiration date of 5/11/2011. That leaves us in limbo as far as her having a state ID until we actually get the green card. I contacted my immigration attorney (who did a doc review for us 14 months ago), and he advised my to go back and ask for a supervisor because we should not have any issues. If that doesn't work he said to make an appointment with our local USCIS office and take it from there. ... anybody else have any experience with this?

I had no idea it was going to be such a pain in the #### between the K1 expiring and the green card being issued. I mean this is just for simple things like ordering a beer at a bar or taking it to the airport without having to bring the passport.

[Barbara J 115]

So my lovely (thick sarcasm) state of Missouri has made things pretty confusing for us for getting my wife a state ID. Long story short, we first got a non-driver's license, then she got a driver's permit in late april, only a few weeks before the K1 expired. So both ID's have an expiration date of 5/11/2011. That leaves us in limbo as far as her having a state ID until we actually get the green card. I contacted my immigration attorney (who did a doc review for us 14 months ago), and he advised my to go back and ask for a supervisor because we should not have any issues. If that doesn't work he said to make an appointment with our local USCIS office and take it from there. ... anybody else have any experience with this?

I had no idea it was going to be such a pain in the #### between the K1 expiring and the green card being issued. I mean this is just for simple things like ordering a beer at a bar or taking it to the airport without having to bring the passport.

Well to start with the K1 expired the minute she landed on US soil it is the I-94 that expired not the K1. What is a non -drivers license? Never heard of it. :blink:Not sure about your state but most can't get a DL until they have and EAD card for proof of ID. In my state of Georgis here in Augusta I could not get my license till my GC was approved in the system as when I went for my DL they told me my ID was still pending and I had to wait a month. I drove on my international license till I got my GC as most of us have to. We are pending AOS when we file that so we wait in limbo for that period. You don't need to see USCIS what for you just wait for GC as you don't have time line for AOS I have no idea when you submitted AOS.

[missouriviaperu 1]

Well to start with the K1 expired the minute she landed on US soil it is the I-94 that expired not the K1. What is a non -drivers license? Never heard of it. :blink:Not sure about your state but most can't get a DL until they have and EAD card for proof of ID. In my state of Georgis here in Augusta I could not get my license till my GC was approved in the system as when I went for my DL they told me my ID was still pending and I had to wait a month. I drove on my international license till I got my GC as most of us have to. We are pending AOS when we file that so we wait in limbo for that period. You don't need to see USCIS what for you just wait for GC as you don't have time line for AOS I have no idea when you submitted AOS.

Non drivers license is what you get if you have not taken the driver's test. This is a state to state issue apparently. I don't know about Georgia, but Missouri does not recognize an "international license" so this was never an option. I actually have updated my timeline, so if you look at my profile you should see that I filed the AOS on 5/3/2011. We got a transfer notice a few weeks ago but haven't updated the timeline yet.

[missouriviaperu 1]

Well to start with the K1 expired the minute she landed on US soil it is the I-94 that expired not the K1. What is a non -drivers license? Never heard of it. :blink:Not sure about your state but most can't get a DL until they have and EAD card for proof of ID. In my state of Georgis here in Augusta I could not get my license till my GC was approved in the system as when I went for my DL they told me my ID was still pending and I had to wait a month. I drove on my international license till I got my GC as most of us have to. We are pending AOS when we file that so we wait in limbo for that period. You don't need to see USCIS what for you just wait for GC as you don't have time line for AOS I have no idea when you submitted AOS.

.....so what, basically the answer is to wait in limbo. We had to start the process from scratch in my state with the DL - driver's permit first(written test), then the driver's exam (driving test for the full DL), so it just sucks to have to put that process on hold because the I-94 expired. It's frustrating considering everyone in this situation went through the system completely legally and then are left without a valid state ID for several months.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Yep. Use the passport.

[Barbara J 115]

.....so what, basically the answer is to wait in limbo. We had to start the process from scratch in my state with the DL - driver's permit first(written test), then the driver's exam (driving test for the full DL), so it just sucks to have to put that process on hold because the I-94 expired. It's frustrating considering everyone in this situation went through the system completely legally and then are left without a valid state ID for several months.

Did you send away for EAD as well with your AOS? Because by rights she should be able to get DL with that. And yeah I had to wait till they got the clearance my GC was approved as the DDS rang me and said I could come and take my test now and then 2 weeks later I got GC. Yep and we all go through legally but there is a time of limbo and it felt like ####### but it all sorts itself out in the end.

[Anh map 2,098]

It's not just your state. This is one of the inconveniences associated with the K1 visa. Her passport will have to be used until the GC is issued or the EAD is received.

[patient2010 93]

We are in Missouri and had no problem using my husband international drivers license when we needed to ie: buying drinks or what not. We even used it to go to the casino. so not sure where you are in Missouri. He also had a Non drivers license (state ID) that expired when the I-94 did but we just went back to using the international license and or passport......

[missouriviaperu 1]

Did you send away for EAD as well with your AOS? Because by rights she should be able to get DL with that. And yeah I had to wait till they got the clearance my GC was approved as the DDS rang me and said I could come and take my test now and then 2 weeks later I got GC. Yep and we all go through legally but there is a time of limbo and it felt like ####### but it all sorts itself out in the end.

