The universal joy of the DMV

Last Friday I went to become a resident of Pennsylvania, a decision I made when I realized that: 1) Pennsylvania doesn't have a car tax, 2) Virginia does have a car tax, and 3) I don't have any income anymore.  I had previously looked into what would be required for me to get a driver's license now that I'm here, but I couldn't produce most of the proofs of residency listed on the Pennsylvania DMV website, such as utility bills, or lease agreements.  Ultimately I called the DMV and they told me I could get a letter from the school on letterhead saying that I was lining in the dorms in such and such a room at such and such an address, and I could use that as one of my proofs.  They also accepted bank statement with my address on them as proofs, so I called my bank and changed my address and was told I could go to any local branch to pick up a statement with that on it.

So after liturgy, around 8:30 I headed out to the bank to pick up the statement, having packed up my birth certificate, passport, letter from the seminary, car title, checkbook (because the Pennsylvania DMV only accepts check and money order obviously) and some homework to read in case there was going to be large amounts of time sitting in chairs waiting (this proved to be a very good idea).  I got to the bank a little after 9, and talk to a teller explaining why I'm there.  She was very friendly and told me that she would be happy to print out one of my old statements for me, but that those, contrary to what the guy on the phone told me, will still have my old address on them.  She understood why this didn't do me any good, and offered to print out a piece of paper that did have my current address, but unfortunately it wouldn't be on letterhead, and in fact, on closer inspection, didn't seem to indicate that it was from a bank at all; it was basically just a piece of paper on which was printed my name and address.  Reasoning that this was better than nothing, I accepted the paper and went back out to my car.

While sitting in the bank parking lot it occurred to me that the other semi-official documentation I could manufacture fairly quickly was a new car insurance card with my new address on it.  I attempted to change my address using the app Geico has for smartphones, but upon entering my new address and pressing submit I received an error message.  Go back, try again, same result.  I decided that since I was going to have to deal with this eventually anyway, and as I was fairly flimsily armed as far as proof of address went, it was worth calling Geico and talking to someone so they could update my policy with the correct address before proceeding to the DMV.  So I called up and spoke with an agent, who was quite helpful and friendly, and we got everything sorted out, making the appropriate changes to the policy now that I live in Pennsylvania, and requires slightly different things in insurance coverage, as well as updating my address to the seminary.  Now armed with my letter from the seminary, the piece of paper from the bank with my name and address on it, and knowing that Geico would shortly be emailing me a pdf copy of my proof of insurance card, I decided to proceed to the DMV

I got to the DMV around 10:30, found a parking spot, went in and told the guy at the desk why I was there, took a number, and was directed towards some chairs where I could wait.  Aha! my careful planning is paying off, I have homework to read!  After a brief wait, I got called up to the counter and meet a gentleman who's name tag read, if I recall correctly, "Steve."  Even if I don't recall correctly, I'm going to call him Steve, mostly because it's more convenient than calling him "the guy at the counter" repeatedly.  I explained to Steve why I was at the DMV.  I handed over my DC licence, my birth certificate, and my social security card, and then Steve asked for my proof of residency, so I gave him my letter from the seminary, explaining that I was told that I could use such a letter in my situation.  The letter was readily accepted, and I passed along the piece of paper from the bank, explaining that I had gotten it printed that morning, while helpfully pointing out the part of the paper that contained my name and address.  Having dealt with various DMVs over the years I did not expect my very unofficial looking paper to go over at all well, and was already preparing to offer my insurance card as further proof, when much to my amazement I was told that "everything appeared to be in order."

Now that it looks like I've passed the foreseen hurdle, I was hopeful that the rest of this trip would be brief.  Suddenly Steve said something to the effect of "so you have a licence in Virginia as well?"  I explain that I have had a license in Virginia, but when I moved into DC I surrendered it to the DC DMV and had assumed that had been the end of it.  It turns out that when Steve looked up my record on his computer, I was listed as a valid driver in both DC and Virginia.  My assumption is that when I went and got my DC license, DC never bothered to notify Virginia that I was transferring my license, and so they kept me on their rolls as a licensed driver as well.  Unfortunately this means that before he can issue me a Pennsylvania license, Steve needs to call someone to make sure that everything is on the up and up, and that I'm not running some sort of convoluted  plan in which I'm living a double life but using the same name and social security numbers for both lives.  Steve was on hold for a while, and while he was kind enough to finish filling out my paperwork while waiting for the result, I still ended up having plenty of time to go back to my homework before he got off the phone.  In the end, that all got sorted out, so I assume I am only a licensed driver in one state now, but for all I know, I could be on to my third life.  In any event Steve gave me my paperwork back and pointed me towards the photograph station so I could go get my shiny new license.

