Few Questions regarding Drivers License & Opening Joint Account

[GeorgeandGeorgia 14]

Hi,

I am just wondering if My fiance (USC) and I can open a joint account after we got married? Or can we open joint account while I am still on fiance visa? Any procedures? Does it require a green card first? Or it is okey to present my passport & ssn?

Another question is- I have international drivers license, Am i able to get a US drivers license once I get my EAD?

Thanks to all who can help me.

[yuna628 9,727]

Hi,

I am just wondering if My fiance (USC) and I can open a joint account after we got married? Or can we open joint account while I am still on fiance visa? Any procedures? Does it require a green card first? Or it is okey to present my passport & ssn?

Another question is- I have international drivers license, Am i able to get a US drivers license once I get my EAD?

Thanks to all who can help me.

Hi there,

I added my husband to my account after we got married. They needed to see our marriage certificate and his passport. Every bank is different though with different rules, ask around. It may ask for them to have a SSN, which you can obtain when you arrive to the US.

Depending on the rules of the state you will reside, will depend on what documentation you need to present. For my state, an EAD, SSN, your foreign license, and your name on some mail at your address is required. That's followed up by a certification, written, and road test. In general you should have no problems once you have an SSN with an EAD.

[rlogan 2,036]

We had to shop around for a bank that would do it. Some require a social security card. Some don't.

Get to work on that SS# application right away, and make sure the office that is doing it has experience in foreigners applying for them. We went through a two-year nightmare with malicious and stupid workers in the Fairbanks office. Even our Senator and Congressman were incapable of getting them to do their job, and they tried to tell us to change the date of the I-94 stamp, which is a felony.

There is an international treaty recognizing foreign drivers' licenses as a part of the 1949 Geneva Convention on Road Traffic, to which the US is a party. But regardless, you can have a cop who doesn't know his rear end from a hole in the ground and who gives you a citation that you are going to beat in court. These international licenses are actually translations of your own country's license, and it is your own country's license, not the translation, that has standing in law. So keep your Bahrain license with you.

Every state has different rules on conversion and time limits to convert. Ours is 30 days. Even though federal law (treaty) says you are eligible to drive, the state law says that you have to get the license in order to establish residency. So you've actually broken a law regarding the establishment of residency as opposed to driving without a license. Who wants to go to court to hash all that out - traffic court can go against you even when international law says you are in the right.

So go to your state's website and look up the deadline and requirements for conversion.

Edited April 23, 2016 by rlogan

[GeorgeandGeorgia 14]

Hi there,

I added my husband to my account after we got married. They needed to see our marriage certificate and his passport. Every bank is different though with different rules, ask around. It may ask for them to have a SSN, which you can obtain when you arrive to the US.

Depending on the rules of the state you will reside, will depend on what documentation you need to present. For my state, an EAD, SSN, your foreign license, and your name on some mail at your address is required. That's followed up by a certification, written, and road test. In general you should have no problems once you have an SSN with an EAD.

Thanks for the input. My fiance asked the Chase Bank and they required resident ID so i guess i have to wait for my green card before we can open an account.

We had to shop around for a bank that would do it. Some require a social security card. Some don't.

Get to work on that SS# application right away, and make sure the office that is doing it has experience in foreigners applying for them. We went through a two-year nightmare with malicious and stupid workers in the Fairbanks office. Even our Senator and Congressman were incapable of getting them to do their job, and they tried to tell us to change the date of the I-94 stamp, which is a felony.

There is an international treaty recognizing foreign drivers' licenses as a part of the 1949 Geneva Convention on Road Traffic, to which the US is a party. But regardless, you can have a cop who doesn't know his rear end from a hole in the ground and who gives you a citation that you are going to beat in court. These international licenses are actually translations of your own country's license, and it is your own country's license, not the translation, that has standing in law. So keep your Bahrain license with you.

Every state has different rules on conversion and time limits to convert. Ours is 30 days. Even though federal law (treaty) says you are eligible to drive, the state law says that you have to get the license in order to establish residency. So you've actually broken a law regarding the establishment of residency as opposed to driving without a license. Who wants to go to court to hash all that out - traffic court can go against you even when international law says you are in the right.

So go to your state's website and look up the deadline and requirements for conversion.

Thanks a lot for your advise. Noted & hopefully it wont be hard to get license in Florida.

[PerditaD 35]

We were able to open a joint account with Bank of America shortly after getting married, I only had a passport and a social security card, we didn't even had a marriage certificate yet so maybe you can try there

[GeorgeandGeorgia 14]

We were able to open a joint account with Bank of America shortly after getting married, I only had a passport and a social security card, we didn't even had a marriage certificate yet so maybe you can try there

Thanks! We will try that bank but my fiance's bank is Chase and he just wanted to add me on his acct but we will still go to bank of america and check the requirements. Thank u again for the input.