Getting a US driving license

The first thing that I should point out is that in the US there is no single national driving license, like in the UK.  In the US, driving licenses are issued by individual states.  This means that there are different costs, rules, tests, according to where you live.  (The driving laws also vary too from state to state.)

I live in Florida.  If you go for a license in California or Illinois, there will be many similarities with my experience, but also some differences.

Driving generally in the US

Getting by without a car is generally much more difficult in the US, compared to the UK, as there is generally far less public transport (trains, buses, etc.), unless you are in a certain big cities.

Automatic cars are the norm in the US, vehicles with manual gear-changing are less uncommon.

Petrol/gas is cheap compared to Europe, around half the price, although people still complain about the price.

There is much more a driving culture.  People travel relatively long distances, compared to Britain.  Most people are assumed to be drivers and have a license.

Can I drive in the US on a British license?

Yes, you can for a time.  I left it almost a year before I went for my Florida license.  If you go much longer than that, you run the risk of getting into trouble. 

There are some big disadvantages with driving on a foreign license.  For one thing, the insurance is much higher.  Also, a US driving license is commonly used as a form of ID in all sorts of situations.

How much does a license cost?

Mine cost me $48, plus an additional $20 because I failed it the first time(!)  This is cheaper than in the UK, where the total cost was not far off £100 the last time that I looked.

Taking the test(s)

The Florida test was split into two parts: a written test and a road test.

I did the written test on a computer at the test center.  There were two lots of twenty multiple choice questions, mainly understanding road signs and general road safety.  I passed easily, having downloaded and studied the handbook beforehand and taken numerous free mock tests that I found online.  

Most elements of driving and things like road signs are similar to the UK, but the terminology can sometimes be different, so it is worth doing some study of the handbook, even if you feel confident about driving.  “Give Way” is ”Yield”, for instance, and the “hand brake” is more often known as the “parking brake”, or “emergency brake”.  There are many minor differences to be aware of, some of which you can easily guess, but they might throw you in a test situation.

Despite its name, the Florida road test does not take place on the public highway, rather it is conducted on a mocked up road system in the grounds of the driving test center, which you drive around, following the examiner's instructions.  There are no other road users to interact with.

 The test is generally much easier than the British equivalent and has a higher pass rate.  Despite this, I still managed to fail it – having lived without a car in a British city for many years, my driving skills were very rusty.  I retook it a few weeks later and passed it, although there was a surcharge of 20 dollars, as I mentioned earlier.

Things assessed on the road test included parking, reversing, stop quickly (emergency stop), turn about (three point turn), stop signs.

When do I get my license?

Thanks to modern technology, the computer was able to make a license card for me while I waited.  It took about ten minutes.  I don’t know if this instant service is available everywhere.

The USCIS Biometrics Appointment

Four months after I sent off my I-485Green Card Application, as well as my applications for temporary travel and work permits, known as the I-131 Advance Parole (AP) and the I-765 Employment Authorization (EAD), I received a letter inviting me to attend a USCIS biometrics appointment. 

It was good news, as it meant that I was getting closer to obtaining my green card, but also a bit of a pain as it meant my wife taking time off work to drive me to the nearest USCIS office, which was an hour and a half away. There was a stark warning on the USCIS biometrics appointment letter warning me that my application would be considered abandoned if I missed the appointment, so we set off an hour and a half early, giving us plenty of time to find the USCIS center and also some leeway in case there were any unforeseen travel problems.

The biometrics appointment is pretty straightforward and essentially just about getting your photo, fingerprints, iris scans, etc. taken.  In my experience, it is essentially the same information as was collected from me at customs when I entered the US for visits (except this time I had paid the USCIS for the privilege).

We got to the USCIS office without problems.  After coming through security at the door, I was given a form to fill out and told to wait.  There were lots of people booked for the same time, so they gave people waiting numbers according to a first-come-first-served basis.  Like with the London Embassy, there were security restrictions on electronic devices, so my wife and I left our ipods etc in the car and took in some books to read.

