Experiences of a K-1 visa holder getting California state drivers license

[Mike E 11,739]

This post is a follow on to 

Today, well after the authorized stay expired stamped on her passport expired (aka "admitted until"), and after an NOA1 from AOS, my wife and I went back to the DMV in San Jose on Senter RD. Unlike the morning we went to get my wife's state ID, there were no crowds and no waiting.

 

We brought with us all the documents we brought when we got my wife a REAL ID state ID. However, once the clerks saw that she already possessed a California REAL ID state ID, they were not not interested in any of those documents. Instead, they asked us if we wanted her to have a REAL ID drivers license or a non-federally-compliant drivers license. One clerk asked if my wife had an EAD, which we don't have.

 

Me: "Will she be able to keep her REAL ID state ID" (which is good until 2024).

 

Clerk: "Of course"

 

Knowing that my wife would not be getting a road test today (and this DMV office doesn't do road tests), and of course California due to the backlog on road test appointments, it would be a several months before she had an actual drivers license, we opted for the non-federally-compliant drivers license.

 

In California, the process is that one takes a written test, and if there is a pass, one gets a instructional license laser printed in black and white on cheap paper. This is different than at least one other state, where an instructional license is issued as a laminated card, the same size as the regular drivers licenses.

 

My wife took the written test, passed (she studied for over a month), and was issued the booklet of unlaminated papers that comprises her instructional permit. I told her we will be doing some driving this weekend, and plan to enroll her into a professional driving school soon. The expiration date on the permit was a year from now. It authorizes her to drive in California when there is a licensed adult California driver in the passenger seat in the front row.

 

Lessons learned here for California K-1s:

 

• A K-1 has a path to getting both REAL ID and Drivers License while waiting for an EAD card / green card.
• The REAL-ID is "short" term, but good for over a year. In our case 5 years. I've read on VJ some have got 4 years.
• Once a K-1 has a California REAL ID (and presumably anyone else who has a REAL ID), bringing passports, birth certs, SS cards, proof of address, etc. isn't needed. One exception might be a change of address, or the transition to naturalized citizen.

 

It is thus critical to get the SS card, marriage cert, and the REAL ID identification-only card while there are 60 or more days left on the "admitted until" stamp of the passport. 

 

Once she has her regular drivers license, I will report back. Specifically on the expiration date.

 

 

Edited May 17, 2019 by Mike E

[Shiran 1,134]

4-5 years expiration date is mostly due to the fact that State ID/DL always expires on person's birthday, regardless when it was issued. 

Edited May 18, 2019 by Shiran