Forcing Immigrants to Navigate the Craziness of the DMV
My wife, Nghīa, and I have been going back and forth between home and the Department of Motor Vehicles aka the DMV since just before Christmas until now.
We decided that it was time for Nghia to learn how to drive. Being the expert at deflecting the initial responsibility of teaching someone how to drive I immediately recommended driver lessons with the Automobile Club of Southern California or AAA.
I managed the responsibility of teaching both my two oldest daughters how to drive initially. But I learned from experience that it is a very difficult and thankless job. That’s why I went ahead and paid for a professional driving lesson.
Prepped for the Proctor Exam
Nghia researched the information she needed to do on driving and the online written test. We finally decided to take the written test online in a proctor-like environment. In this situation, you sit down at a desktop computer or laptop and you keep your camera on at all times and it monitors you.
Nghia took the test just before Christmas in 2023. She got a notification that she had finished the test and we rushed to the Department of Motor Vehicles to complete the process.
We learned two things: first, we learned that it is not that simple. Second, we learned that she had not passed the test.
But the first visit to the DMV was very fruitful in terms of information. California has a license designation called the AB 60 and it allows undocumented residents to obtain a legal driver’s license. Nghia’s change of status with the USCIS is still in progress so she’s in this weird limbo where her Fiancé visa has expired, and her application for Change of Status is pending.
Technically she cannot leave the country, and technically she has no Visa. It’s a weird situation. But more on that later.
So we get to the DMV, get called up, and speak to a very nice African-American woman. She gave us some information based on the items that we brought with us. One of those pieces of information was our i-797 form which is a form you get from the USCIS indicating that they have received your petition for the I435 change of status and that it’s pending.
On that form, there is an Alien Registration number issued to the individual beneficiary. We were told by the woman at the DMV who has been through this scenario before that it indicates that the approval for the change of status is in process. We took that as good news especially since we had just gone through a secondary medical examination for this Change of Status petition.
Hurry Up and Wait for Another Exam
Nevertheless, we decided to go ahead with the AB 60 driver’s license designation because according to the USCIS website, we still had many months to go before we would get approval for the conditional permanent resident alien card. We didn’t want to wait indefinitely.
We ran into problems because one: it takes 3 to 5 days for your test results to be transmitted to the DMV and two: unknown to us at the time Nghia had failed the first exam. The results hadn’t been processed yet.
With the information from the very kind woman at the DMV, we decided to wait a little longer. because at the time we weren’t in the system as having passed the test because it was too early to check.
We went back home and when Nghia checked her email she learned that she had failed the test.
A few days passed and we decided to go ahead and take the second exam since it was free and Nghia was feeling confident. She took the test and we waited. She got an indication that her test results had been submitted. The next day we received confirmation that she passed the test.
We waited for another week and a half before we would go back to the DMV. When we got on the line it was too slow and we had used a service that allows you to get a ticket before you get to the DMV. Therefore you wait in line at home and then as you get closer to the time of your ticket number being called you just drive to the DMV.
We got online and the line moved so slowly that our ticket number was called before we got to fully check in at the appointment counter. While we were waiting online I looked at the very same area where we stood on the first visit and I saw that the African-American woman was not there.
There are No Small Coincidences or Big Coincidences, Only Coincidences
We got a new number and we went to sit down in the waiting area. We waited for 10 or 15 minutes and we got called and went to another area of the DMV office. As we approached the counter I looked at the person waiting for us and it was again the helpful African-American woman who had been very kind to us the first time. Just as we recognized her, she also recognized us
We said our greetings and laughed at the coincidence. So… everything was going our way it seemed. That couldn’t last for long. We had all the information, ticket numbers, docket numbers, registration information, and ID information that we needed to present. However, I probably should have conducted some more research into this entire AB 60 license program.
It turns out that there is a second layer of identification and verification even though Nghia presented them with legal and authentic national IDs from Vietnam, including her passport which was accepted as her form of ID when she entered the country and still contained the visa from the US Consulate of Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh.
We were told that we could not get a DMV provisional license at this time. We needed to go through the secondary screening process which involves waiting another week for all this information to be collected, processed, and collated at the DMV. Then, we contact the DMV and go through another verification process over the phone. And then we wait another week before we go back to the DMV office to secure the provisional California driver’s license under AB 60 conditions.
At this point, we will likely receive our conditional permanent resident alien card before all of this driver’s license information is resolved.
In any event, we will have to go back and get the driver’s license updated to an official resident California driver’s license at some point.
So again we are in waiting mode.
The good thing however was that the young lady was still very kind, still very pleasant to deal with, and still very helpful. I was very happy to experience this. Unfortunately in the past when I have gone to government agencies or large department stores with the Vietnamese lady I was dating at the time I did not receive a welcome response from the African-American women who served us.
This time was different and I was very happy. And so was Nghia.