nbsOriginally Posted by Sacul
nbs
How is getting a driving license in most EU countries? Is attending the office where you get it a nightmare of untold experience?
you don't go to an office in the UK. you get your provisional (so you can learn to drive) online for £34, then when you pass it gets upgraded to a full license. Then to renew every ten years (or change address etc) you pay £14 for a new one, also online. i presume you probably could go to a DVLA office somewhere in an emergency but i've never heard of anyone doing that.
I'd invite anyone willing to experience a true nightmare to attend a Department or Registry of Motor Vehicles in any US state and just watch the interactions, maybe some sick freak is live streaming it somewhere, because it's usually a terrible time, and if I was dirt poor again it'd be the thing I was most worried about having to do outside of going to the ER if I got hit by a car. If the state gave out free ID's and never pay gated them and made it very easy to get, I'd be for some level of ID'ing voters. Until then fuck that, it's just some shit for people here to use against poors voting. Waiting for 3 hours during weekday business hours only to have to return again or go somewhere else to wait in another office is not a luxury most working impoverished have, and when I was young I def didn't have time for that shit and frustration. the only time i've dealt with it was when I was not poor anymore and had all my documents in line when I moved to PA, which considering I got my license the day I went instead of having it mailed to me (lol) I was actuallly relieved by something so trivial.
Hereabouts we still have to go the old fashioned route of "spend a couple of hours waiting in line in main police station/central ID and passport office, buying tax stamps and filling out forms" although I guess they're modernizing so you can ask to have it renewed online but you still have to come yourself and bring photos and shit.
It's a fact of life everyone has to do sooner or later and yes it's a chore but it's just a chore, so that's the main reason I don't understand why people see it as some insurmountable obstacle.
edit: And yes, when we come to vote, we MUST present an ID.
Last edited by Lief Siddhe; March 31 2021 at 07:48:44 PM.
I was somewhere around Old Man Star, on the edge of Essence, when drugs began to take hold.
Not sure how it is in other countries, but up until recently German driver's licenses were valid for life. I think I have to replace mine in a couple of years because they added expiry dates. But that will be without a new driving test.
Getting an ID is a painless thing really. Make an appointment at the city's office, bring a photo, sign twice, once for the order, once for the ID, done. Pick it up a few weeks later.
nevar forget
Is this an accurate representation?Not sure how it is in other countries, but up until recently German driver's licenses were valid for life. I think I have to replace mine in a couple of years because they added expiry dates. But that will be without a new driving test.
Getting an ID is a painless thing really. Make an appointment at the city's office, bring a photo, sign twice, once for the order, once for the ID, done. Pick it up a few weeks later.
Not for Germany, no.Is this an accurate representation?Not sure how it is in other countries, but up until recently German driver's licenses were valid for life. I think I have to replace mine in a couple of years because they added expiry dates. But that will be without a new driving test.
Getting an ID is a painless thing really. Make an appointment at the city's office, bring a photo, sign twice, once for the order, once for the ID, done. Pick it up a few weeks later.
nevar forget
That was supposed to be a reply to Jack Cucktu's post. Apologies.Not for Germany, no.Is this an accurate representation?Not sure how it is in other countries, but up until recently German driver's licenses were valid for life. I think I have to replace mine in a couple of years because they added expiry dates. But that will be without a new driving test.
Getting an ID is a painless thing really. Make an appointment at the city's office, bring a photo, sign twice, once for the order, once for the ID, done. Pick it up a few weeks later.
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Super easy, barely an inconvenience*. Same with passport, you look it up online, which police station has an open slot (I take my old home town as they always have free slots), you go there and enter a machine, stare into a camera (which always fucks up 1st time), sign your picture and you're done.
Come back 3 weeks later and pick it up. All in all 4 hrs including 2hrs of travel.
That said, there is a difference if you decide to do it in Sthlm the wait time is longer, slot times fewer etc but you at least can book a time slot (which is always missed tho) and dont have to wait in line in the classical way. It also comes in waves, it can be hours wait/weeks of wait or very quick.
Edit: Iiirc the cost is like...€30-40 for passport?
