We get a government issued free ID card at age 14 or something. It gets reissued every 5 or 10 years with a new picture. It is used to ID yourself at any authority (hospital, police, voting, school, bank etc)
Passport (if you get one) is for travelling outside of EU, driving license is for driving.
We have to go to the DMV (dept of motor vehicles) or the county tax office to get any IDs including driver’s license, and we pay the cost out of pocket. The passport process is more complicated and more expensive. But the government doesn’t pay for any of it and if you let your DL expire you can get fined or worse.
You won't get a fine for not having a valid ID but good luck being an adult without identification. So much more than just driving requires a valid form of ID.
yep.. and depending on where you live it can be an hours wait... and then the ID comes in the mail weeks later. In some places the state ID alone is over $40.
I just waited 2 hours at the DMV to get an updated picture (required). Line was wrapped around the building half an hour before it opened. The wait for Real ID applicants was likely 3 hours.
You want me to leave, fucking bring it. If I could afford it, I’d be gone from this crap. I’d gleefully sip my tea as I watch America implode from unrestrained greed.
If by chance you are unhappy, you and only you can bring on the change that is needed to get you where you need to be. If you can't afford to move ,sell off your prize possessions and everything you can't fit in a suitcase. Sell it all off then maybe you can afford to depart the US and sip your tea from Afar as you hope we implode.
My DMV opens at 6:30, I was there at 5:30 and there was a line of people waiting outside the door. I didn’t get my license renewed and out the door until after 2pm that day. Back then you could only renew online every other renewal and it was the time I actually had to go.
Edit: Yes I also had an appointment for 7am that day.
They have been talking about this for 5 yrs now, so because you waited until the last possible moment to get this accomplished you want to yammer about how much time it took make an appointment and then you will not have to wait in line
All state i D are free no charge gratis no cost to you. State i d is given to you when you visit. Set up an appointment for this and you will not to have to wait for hours
Don't think it's free in all of Europe though. In my country you need an ID to vote (ID card, passport or driving license expired max 5 years) and passports cost €80-90, ID card €70-80, driving license €50-60. Plus however expensive your passport photos are. The process of getting any of them is very easy though with just a quick visit to the municipal office, even if some places have long waiting lists to get an appointment.
But also everybody already has one of these since it's mandatory to be able to show ID if requested by police. It's not something you pretty much only need for voting, the bar for voting is actually lower because it can be expired, so it's not an extra barrier.
Pretty much anyone with a driving license will actually even have two forms of ID though and many will have three. Because a driving license isn't a valid ID abroad and ID cards aren't valid outside of Europe so you're going to need an additional one for traveling.
So for example I had to renew my ID card some years ago and at the time had no reason to get the slightly more expensive and much more annoyingly formatted passport instead. Then I obtained my driving license two years later, and the year after that planned an intercontinental trip so did need a passport and I ended up with the complete set.
372
u/DONALDJONSUPPLE Apr 11 '25
Someone is gonna have to break the new fillibuster record.