I was only kept waiting for ten minutes, however, and then sent through to a backroom where a lady collected my biometrics.  One worrying thing that she pointed out, that I hadn’t realized, was that my USCIS biometrics appointment was only for my green card.  Normally, she told me, she processed two lots of biometrics for people in my situation, one for the green card application and one for the temporary travel and work permits.  She asked me if I had received any other letters and I told her no.  She explained that it was therefore possible that I might be invited to go for a second biometrics appointment at some point in the future. 

I was less than happy at the prospect of my wife having to take another day off work and both of us traveling to the USCIS office again.  Plus it could cause a delay in the process.  I tried to get some advice and information off the biometrics lady, regarding what I should I do, but she said that she was unable to tell me anything more  and I should just wait to be contacted by the USCIS (to be fair, I think she just had the task of collecting the biometrics and had no access to my files, or knowledge of my case).

Despite my wife having taken an entire day of work, the actual biometrics appointment only took about 25 minutes.  I was still thinking about what the biometrics lady had said when I got home.  Then I remembered that I had received another letter from the USCIS a couple of months earlier, telling me that they were transferring my green card application to California to speed it up (I live in Florida).  Taking into account what the lady at the biometrics had said, my guess was that the USCIS were maybe skipping the temporary work and travel applications and just focusing on sorting out my I-485 green card.  My guess would later turn out to be correct.

(I wasn’t too disappointed with this situation. Although my research had recommended putting in the I-131 Advance Parole (AP) and the I-765 Employment Authorization (EAD) applications in with the I-485 Green Card Application, basically because they are free to apply for if submitted this way, my research also suggested that the temporary work and travel permits usually take almost as long to process as the actual Green Card, so were of very limited practical value to me anyway.)

Getting married in the US (Florida)

The first thing that I should point out about getting married in the US is that each state has its own laws and costs.  Even within a state, there can also be minor differences between the different counties, so it is always best to check and double check the relevant info and regulations in advance.  My specific personal experience was getting married in Florida, so bear in mind that although there are bound to be lots of similarities with other states, there will also some differences too.  Given my very positive experience, I would certainly recommend getting married in Florida.  My wife and I were married in north central Florida in the city of Gainesville, a college town which is home to the University of Florida.

Background to getting married in the US

Getting married to a US citizen and obtaining a marriage license was a requirement of my K1 Fiance Visa, but my wife and I never lost sight of the fact that were mainly getting married because we loved each other and wanted to live together as man and wife.  The K1 Fiance Visa was purely a tool for achieving that.  Given the logistical problems that would be involved with getting all our respective families together, my family from across the Atlantic in the UK and my wife’s family from the north east of the US, we opted to have just a small intimate ceremony, rather than a big wedding.  Because neither of us are particularly religious, we also decided that we would go for a civil ceremony, rather than getting married in a church.

Arranging the ceremony, getting the license and getting married in Florida

I am a UK citizen, so I can only really make comparisons with getting married in England, where I am from.  Compared to the UK, getting married in the US seems cheap when it comes to paying for a civil ceremony.  Getting married is also much quicker, although there is a three day waiting period in Florida (unless you either do a short pre-marital course, or you live outside Florida, in which case the three day waiting period is waived).  As my wife and I didn’t want to do the premarital course and we both live together in Florida, we were liable for the waiting period, and so decided to apply for our marriage license at the start of the week and arrange with the court for getting married in Florida on the Friday.  The fee was $93.50, which at around £65 seemed relatively cheap to me.  We had to go together to get the marriage license and I had to use my passport as I.D.  The marriage license they gave us was valid for 30 days, but as I mentioned we arranged for our wedding to take place just four days later.  It was all very straightforward, partly because neither of us had been married before, so we didn’t have to prove that we were divorced or widowed.

The marriage ceremony and afterwards

As I mentioned earlier, we kept the number of people at the marriage ceremony small, just inviting a couple of friends, plus my wife’s daughter.  If you are getting married in the US, be aware that because of the gun culture there and the threat of terrorism, there is much stricter security at public buildings such as court houses – I was somewhat surprised when all of us were searched for weapons when entering the courthouse on our wedding day, albeit in a friendly way.  All in all, however, I thoroughly enjoyed my wedding experience and would heartily recommend getting married in Florida.

Getting married meant that we had fulfilled the requirements of the K1 Fiance Visa by getting married in the US within 90 days.  This meant that I was now able to put in an adjustment of status application for a US green card.