So off I trotted to the DMV, documents in hand, and I arrived just before they closed the door to new test-takers that afternoon. I was in luck, so I thought...
I handed the documents over and held my breath.
The guy behind the desk methodically checked through my papers.
"Oh, you have an 'I' visa?"
"Yes," I beamed proudly, expecting to be admired again for my rarity value.
"Well, you need a letter from the Foreign Press Center."
"The what?"
"The Foreign Press Center. It says so here." And he gave me a new form and underlined in red the words 'I Visa: Letter from the Foreign Press Center required' and sent me packing.
I was gutted. I made a half-hearted attempt to explain that my employee ID card and my pay stub (all of which I'd had to bring along to make up the requisite 12 points of identity proof) clearly showed that I work for a news organization - so why on earth do I need a letter from an organization I've never heard of?
Unfortunately, he wasn't having any of this. If I couldn't meet the requirements on the new form he'd given me, I wasn't going to get to take the test. He did, however, volunteer the information that the Foreign Press Center is part of the State Department. Ah, of course, my old friends the State Department, I thought, and began to seethe quietly, while gathering up my papers.
Researching the information later, I began to seethe rather less quietly. Because of the visa class I have now -- which I wasn't on four weeks ago -- I have to go to another government office, fill in more forms, have my picture taken for their records, ask for a letter of recommendation, and take this back to the DMV. Oh, and I can only go to ONE of the three DMV offices in Manhattan (I can only assume office staff at the other two offices would spontaneously combust if they came into contact with - heaven forbid! - a journalist). And again, of course, this is a bizarre New York requirement. If I was living in another state, I wouldn't have to go through this.
So what on earth is New York's concern about foreign journalists driving? (I'm sure there ought to be a punchline here but I'm honestly too baffled to come up with one.)
***
I would like to add a note at this point to say that although this process is so far proving to be onerous and somewhat frustrating, it hasn't yet cost me any money or even that much time... Compare this to my experience learning to drive in the U.K., which spanned seven years -- ok, so I was only really trying for two of those seven, but still -- and involved me taking out a personal loan (my parents didn't have a car I could use to practice - and for the last 18 months it took me to pass, I was living in London. You do the math, as they say here...)
Thursday, June 26, 2008
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6 comments:
Oh dear! Nothing's ever straightforward is it? But bureaucracy seems to be the same the world over. I hope you get it all sorted out, eventually.
And all this talk of driving has just reminded me that I need to renew my license in July.
Well, I am just so excited to have accidentally stumbled upon all you British folk! And your posts remind me that one of my summer projects is also to get an American license. I guess you know the road test appointments book up a long time ahead.
Pretty soon Brits will be the only people on the road -- gas at $4 a gallon looks almost cheap to me.
They're trying to make foreign journalists take the MTA to news events or to hire local drivers--it helps the local economy and prevents you from going and seeing the worst parts of New York.
Good luck though!
I imagine it will be fairly easy once you get past the entry barriers.
They're trying to avoid going down the same road that neighboring New Jersey did. That state gave driver's licenses to several of the 9/11 hijackers.
I think this is hilarious when applied to you because:
Terrorists are statistically men with no career, no stable relationships, no friends outside the terrorist network, no wives or children and A LOT of signs of psychosis.
You are a girl with a good career, stable relationship, friends in networks like book clubs, and no signs of psychosis.
Maybe you should try talking like a New Yorker the next time you go. When they say you need to get more paperwork say, "Look, the sooner I get my friggin' license the sooner you can go on your cigarette break. Get the rubber stamp out and you can go back to your pathetic life."
I doubt it's the terrorist angle, Rob, as this rule only applies to journalists. I'm in the US on an L visa and I only have the same hoops as the locals.
Unless they just don't like anyone ending in -ist!
See, it's the terror all this bureaucracy that's the cause of me not having a driving license here too! Much to The Special One's chagrin when we're on a long trip upstate...
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