Driving on Canadian license in Rhode Island

Steven
CanuckAbroad VIP



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 1637
Location: Calgary

Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 9:22 pm

 

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State law in basically all States is that you have to get a State DL within 30/60/90 days of becoming a resident of the State, which means (usually) the day on which the State became your principal residence.

If you carry on with a Canadian licence, that is a residential tie to Canada and you are subject to Canadian income taxes (which probably isn't a problem on TN-1 as moving your tax home to the US on a TN-1 is IMO a bad move).

The Real ID Act has made States tighten up the residency rules for DLs, and most States make your DL expire on the day your I-94 expire, which is crazy as Canadians often don't need an I-94 or if they do, and they renew status inside the US, they don't get a replacement. But there you go, they took everyone into account except Canadians.

A few States (like Florida and New Mexico) are more enlightened but RI I'm pretty sure isn't one of them.

Rhode Island has a reputation as being the worst State in the US for bureaucracy. Also has the highest State income taxes.

I've frankly lost count of how many driving tests I've taken. The Florida one was the biggest laugh, I drove this 250lb instructor around the parking lot to pass the test. She was so fat my car tilted over to one side and I couldn't get to the gear stick because her thigh was pressed against it, so I got into second gear for about ten seconds!
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Steve.

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britcan
Junior Member



Joined: 19 Apr 2007
Posts: 13
Location: Rhode Island

Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 4:06 pm

 

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OK I can tell you first hand- we moved to Rhode island from Ontario. The DMV does not recognise a Canadian Driving Lience and you will have to take a new test. 6 month waiting list to do this! We ended up moving to Connecticut to live and swapping our CDN licences to CT ones. The DMV in RI treated us like terrorists-

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Steven
CanuckAbroad VIP



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 1637
Location: Calgary

Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 8:46 pm

 

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Worst State bureaucracy in the US. I've heard it lots of times from various people.
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Steve.

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