Everything went pretty smoothly at that stage, I handed in my paperwork, waited a minute or two to get called up to take my picture, and once I got called up, put in the required information so that in addition to getting a license, I'm also now registered to vote here.  After getting my picture taken and waiting a few more minutes for the license to print I got called up again and got my new, albeit temporary, license (I'll get the real one in the mail in a few days).  At that point, I asked the guy at this counter where to go to get the title and registration, to which he simply replies "Triple A."  I assumed I had either misheard him, or perhaps there was some sort of government agency with which I was unfamiliar, who's acronym just happened to be AAA; but it turns out that in Pennsylvania, the state has ceded the responsibility of titling and registering cars to the American Automobile Association, which seems odd to me because I have thought titling a car in Pennsylvania would involve the Pennsylvania state government, not a federation of motor clubs headquartered in Heathrow, an unincorporated suburban community in Seminole County, Florida.  It runs out that it is in fact AAA's responsibility to title cars in Pennsylvania, so I got the address form the DMV and fortunately the nearest office was just over a block away.  I left the DMV, stopped by the car, fed the meter, and proceeded to the AAA office.

I got to the AAA office and explained to the receptionist why I was there.  She asked me if I had a Pennsylvania driver's license; yes, if my car was insured in Pennsylvania; yes, if I knew the exact mileage of my odometer; yes, I'd jotted that down earlier, if I had a VIN certification; a what?  It turns out that when you take your car to the AAA office to get your title and registration, you need a certification from an approved mechanic who has looked at your VIN and confirmed that it is what you say it is.  Let's not get into the fact that my car is parked right outside and we could just go look at the VIN, no no, it would probably be better if we got yet another agency involved in this process.  In the end, it turns out that if you take your car the the local AAA headquarters they can do the VIN verification there themselves, and also issue the title and registration.  Now that I know that, its back to the car I go, drive up to the new AAA location, follow signs to the parking lot, and in I go.

Once again, I explain to the receptionist why I'm here.  She asked me the same questions as above, except that instead of asking if I had the VIN certification, she just asked if I was parked in the correct parking lot, and then gave me a token to put in the gate machine when I left so I could get out.  Once again, I took a number and sat down to wait to be called.  As I was sitting there I looked at the email I'd gotten from Geico earlier, just to make sure I'd gotten my new insurance cards.  Sure enough, they had arrived, but when I looked I noticed that the address that had been put on the card started with a 2 rather than a 3.  I figured I could either call Geico now, get that straitened out and not be available when my name got called, or simply hope that the person I would be dealing with would not notice the discrepancy, and then fix the issue with Geico when I got home.  I opted for the latter, and a few minutes later got called up to the window.

When I was called up I handed over my various pieces of documentation, and explained that I didn't have a hard copy of the proof of insurance card, but could show it to her on my phone.  She couldn't accept that, but she said if I could send her a pdf she could print it out and that would be ok, so I forwarded her the card from Geico, and sure enough when she looked at it, she noticed a problem, but rather than the address, she had noticed that the lady I had talked to at Geico had changed my policy renewal to reflect my new situation, but that wasn't set to go into effect until October, and she hadn't updated my current policy.  Fortunately the lady from AAA was willing to let me sit there while I called Geico to get everything sorted out, and in the mean time she went out to do the VIN verification herself.  A few minutes later she came back and I was still on the phone; I had talked to a new agent, and she was fixing everything, but it was taking a little while.  While I was on hold I started chatting with the AAA lady, and asked her if she'd succeeded in the VIN verification.  She confided in me that she'd gone to the wrong parking lot, and therefor hadn't seen my car, so she was just going to take my word for it.  Let me tell you, that made me super happy to have gone out of my way to come to the central location.

In the end everything got worked out.  Geico fixed their mistake, and actually managed to give me a discount on the insurance on top of it, I got my title, registration, licence and voter registration all taken care of.  I guess the lesson here is that becoming a new resident of any state and dealing with the DMV is probably a painful experience; but even so, I never expected to interact with a DMV that would make me think that DC's DMV was really a pretty efficient organization all things considered.  I guess you live, you learn.

Here's the photographic proof that it all worked out:

Hooray! A License Plate!