Losing US Licence, driving on Foreign Licence

[VanessaTony 3,567]

So a friend of mine has lost his licence recently. Only for 30 days (suspension) and for a totally bull reason but he proffered an interesting solution...

The DOT will take his licence (and there's some crazy rigmarole involved with driving to work and stuff), but he still has his foreign licence. Is it illegal for him to drive using the foreign licence when his US licence is suspended? He was thinking that would be the solution instead of the stupid work permit stuff.

I personally think it's not worth the trouble/risk and told him that but it did get me thinking. On the one hand the record is not on his foreign licence so LEO's won't know that he's "suspended". But as he HAS a licence here technically he's supposed to use it to drive and stuff right? He can't just choose which licence to show LEO's when pulled over... right? Seems like a pretty big loophole if you could...

Opinions? Again I don't think he is going to do that because it seems a bit risky, but do you think he COULD?

[Anh map 2,098]

Is his name on the car registration? What will come up when the license plate is run? How much is he prepared to lie about? It all depends on his tolerance for risk.

Edited September 20, 2012 by Anh map

[JohnR! 5,495]

Bad idea. It was not his license that was suspended so much as HE as an individual lost his driving privileges. The issue is that he is not allowed to drive for 30 days regardless of which license he carries. He was cited, not his license.

If he gets pulled over by a cop and shows his foreign DL he will also have to present proof of residence by means of his green card or passport. If the car is registered in his name it aggravates the situation even more for the data base will show against which document the registration was issued.

In his case, driving at all outside the permitted route or hours is a violation of his suspension and he may end up facing more severe charges. For all purposes he will be driving while on a suspended license.

In the end he should do what he wants but he may end up making a bad situation that much worse,

Edited September 20, 2012 by Gegel

[del-2-5-2014 1,339]

Very bad idea that will now turn into a felony for lying to law enforcement.

As noted above, the entity banned from driving for 30 days is not the USA license (it's just a document), your friend is the one that is actually banned from driving.

Just yesterday we had somebody ask if he can use a different passport to travel pre his K1-AOS period.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

Bad idea. It was not his license that was suspended so much as HE as an individual lost his driving privileges. The issue is that he is not allowed to drive for 30 days regardless of which license he carries. He was cited, not his license.

If he gets pulled over by a cop and shows his foreign DL he will also have to present proof of residence by means of his green card or passport. If the car is registered in his name it aggravates the situation even more for the data base will show against which document the registration was issued.

In his case, driving at all outside the permitted route or hours is a violation of his suspension and he may end up facing more severe charges. For all purposes he will be driving while on a suspended license.

In the end he should do what he wants but he may end up making a bad situation that much worse,

Actually local LEO's aren't allowed to ask about legal status but I get your point that there's probably a paper trail somewhere that will come back to haunt him. I think the insurance has his name on it.

Thanks

Very bad idea that will now turn into a felony for lying to law enforcement.

As noted above, the entity banned from driving for 30 days is not the USA license (it's just a document), your friend is the one that is actually banned from driving.

Just yesterday we had somebody ask if he can use a different passport to travel pre his K1-AOS period.

Thanks

[Penguin_ie 5,997]

Two issues:

- As mentioned, his driving privileges were suspended, the physical license is just a paper document proving that.

- In most states, you can only use a foreign license for 30-90 days after immigrating, after that you need to get/ maintain a state license.