New licenses are on the horizon for many Ohio drivers, and this year, they come with new rules.
The biggest change, and the most frustrating for many, is you'll no longer leave with your license right on the spot. You'll get it in the mail after you renew.
But that's not what has people so riled up. It's about the difficulty some say they’re having in getting those licenses, and the extra cost they think they'll have to pay.
So, waiting in line at the BMV could be the least of your problems come July 2. That’s when Ohio will begin issuing new driver's licenses and ID cards.
Part of the change is to comply with Federal regulations passed after 9/11, which require all states to issue specially made cards that are harder to duplicate by 2020.
"The capabilities of this type of machinery makes it cost-prohibitive for those with fraudulent intent to try to duplicate the process that creates a convincing forgery," says Don Petit, Registrar of the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV).
But those hard-to-duplicate cards are going to be harder to get for drivers because the documentation needs to be precise.
If there is a misspelling in your name, an extra letter, initial, abbreviation, or some documents have your married name and others have your maiden name – you are in for a haul.
We received an email from a man who says his wife spent “over six hours to renew her license" with "three trips to the BMV," "two to the Social Security Office" and "one to the marriage license bureau" at the courthouse, because the documents had her different names.
There were also complaints on the BMV's Facebook page from people like Chris, who said "if they are going to make me get a new license a year early, will the Ohio BMV be giving me a 25% discount?" And Angela, who said her old license will expire, after just paying for a 4-year renewal.
But the BMV says your current license is valid and you do not have to get the new one before your old one expires.
"If you are an existing customer and you don't fly, or you have a passport... you can come in with just your soon-to-be expired driver's license," Petit added. "You can use that as the only document to renew for a standard driver's license."
The caveat, is that if you want to fly or enter a Federal building starting October of 2020, and you don't have one of the new licenses, you'll have to present a passport or one of the other forms of ID they accept. Because your old license won't do.
Check out these helpful links:
TSA Identification Guidelines
Ohio’s New Driver’s Licenses and ID