Driving in California and USA (college, DMV, exemptions)

[loveoatmeal]

Hi,
I want to tell you that it is difficult getting used to the regulation here in USA - regulation is not similar as law because people servicing keep changing it according to their individual perspective.

One incident is that my friend like to drive here while taking care for her daughter who is studying here in college. She got herself a car and using it to go around the store and college. She holds a driving license from our country in Asia and the license is in English.

Before she came here, she has checked with United States Embassy in Singapore if she could drive - they confirm she can drive for 6 months.

But then, she met up with a police officer checking her status - visitor. he told her she cannot drive - that is an offence! After much trouble, she finally found the local Department of Motor Vehicle (USA) to go for test drive in order to get a local license permit. But they surprise her saying "No way, not for visitor" .

So now how can she drive legally and make follow orders according to United States Embassy, the local Mr Police, and MV dept of US.

Now she's feeling sad and discourage - saying the rules here are BLURR and she felt here is not good place for her daughter to study and she consider start business.

She felt the people including the police - do not show common respect for foreigners. It is shocking to us. Where we come from where we respect foreigners as welcoming tourist and potential investors and customers to our business.

[Stacy From Cali]

It sounds to me as if your friend is getting the runaround. I went and looked at the CAlifornia DMV website and this is what it said:

International Driving Permits

The State of California does not recognize an International Driving Permit (IDP) as a valid driver license. California does recognize a valid driver license that is issued by a foreign jurisdiction (country, state, territory) of which the license holder is a resident.
The IDP is only a translation of information contained on a person’s foreign driver license and is not required to operate a motor vehicle in California. Citations issued to a person in California who has an IDP, but does not have a California driver license will be placed on the Department of Motor Vehicle database.
The IDP is also called an International Driver License, International License, etc.




So it sounds to me that if your friend holds a legitimate drivers license issued from Singapore, and that she is still considered a resident of Singapore (My guess is that this is where the 6 month window comes in) then she is legal to drive. I think that the cop was probably wrong. Can she take the citation to the Embassy and get this all cleared up?


She will not be able to get a California drivers license though, because she is not a legal resident of the state...and drivers licenses are used as identification for much more than driving.

I'm very sorry she felt disrespected by the police. To be honest they tend to be pretty gruff with everyone.

[bhcompy]

She should be able to appeal it by appearing in court or even by mail. There are instructions for appealing on the ticket usually. She just needs to indicate that she is a foreign resident with a valid foreign drivers license if what Stacy says is true

[Ktu]

Originally Posted by loveoatmeal

Hi,
police - do not show common respect for foreigners. It is shocking to us. Where we come from where we respect foreigners as welcoming tourist and potential investors and customers to our business.

Loveoatmeal
I completely agree that some police officers in California has no respect for others not only visitors. Your wife's car was not impounded you were lucky there. It happened to me that my car was towed reason i was driving with other state license and visitor in California.
Civil and Government sectors are the worst here so please avoid these departments as much as possible or else feed the need.

[Ultrarunner]

It's because they really don't know and leave it to someone else to sort out...

A friend of mine lives and works in CA and was ticketed for having Florida License Plates and Driver's License... she explained her husband is active duty military serving in Iraq and deployed from CA...

She went to court and the Judge reprimanded the Officer for not doing his homework because under certain circumstances military exemptions come into play...

Sorry you friend is stuck going through this bureaucratic nightmare...

When I travel overseas... I keep a copy of the relative info regarding my driving there and yes... I've been stopped several times...