*I dont remember what I did last time I renewed it (its every 10 years iirc), so it wasnt even worth storing as a memory.
Book appointment online, fill in the basics online. Go to the proper office, wait 15 minutes with correct foto. Pay, leave.
Everything is done behind the scenes as in when you did the final exam it just ticks a automatic box 'approved'.
Schopenhauer:
All truth passes through three stages.
First, it is ridiculed.
Second, it is violently opposed.
Third, it is accepted as being self-evident..
Finland has about the same system. There's also an option of picking up the passport from specific kiosks who handle passport deliveries. We can also send the passport photo digitally, and you can either do it yourself or the photo store can upload it for you to the registry. We don't even have to visit the police office or registry unless it's been more than 6 years since our fingerprints have been taken or we have visited the police the last time. Basically if I needed a new passport, I could just securely sign in to government service, fill in the application and have the passport delivered to a nearby kiosk where I could pick it up at my convenience.Super easy, barely an inconvenience*. Same with passport, you look it up online, which police station has an open slot (I take my old home town as they always have free slots), you go there and enter a machine, stare into a camera (which always fucks up 1st time), sign your picture and you're done.
Come back 3 weeks later and pick it up. All in all 4 hrs including 2hrs of travel.
That said, there is a difference if you decide to do it in Sthlm the wait time is longer, slot times fewer etc but you at least can book a time slot (which is always missed tho) and dont have to wait in line in the classical way. It also comes in waves, it can be hours wait/weeks of wait or very quick.
Edit: Iiirc the cost is like...€30-40 for passport?
*I dont remember what I did last time I renewed it (its every 10 years iirc), so it wasnt even worth storing as a memory.
EU drivers licenses are valid for a very long time in all countries, I think. in FI they are until you are 65, after which you get a 5-year temporary one after being assessed fit to drive by a doctor. After five years, you have to renew it again etc. until you die or are no longer seen fit to drive.
Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point. - Blaise Pascal, Pensées, 277
I mean, I just sent a check with the fee and my naturalization certificate in the mail, and got a US passport like a couple weeks later.
If you make an actual appointment at the DMV, a drivers license is really not a complicated or long procedure, but then again, my state has more than one DMV office or whatever because we don't have a bunch of anti-American Republican morons "running" things. Again, its like an hour, and you get your ID in the mail like a week or two later.
Also, our drivers lasts 5 years, then you renew (automatically).
meh
TIL from this thread i probably needed to renew my Drivers license about 4 years ago
Interesting thing about drivers licences.
In the UK you do the theory when you're going for your full licence, but in NZ you do it before you get your learners.
However, you can convert your UK provisional that you got with a simple form in the mail into a NZ learners with another form, and then all you have to do is a practical test to get your full licence.
So I have a full licence and I've never taken a theory test in either country.
To be fair, the theory test is utterly pointless
Oh man, this takes me back. The thoery test had recently introduced the "hazard Perception" component of the test when I did mine.
As a good boy I sat and did the theory, smashed it. Did the hazard perception.. oh boy.
Here comes a pixelated blob on the screen..click mouse for hazard... **CD noises intensify** small lag and oh no, that blob was a horse and we didnt register your click. Barely made it through that test. lol
i nearly got run over on the way to my theory test
I will tell you how it was in pre digital Serbian bureaucracy.
You are required by law to get ID after you turn 18.
You need to submit your birth certificate, citizenship certificate and reciept for paying an the fees. And fill in a request form. Wait in line, submit, come back couple of weeks later, wait again, pick up.
For both of the certificates you need to fill in a request form and again a payment confirmation. I think you also had to submit and and come back few days later, but they are in same office so single trip hopefully.
So worst possible case was 3 waits for submit and 3 waits for pick up and 3 request forms filled, though to get the valid payment reciept your will likely have to wait in queue at the post office as well.
All of this spread over 3 to 5 weeks.
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Shit one of the biggest hurdles to getting an ID right now is with the DMV's being all fucked up from Covid. In NJ the DMV is now by appointment only; I have been trying to get my license renewed since the end of October, and they are still booked out for the next 3 months, state wide, and they only allow booking for upto 3 months in advanced.
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