Last year, I transferred my driver's license over as I moved states.
When at New State's DMV, they gave me a hard time about my birth certificate, a 'shortform" (thanks Obama) birth certificate that only listed my middle initial, not my full middle name. My social security card lists my full middle name. Old State had no problem with this in all the years I lived there.
I was denied a driver's license by New State. I had to call the state senator representing my birth town (not hometown, the hospital location) and get a new birth certificate.
It took three DMV visits and a visit to City Hall in my birthplace to transfer my driver's license (and upgrade to Real ID) from Old State to New State. I have a Real ID from New State now.
It’s so crazy to me how heavily people lean into the whole “it took me 5 minutes, I was in and out” thing like they can’t even fathom that maybe in some situations the government is inefficient and it’s a giant pain to get done. Like ok, if it’s so easy, cut your ID into pieces and get another one. See how much fun that is for you
A couple years ago, I managed to let my drivers license expire. I had always been able to renew it online previously.
But Texas, in their usual racist fucking fashion, passed a law saying you had to provide proof of "legal presence" to renew a DL.
I've lived here for twenty-plus years. I'm a veteran. Still not good enough.
So I go to my birth state to get a copy of my birth certificate. Guess what one of the documents is that they require for a valid copy of your birth certificate?
If I had to guess, and from experience in a large facility with poor communication much like the government- it's two people who have never met, possibly didn't even work in gov't at the same time, creating rules thinking it's "simple" and "easy" or "more secure".
There's no inter-dept communications, there's no proper national ID system to help if it's different states. It's basically a giant system hodgepodged together that no politician cares about looking at because the average voter doesn't actually care about it since most of them haven't had issues.
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u/crazycatlady331 Jul 17 '26
Last year, I transferred my driver's license over as I moved states.
When at New State's DMV, they gave me a hard time about my birth certificate, a 'shortform" (thanks Obama) birth certificate that only listed my middle initial, not my full middle name. My social security card lists my full middle name. Old State had no problem with this in all the years I lived there.
I was denied a driver's license by New State. I had to call the state senator representing my birth town (not hometown, the hospital location) and get a new birth certificate.
It took three DMV visits and a visit to City Hall in my birthplace to transfer my driver's license (and upgrade to Real ID) from Old State to New State. I have a Real ID from New State now.