We received our certified marriage certificates yesterday. Multiple marriage certificates? Yep, we requested multiple copies since, for example, I need to send a copy including apostille to The Hague so our marriage will be legally registered in the Netherlands also (if we ever move there, at least they know we are legally married), I also need to send a copy to the USCIS for my adjustment of status (so I can get my greencard) and Michelle needed one for her name changes (since she carries my name now).

So today we were kind of busy to get Michelle’s name change into the systems. We went, for example, to one of the social security offices (where it was a bit more busy than last time when I had to be there) to get a new social security card for her and from there on we went to the DMV since Michelle also needed to do a name change on her driver license.

I told Michelle this morning that, if it would not be too busy at the DMV, that I would possibly take the eyetest and the written test (you don’t need an appointment as it is a walk in). I took my social security card with me because you cannot get your exams done without it. When we arrived we noticed that it was not very busy so both Michelle and I filled some forms out, Michelle for her name change and me for the Hawaii driver license.

When it was my turn (this was almost at the same time as Michelle had her turn, just at a different window), I asked what would happen to my current Dutch driver license. This one had to be invalidated according to the lady since you are not allowed to have more than 1 driver license (which makes sense) but it would be returned to me (they make a hole in it or something), which is nice since that makes it easier for me to request a new driver license in the Netherlands, if we ever move to the Netherlands (if I didn’t get it back, I could have requested a new one by just saying I would have lost my old one since, apparantly, that goes quite easy hehe, but ok, that is not needed ).

Ok, so it was my turn (I can talk sometimes, I know haha). First the lady was going to check my eyes… this is something which really frightened me as, some may know, I had to wear glasses until I was 15 years old since I got a really bad vision on my right eye, I can hardly see anything through that eye. And yes, with my luck, I had to read the sixth row with my right eye… all I saw was a white square, nothing else haha. I explained the situation to the lady behind the counter and she said that it was no problem and that I could try with my left eye and that went, as expected, without any problem at all. The left eye is completely ok, I can read small texts from quite some distance with that eye and I can see distances and calculate speeds with it and, fortunately, it was ok for the lady too as I heard that I passed my eye test

And then it was time for the written exam.. I got a sheet with 30 questions from which I needed to answer 24 correctly…. hahaha, I know, it is not much at all! Back in the Netherlands I had to answer 70 questions and was only allowed 7 wrong answers, that would be a bit heavier for a test I think but oh well. I thought that the questions itself were very simple too (and according to Michelle there are still lots of people who fail on it). They were all multiple choice questions and, yah, when there is an answer such as ‘this is done to harrass the driver’, then you will not pick that answer of course lol, oh well, there were still 3 other possible answers left haha.

Anyways, I gave my answers back to the lady after a while, I could take a seat and after a few minutes I heard the answer: Passed

I learned that I only had one error, according to the lady behind the counter this was pretty good.. I don’t know, it looked very simple to me, I have the feeling that almost every idiot should be able to get a license with these questions haha. I think I know the wrong answer also since it was a situation that I never experienced before and since it is not something that you would ever see in the Netherlands but oh well, just one wrong answer is doable hehe. The fun thing, at least in my opinion, is that I was not prepared for the exam, all I did this morning was trying a few questions which I could possible see at the exam (8 or something) and that was what made me decide to actually go for it or not haha.

So I got my “instruction permit” now, some kind of pass that almost looks identical to a Hawaiian driver license but with the exception that I am ‘only allowed to drive when there is an adult of minimal 21 years of age next to me with a valid driver license’. Basically it is the permit that allows you to go on the road and actually learn how to drive. To me it is a nice card but it does not have much value as of yet for me since my Dutch driver license is still valid (until I receive my Hawaii driver license). Ok, maybe it has some value tho… I don’t have to walk around with my passport since this is also a valid identification, and I can get “kama’aina” (locals) discounts on some things which are cheaper for locals, or even for free like some museums, since it is the proof that I actually live here (Michelle’s mom gave me, by the way, an American flag for this reason this afternoon, like I am already an American hahaha)

The next thing that I need to do in order to get the Hawaii driver license is the road test. From what I have heard of it, it shouldn’t be too hard, sometimes it is just a circle around the parkinglot but it usually does not take longer than 30 minutes (or so they say). I am curious what it will be… I could go tomorrow according to the people at the DMV since this is also just walk-in (in the morning that is)… I wont go tomorrow since I have to take the car of Michelle’s mother and something has to be done on that first (I can’t take ‘our’ (Michelle’s) car since it is not exactly totally legal with the tires and the dark foil on the windows lol).

Right, after this we went for some lunch, only to continue our excursion with the many banks that we had to visit. From the four banks that we visited we could only get Michelle’s name change done in 1 bank. Michelle has a joint account with her mother at the other banks and since they have to update their signature files, Michelle’s mother has to co-sign those signature files so after that we went home so Michelle could go to the other banks for her name change and after that, the day was almost over again hehe

One of these days I will request my adjustment of status, employment authorization and advance parole and such. Tomorrow we will make some passport pictures for this, and when I know more about all this, or something else, I will write it here again

Tags: DMV, Hawaii, Marriage, SSA

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 at 10:19 pm and is filed under Hawaii. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.