Do WHAT to get a driver's license?!

@zoey7879 (3092)
United States
August 17, 2011 5:25pm CST
I was born in raised in Illinois and got my first driver's license here in 1999. All that I had to have was my previous ID and either my social security card or birth certificate. I moved out of state and got a license there. In 2007, I came back to Illinois and moved to this little town about about 6,000 people. There is an especially high immigrant population for a town this size. My driver's license expired shortly after I got here. When I went to apply for a new one, I took my expired driver's license from Alabama, my birth certificate, and social security card and was SHOCKED when they told me that this was not enough nor acceptable forms of identification! I've held a drivers license here before, which the woman supposedly was unable to locate any record of on their computers. I was given a long list of other documentation to that I could bring in that included... a major credit card, a copy of my rental lease, a canceled check, or a CURRENT ILLINOIS driver's license or ID card. Even a utility bill. I had a recent, unopened piece of mail, but it was not acceptable. Now.. I've NEVER had utilities in my name, so that was out and I don't have any credit cards. I don't have a checking account. Hell-o, checks are easily stolen and forged ALL of the time! I have a MedicAID card, but they only accept MediCARE cards (even though they are issued by the same governing authority!). I threw a fit, but paid a friend to drive me back home to get a copy of my rental lease. When I took it in, the woman said that they could not accept it because it only listed my apt. number, and didn't include the city, state, and zip code.. of course not! This town has 6,000 people and a person who rents out very few buildings typically isnt going to waste their time filling that in. I asked if they would accept my MedicAID card and the woman said yes.. so I paid my friend YET AGAIN to drive me back home to get it. When I returned, the lady then said that they couldn't accept it. I BLEW up and began screaming at her. I was born and raised in America and what are the point of having birth certificates and social security cards if that is not enough to satisfy a state's requirements to get a driver's license - Especially in a state where I got my very first DL!!! After I threw my tantrum, they finaaaaally issued it. This country has millions of immigrants, many of whom have fake and/or stolen identities and yet I have to go through all of this! When I get my new one, I then realized that it was the EXACT same number that I had been issued the first time... so apparently, there WAS a record of my first driver's license after all. GRRRRR! Has anyone else had difficulties in America proving their identity and citzenship with a photo ID, birth certificate, and SS card combined? Does anyone else find this as ridiculous as I did?
1 person likes this
4 responses
celticeagle
@celticeagle (159195)
• Boise, Idaho
18 Aug 11
Well, you can thank hackers and identity theives for these problems. THis is just how smart these creeps are. Forging such things. And, ofcourse, the influx of foreigners too. They have made it very hard for Americans. I did have some slight problem when I went to get my renewal time before last. THis time it went right trough. Pays to stay in the same town for nearly 60 years! There has to be some records somewhere! Glad you got it done though! Sometimes a good tantrum does the trick doesn't it?
zoey7879
@zoey7879 (3092)
• United States
18 Aug 11
Tantrum is an understatement. My family has lived in the area for more than 100 years.. so I wish that would've worked for me. I got a MUCH warmer reception and had far less difficulty when I went to get my driver's license in Tuscaloosa. Again, I'm not sure why they accept canceled checks as a form to prove your signature... After working for Certegy, I learned that a check is one of the most easily and frequently stolen "documents" on the planet :x
1 person likes this
celticeagle
@celticeagle (159195)
• Boise, Idaho
19 Aug 11
It is really sad that other people's lack of responsibility and their fraudulent activities cause others such problems. If people could be trusted there wouldn't be all these rules and regulations. They accept cancelled checks because they have gone through the bank, the creditor and then back to the bank. It has shown their is no fradulence going on. And they have to have some things they will accept. Some banks are using a thumb print now and even that can be copied and used in fraud. But they figure if it has gone through those channels it is proven to be real. It is amazing how easily things can be made up.
randylovesdar
@randylovesdar (4932)
• United States
25 May 12
In Nevada I had to show my birth certificate and told them that the last name on my birth certificate is not going to match because when I got married I took my husband's last name (I guess in Nevada this is a new concept) because the lady said well your Driver's License in Idaho has a different last name and so does your Social Security Card and I said "well, after I got married I took my husband's last name so of course my birth certificate is going to be different. I had shown them my marriage license and they said well this form does not have the same name as your birth certificate either so we cannot accept it. I was getting upset and said, "am I the only nut who takes her husband's name when she get's married and if that is the case my mother must be nuts as well because she did the same thing when she married my father." I demanded to speak to a supervisor and the supervisor said what is going on and I told him that I had gotten married and my name on my birth certificate is not going to match my marriage license or my driver's license from Idaho because my birth certificate has my maiden name and the other documents has my married name. I think it is terrible that you had to go through this whole ideal when you were in the system to begin with. I do not blame you for blowing up. I am sorry you had to pay your friend a few times.
Heather Echola
@GardenGerty (157598)
• United States
18 Aug 11
Never had such a problem. Expired Driver's License with photo should have been enough. Not supposed to use Social Security for ID. I did have trouble applying for a tribal membership card, because it turns out the hospital misspelled my last name at birth, and my dad's as well. My dad had to have two forms of ID proving his spelling, then he could vouch for me, then we had to have a form sent over from the church where I was baptized. Then the stupid state got the wrong denomination on the affidavit, but I did not tell anyone. I know the letter had the right church, but the office just read what it was used to seeing. Mind you. I traveled to another state to do all of this and my 78 year old dad, who scares me when he drives, took me to the right bureau to do it. Since when does Free Methodist Church, look like Free Will Baptist Church, when it is typed and is a letter head? Bureaucracy.
minx267
@minx267 (15527)
• Hartford, Connecticut
18 Aug 11
WOW! you have gone through HOLY HELL! I absolutely find that ridiculous! Holy cow. I have problems sometimes with the DMV. When I need to register and they say I owe taxes on my car.. so I drive all the way to town hall in another city.. pay the taxes and come back with a receipt but they say it isn't acceptable because It wasn't stamped by the person at town hall.. WTH? I told that person I was just at the DMV... she knew I was going back and that they required this "stamp" did she give it to me? NO... So I had to drive all the way back to the next town pay for parking again.. and go in and get this stamped Receipt... they didn't even care about the inconvenience they just caused.. it's all rigged!