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29-03-2006, 08:44 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Fo Tan
Posts: 1,648
| | | Maintaining a US drivers license
Any brilliant ideas on how I can maintain my US drivers license while living in HK? It expires next year and I will be in HK until 2011 +/-.
I will not have a US address.
Thanks! | |
30-03-2006, 08:11 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Hong Kong
Posts: 6,312
| | | Not answering the question, but why do you need to? You can get a HK driving licence by direct issue from a US one, and I assume that the reverse is true if/when you return to reside in the US... | |
30-03-2006, 09:10 AM
|  | Resident Peacekeeper | | Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Pokfulam Age: 40
Posts: 10,671
| | | Sleuth, do you have a relative or someone else whose address you could use? If I recall correctly, you can renew via mail or even do it online in some states. | |
30-03-2006, 09:12 AM
| | Resident Peacekeeper | | Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Pokfulam Age: 40
Posts: 10,671
| | | PDLM, unfortunately, the drivers license is still one of the most common iD documents in the US. If you're travelling back and forth you want to keep it going. Also, if it expires, you've got to do the tests again... | |
30-03-2006, 09:20 AM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Gold Coast Age: 29
Posts: 222
| | | I just renewed mine online, but I have an address still. When you renew online it ask for address update. Put in an address of someone you know will forward it on to you. | |
30-03-2006, 10:07 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Hong Kong
Posts: 6,312
| | Quote: |
Originally Posted by KnowItAll PDLM, unfortunately, the drivers license is still one of the most common iD documents in the US. If you're travelling back and forth you want to keep it going. Also, if it expires, you've got to do the tests again... | Well maybe, but if you aren't going to be living there for 5 years or more, what's wrong with a passport, or HKID or something? I have never had a problem in the US with HKID or UK passport on the rare occasions when I need photo ID.
Is the driving licence thing yet another example of the US standing outside international conventions? Driving licences go with residence, and the countries which have similar standards of tests have agreed to enable them to be exchanged without further tests when moving from one country to another. Hence the direct issue of HK driving licences for holders of UK, US and about 30 other countries licences. Why does the US expect other countries to direct issue driving licences to holders of their licences, but not do the same in reverse? Typical American institutional arrogance... and they wonder why most of the world hates them?  | |
30-03-2006, 10:28 AM
| | Resident Peacekeeper | | Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Pokfulam Age: 40
Posts: 10,671
| | | >> I have never had a problem in the US with HKID or UK passport on the rare occasions when I need photo ID.
Well, I've had problems getting them to accept a HKID when using a credit card in some stores which bother checking for ID. Also, I don't carry my passport around with me 24/7.
Renewing your US license, is one of those few things that can be done with marginal amounts of work... but makes life a lot easier if you're going in and out of the US a fair bit.
Well, when you control so much of the world's economy ... a little bit of arrogance goes hand in hand. I'd take the US arrogance, which is usually just naive thinking / a sense of entitlement, over French version.
The older Brits are just as bad ... living in the days of the Raj.
Sorry .. don't mean to hijack the thread.... | |
30-03-2006, 08:40 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Fo Tan
Posts: 1,648
| | | Avoiding the tests
Quote: |
Originally Posted by KnowItAll PDLM, unfortunately, the drivers license is still one of the most common iD documents in the US. If you're travelling back and forth you want to keep it going. Also, if it expires, you've got to do the tests again... | Exactly KIA.
I don't really want to redo the tests, mostly because of the long lines and slow service of the motor vehicle departments across the US. Also, I will be heading back and forth to the US and everyone in the country accepts a driver's license as a valid ID even if it is out of state. Bring a HKID card or US passport and--since you have placed yourself outside of the normal--you invite problems. Finally, I will eventually move back and having a valid driver's license smooths the process. Just like if you were able to get a HKID and credit card before moving to HK. | |
30-03-2006, 08:45 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Fo Tan
Posts: 1,648
| | Quote: |
Originally Posted by tx75070 I just renewed mine online, but I have an address still. When you renew online it ask for address update. Put in an address of someone you know will forward it on to you. | I might be able to pull that off. I am mostly positive Georgia allows an online renewal and if I can put anyone's address in that would solve the problem. I'll have to do some stateside research. | |
31-03-2006, 06:07 AM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: the corner
Posts: 113
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