Thread: AL-License hard to get for noncitizens

License hard to get for noncitizens
Sunday, July 29, 2007
By STEVE DOYLE
Times Staff Writer steve.doyle@htimes.com
Passport and other documents needed before taking tests

For non-U.S. citizens, getting an Alabama driver's license isn't easy.

Foreign drivers who want to be licensed here are required to bring their passport with visa or resident-alien card, plus Social Security card or letter from the federal government stating that they are not eligible for Social Security.

They must also show proof that they will be in the United States for at least 160 days. Perhaps the easiest way to do that is Department of Homeland Security I-94 arrival/departure records stamped or stapled to visitors' passports.

Noncitizens at least 16 years old who have in their possession a valid driver's license issued by their home country are not required to have an Alabama license to drive.

Trooper Joel Baker, a fraud investigator in the Alabama Department of Public Safety district that includes Huntsville, said most foreign drivers must also pass a written traffic safety exam and road test. Licensed drivers from Puerto Rico, Canada, Germany and a few other countries just have to pass an eye exam.

The written test is offered in American sign language and 13 foreign languages, including Spanish, Chinese, German, Greek, Farsi, French, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Thai, Vietnamese and Arabic. Road instructors speak only English.

"They have to be able to understand and read English to the extent they can safely operate a vehicle," Baker said Friday. "We really haven't seen a big problem with it. For the most part, it goes smoothly."

Foreign language tests represented just over 1 percent of the 297,315 driver's license exams administered by the Department of Public Safety in 2006, records show.

For U.S. citizens, the road to getting an Alabama driver's license is slightly easier. Adults who move here from other states are exempt from the written and road tests, but they have to show their birth certificate, Social Security card and out-of-state driver's license. A current passport also works as a form of identification.

The cost is the same for American and foreign drivers: $23, plus a $5 application fee.



http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/ ... xml&coll=1

The cost is the same for American and foreign drivers: $23, plus a $5 application fee.

...why isn't the cost significantly higher for foreign drivers since written tests have to be put into 13 different languages? Here we have another example of American citizens funding costs that should be borne by foreigners.