Yeah I sent the EAD as well, but from the timelines i've seen it seems to take ~3 months so we're looking at another 5 weeks of waiting. I remember people griping about the waiting in limbo, but talking to my immigration attorney confused me a little. Sounds like we may just have to wait until the beginning of august.

Part of the issue is that she never really had a DL in her home country of Peru. She was on her way to getting one down there in the months preceding her move, but after calling the state DMV I was informed, several times, that our state would not recognize an international DL.

She does have a Peruvian ID called a "DNI," which is the equivalent of a non-driver's license, but she has had it rejected by several bars in the Columbia & St Louis areas. We have also been let in to several...just seems to be at the discretion of the bouncer and how strict they wanna be. We live in the St. Louis area and the casinos have been the absolute worst about taking her ID...first we brought her State IDs, but it happened to be a week after the expiration date, so they wouldn't accept it because they don't accept expired IDs from people under 30 years of age. Even when we brought her passport it took about 20 minutes for them to run a scan/computerized check on it before they let us in.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

Yeah I sent the EAD as well, but from the timelines i've seen it seems to take ~3 months so we're looking at another 5 weeks of waiting. I remember people griping about the waiting in limbo, but talking to my immigration attorney confused me a little. Sounds like we may just have to wait until the beginning of august.

Part of the issue is that she never really had a DL in her home country of Peru. She was on her way to getting one down there in the months preceding her move, but after calling the state DMV I was informed, several times, that our state would not recognize an international DL.

She does have a Peruvian ID called a "DNI," which is the equivalent of a non-driver's license, but she has had it rejected by several bars in the Columbia & St Louis areas. We have also been let in to several...just seems to be at the discretion of the bouncer and how strict they wanna be. We live in the St. Louis area and the casinos have been the absolute worst about taking her ID...first we brought her State IDs, but it happened to be a week after the expiration date, so they wouldn't accept it because they don't accept expired IDs from people under 30 years of age. Even when we brought her passport it took about 20 minutes for them to run a scan/computerized check on it before they let us in.

Here's an interesting thing.. you said you called the DMV and THEY told you THEY don't recognise an international licence... that doesn't mean she can't drive on it, it just means she can't have her foreign licence taken into account when getting their licence. For instance had I been underage here with a full licence in Australia then I would STILL get whatever sort of licence i'm eligible for here after doing all the testing... not what i had there. Canadian's licences ARE accepted so they can just do a switch (no tests).

Why is an expired ID an issue for bars etc? She can't drive of course but why is it a problem for ID?

[missouriviaperu 1]

Here's an interesting thing.. you said you called the DMV and THEY told you THEY don't recognise an international licence... that doesn't mean she can't drive on it, it just means she can't have her foreign licence taken into account when getting their licence. For instance had I been underage here with a full licence in Australia then I would STILL get whatever sort of licence i'm eligible for here after doing all the testing... not what i had there. Canadian's licences ARE accepted so they can just do a switch (no tests).

Why is an expired ID an issue for bars etc? She can't drive of course but why is it a problem for ID?

The question I posed to the DMV was if she could legally drive on an international DL in our state, not if they would recognize it. It's probably worth a follow-up for clarification, but it's sort of pointless for us considering what's done is done.

I'm really not sure why exactly an expired ID is an issue for bars around here. I guess perhaps they get a lot of minors posing as adults with expired ID's...my wife is fairly young-looking so I wouldn't be surprised if that's working against her. Basically it's about 50/50 between the ID being accepted or turned down.

[ryna 132]

Here's an interesting thing.. you said you called the DMV and THEY told you THEY don't recognise an international licence... that doesn't mean she can't drive on it, it just means she can't have her foreign licence taken into account when getting their licence. For instance had I been underage here with a full licence in Australia then I would STILL get whatever sort of licence i'm eligible for here after doing all the testing... not what i had there. Canadian's licences ARE accepted so they can just do a switch (no tests).

Why is an expired ID an issue for bars etc? She can't drive of course but why is it a problem for ID?

Because they don't want someone giving their old license/ID to another similar-looking (underage) person so they refuse to accept expired IDs. Why it should be a problem with a secondary ID (passport) to back it up is another question but as the bar, liquor store, etc. is a private business, they are under no obligation to honor ANY ID (even a state-issued and current one.)

Edited June 30, 2011 by ryna

[gearman 1]

So my lovely (thick sarcasm) state of Missouri has made things pretty confusing for us for getting my wife a state ID. Long story short, we first got a non-driver's license, then she got a driver's permit in late april, only a few weeks before the K1 expired. So both ID's have an expiration date of 5/11/2011. That leaves us in limbo as far as her having a state ID until we actually get the green card. I contacted my immigration attorney (who did a doc review for us 14 months ago), and he advised my to go back and ask for a supervisor because we should not have any issues. If that doesn't work he said to make an appointment with our local USCIS office and take it from there. ... anybody else have any experience with this?

I had no idea it was going to be such a pain in the #### between the K1 expiring and the green card being issued. I mean this is just for simple things like ordering a beer at a bar or taking it to the airport without having to bring the passport.

yes dude just chill

its the same thing here in louisiana.

my wife needs her ead or gc to get her learners permit or state id

yup its a pain in the #### but they got us by the balls bro.

i have been fighting with the dmv for weeks

[sorchaine 10]

My husband used his passport until he had his EAD and then was able to get a state ID.