<p>Twin sons have just flown back to college and just noticed their drivers licenses will expire in March. Are there any hidden problems and gotchas to getting a drivers license in the states where they go to college?</p>
<p>One is in Oregon and one in California.</p>
<p>The California student comes home to work as a software engineer every summer and has a job waiting after graduation while the Oregon son only comes home for short visits as he goes to summer school every summer.</p>
<p>I don’t see any problems but any experience out there?</p>
<p>My son was out of state when his drivers license renewal was due. He did it via mail…here in our home state with no problem. DD will do the same (I think she might be able to do it online). Neither got a drivers license in the state in which they attend(ed) college.</p>
<p>Check your state license bureau website. Ours had a six-month extension form that you can fill out and mail in if you are out-of-state when your license expires. S got that last summer–they sent him a “temporary extension” card to keep with his license.
When he was home for Christmas he went to the office and renewed.</p>
<p>Now I hope he can fly out tomorrow with his expired/clipped (invalid?) license and temporary–with photo, but paper–license for ID. . . This state doesn’t give you your plastic license instantly–they send it in the mail after a couple weeks.<br>
Anyone used a paper license for ID?</p>
<p>What do you men by “clipped”? I’ve been checking around (D’s expired last week and she’s flying in three days), and I think expired is better than paper.</p>
<p>"Effective June 21, 2008, adult passengers (18 and over) are required to show a U.S. federal or state-issued photo ID that contains the following: name, date of birth, gender, expiration date and a tamper-resistant feature in order to be allowed to go through the checkpoint and onto their flight.</p>
<p>Passengers who do not or cannot present an acceptable ID will have to provide information to the Transportation Security Officer performing Travel Document Checking duties in order to verify their identity. Passengers who are cleared through this process may be subject to additional screening. Passengers whose identity cannot be verified by TSA may not be allowed to go through the checkpoint or onto an airplane."</p>
<p>Over Christmas, the TSA would not accept son’s expired ID, (expired two days prior) thank goodness I put all our passports in my bag prior to the trip. I have no idea what would have happened otherwise. Tougher screening maybe???</p>
<p>If the paper ID had a tamper-resistant feature, it would work (my WA paper ID does). Unless they are planning on moving permanently to these states and/or trying to gain residency for tuition purposes, I would stay with the current state’s ID as it may lead to some difficulties with residency later on. On the other had, if you were in WA, your OR son could use his ID to buy things tax-free. Online renewal should also be possible. If you are still concerned about getting a Drivers License in CA or OR, it shouldn’t be that difficult if you have all the required documents proving residency and identity. Their OOS licenses should be fine in CA and OR if you decide to just renew.</p>
<p>I flew last year with nothing but a clipped license last year. Shrinkrap, they cut the corner off the card to show that it is invalid. I had a paper license with me but they didn’t ask for it. I got a new license, I forget why, so sec of state clipped the old one and gave me a paper one to use until the new one came in the mail, but I had to fly before then and had no other picture ID. Didn’t know they were going to clip it or I would have waited, but it was fine. I think security gets more and more strict every year.</p>
<p>Funny, S1 just told me this morning that when he went to get on the plane in DC just before Christmas he discovered he didn’t have his driver’s license. He showed them everything he had; school id, credit card, etc. The thing that convinced TSA to let him on the plane? His Library of Congress Reader’s Card. Maybe they figure terrorists don’t use the library.</p>
<p>D’s driver’s license expired while away at school and our state does not have renewal on-line. Because she was turning 21, she couldn’t renew it early or it wouldn’t have been the “horizontal” 21 license (vs the upright “under 21” license). She had to wait until she returned at Thanksgiving to get it renewed. There was no penalty for being a few months late renewing - just a $1 increase in the fee (she didn’t have to retake the driving part of the test or anything like that). Luckily, she doesn’t have her car at school and rarely drives while there.</p>
<p>D was mentioning to some friends at school that her driver’s license was expired. Apparently one of the kids was not allowed to go through security at the airport with an expired license and asked what she was going to use for ID for her flight home at Thanksgiving. Luckily this was a few days before her flight and I overnighted her passport to her to use as ID.</p>
<p>Sons turning 21 so no online options. I will ask about an extension or just let them get a new license in California or Oregon. Unless I think of or discover some reason that is a bad thing. ( it might change the voting place I suppose but they don’t follow local issues much anymore anyway</p>
<p>Be aware that if they opt to try and get a license in the state they are going to college in, they may need to take that state’s driving test (both written and behind-the-wheel) if they do not have reciprocity with the state they currently hold a license in.</p>
<p>In addition, most states will not allow you to hold a driver’s license from more than one state, so if they move back home they will have to re-apply in their home state for a license, and possibly re-take the tests there too.</p>
<p>We just went through this like Midwest mom, son turned 21 in the late fall, needed to appear at a bureau to take a vision test, get a new pic for the vertical license, could not renew by mail or on-line. He just waited until he got home for the holidays and paid the slight upcharge for renewing late and used his passport at TSA (didn’t need it ultimately). He has a car at his out of state school with his “home” insurance, plates, registration etc. which he can renew by mail, so having a “matching” driver’s license feels the way to go,and technically this is still his official “home address” otherwise he’d have to switch his registration/plates, etc. to the college state and his “address” is pretty transient and different every year. If it would have been more than 2 months, I would call your state’s license bureau and find out what options were available like an extension, etc.</p>
<p>I can understand that a license can expire on a certain date in terms of legal right to drive a motor vehicle. But why should it expire as a proof of identity? It’s still the same person with the same photo.</p>
<p>This thread just prompted me to ask D when hers expires - June 2010, (when she turns 20). So she’ll need to renew this summer, and then again when she turns 21 to get the horizontal license, is what I’m guessing from the info here. In PA I know the paperwork can be done online, but then they send a camera card to take to the license center to get the actual license.</p>
<p>While this doesn’t necessarily apply to the OP’s kids, when D1 moved out to Boston after graduation, she still had an Illinois license. However, she discovered that, at the Boston Garden (and this may true at other venues in the area), they won’t serve alcoholic drinks to anyone with an out-of-state drivers license unless they’re 25 or older, so she decided to get a Massachusetts license, even though she doesn’t have a car out there.</p>
<p>Cost of the license… $100!</p>
<p>So the OP’s kids might want to look at the cost of getting a new license in their respective college states and see if they are willing to pay it.</p>
<p>teriwtt, sorry she had to pay for that license. For anyone in a similar position, Massachusetts has a Liquor ID that anyone over 21 years old, who doesn’t have a MA license but does have a SSN, can get for a fee of $25. It’s available through the Registry of Motor Vehicles.</p>
<p>Other states may have something similar as well.</p>