Any reason to renew my drivers license if I plan to move abroad?
I was caught in a nasty catch-22 a few years back. My Canadian license had expired, and I’d been living in Korea for several years (where I still live). Canada required that I actually be there and have an address and everything to renew (in person), which I did (with some fudging of the truth) on one of my quadrennial trips back. They sent the new license to the address I gave, or at least claimed to, because it never arrived. And they refused to send me another one, unless I presented myself at the office again. In Canada. Now back in Korea, I was unable to get a new Canadian license, and without a new one, I couldn’t get a Korean license, which required that I show my Canadian one. Thanks to a fast-talking Korean friend who came with me to the licensing office, I was able to get a Korean one (which lasts a decade, as opposed to the 5-year Canadian license), but I was very lucky that they bent the rules in order to do so. Upshot: try to cover all your bases, because it can be a night
Renew. I let my Texas driver’s license expire, before they had online renewal, and had to take both the practical & written test since it was expired more than 3 years. Pain.in.the.arse. I had to got get a new Social Security card because I had left mine back at home in Italy. Then I got take the written (how the hell should I know about Minor in Possession laws when I haven’t been a minor for years?), only to be told to come back the next morning for the practical since they had stopped the tests for the day 15 minutes prior. Gah. Since your parents live in Texas, renew it there and use their address as your ‘residence’. In addition to the voting mentioned above, for various other bits of paper I’ve had to fill in my ‘US residence’; nothing has ever gotten sent there, but it’s good to know that Ma will forward me anything that arrives.
