How to win against the DMV bureacracy

[FunkDaddy]

In Texas the DMV is a crapshoot, some are nice others horrid. Everyone was nice to me tho.

In Ontario, jesus, so easy, and so is renewing, address changes, anything. The people are super friendly, if you need a person at all, my last few interactions were people-free, click click click done.

[Raoul]

For those of you in the rest of the USA who think that we are joking about NY state DMV, let me illustrate.

To get a drivers’ license in NY you must present your original PAPER social security card. The one you got when you were 16 (or 25 in my case when I moved to the US). The one that the social security administration says that you don’t need to have and therefore makes it difficult to order a replacement.

Now, the NY state DMV don’t do anything with that card - it’s not valid for identification, nor does the SS# get used on the license. You can only conclude that this rule is a way to exclude as many people as possible. And they LOVE to do that - sending people away who only have copies, or don’t have the card.

That’s why I kept my CT license for the first 6 years I lived in Manhattan. It was only when I was cleaning out a box from storage and found an old wallet with my grad school ID from 25 years ago and my original social security card that I decided to head to the DMV and begin the 3+ hour process of getting a NY state license.

In fairness, renewing was a breeze - they have a fast track service where you make an appointment in advance and I was in and out in ten minutes. But getting the first license was a huge pain in the ass.

[anon62122146]

That sounds pretty tame compared to my experience there. It took three tries just to get all the basic paperwork (including extensive forms and documentation to show that I hadn’t bought the car in Oregon, 2500 miles away, just to avoid NY sales tax) lined up to register my car. Then, because my car had a salvage title (bought used in Oregon), there turned out to be a rule that I had to drive to a town an hour away, during work hours, and pay $200 to get a special government shop to inspect it, in order to make sure that nobody stole it in NY, took it to Oregon, where it was, years later, sold to me, and then driven by me from Oregon to NY when I moved here (said driving really being worth more than the car was, one way). Actually, I kept putting it off, and eventually that car was no longer worth repairing, and I bought a new one, and the dealer dealt with the registration, so I never actually succeeded in registering my out of state car here.

I’ve heard similar stories from other people I know, including one local guy who’s recommendation was to keep calling the central office in Albany and pestering them until you get someone’s name so you can tell the person at the dmv that xxx up in Albany said you don’t need to do this.