Florida changes the rule on driver's-license renewals for legal immigrants
Legal immigrants in Florida will need to spend more time at swamped DMV offices under a state rule shortening the time their driver's licenses will be valid.
The Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Division sent out an advisory this week mandating that new licenses and ID cards for legal immigrants expire no later than one year after they're issued. Existing guidance on the agency's website had given a longer window, saying the expiration dates should match the last day their visas or other legal documents allow them to remain in the United States, which could be far longer than a year.
Elizabeth Ricci, an immigration lawyer in Tallahassee who specializes in DMV issues, said the new guidance doesn't impact green-card holders. But for immigrants with work visas or long-term allowances, they'll only be given licenses lasting up to 12 months the next time they need an extension or address change.
'You're going to have to go back every year,' said Ricci, a partner at Rambana & Ricci. 'This is an effort to make licenses more difficult to obtain in Florida.'
The new rule was made public Friday in a press release from the Miami-Dade County Tax Collector's Office, which runs some DMV offices in the Miami area.
It's not clear what prompted the state's notice. The one-year cap appears to already be mandated by Florida law, as cited in the advisory. A spokesperson for the Highway Safety agency was not available for comment on Friday afternoon.
The advisory shouldn't have an immediate impact on the lines that have swamped DMV offices in Miami and across Florida in advance of the nationwide Real ID travel restrictions going into effect next week.
The one-year rule only affects renewals, not the expiration dates on existing licenses. But it will have an outsized impact in South Florida, with its large immigrant population.
Florida's updated guidance will mean more return trips next year for immigrants who previously could get their licenses and ID cards renewed for multiple years at a time.
Miami-Dade Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez said he implemented the change this week after getting the state notice. Already, he said, people who came in with visas lasting several years were sent away with one-year licenses.
'If your papers say four years, I can only give you one year,' he said.
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