Traveling with newly expired Drivers license

[Rachel]

My drivers license expired three days ago, and I am traveling Amtrak on May 19th. On the back of my license it says I have a 14 day grace period so I am wondering if I will be okay or which other identification documents would be best to bring. I would really rather not bring my passport. I have a student id, my social security card, a health insurance card, and a few credit cards including one with my picture on it. Thanks for the help.

 

[Eris]

In most cases you won't even be asked for your ID, but if you are, I'm going to bet you'll have no trouble with your slightly-expired Driver License, especially in combination with your other wallet cards (but leave that Social Security card home).

Oh, actually, your student ID is probably fine:

From http://www.amtrak.com/passenger-identification

What is a Valid ID?To be valid, your identification must be current and in-force. The following forms of identification are acceptable for persons 18 and older:

• One piece of photo identification issued by a government authority, or
• Two pieces of identification, at least one of which is issued by a government authority

Examples of acceptable forms of ID include:

• State or provincial driver's license
• Passport
• Official government-issued identification (federal, state, city or county government or foreign government)
• Canadian provincial health card ID card with photo
• Military photo ID
• Student identification (university, college or high school photo ID)
• Job Corps photo ID

 

[amamba]

Bring your driver's license and your student ID. Definitely leave the Social security card at home. That is even more important to leave at home than your passport IMO!. That should always be kept in a safe location and never carried on your person.

Good luck!

 

[saxman]

I've seen agents turn away people that had an expired license. I'd bring your passport, just in case. I always have my passport with my anyways.

 

[zepherdude]

An expired license is not a legal form of ID. You might be in more trouble by showing it. I vote for student ID and passport. IDs these days are nothing to mess with when traveling. I never travel without my passport.

 

[TinCan782]

"On the back of my license it says I have a 14 day grace period"

That is probably for renewal without penalty after expiration.

The "perception" of the validy of an expired license is in the eyes of the beholder...the official examining the license. YMMV

 

[Cina]

If you run down to the DMV to renew, they'll probably give you a paper temporary drivers license that's perfectly legit (for like a month until they send you your new one)... at least that's what they do here. Sometimes you can also renew online, not sure if they give you a temporary one, though, in that instance.

 

[GregL]

Iowa residents have a grace period of thirty days before and thirty days after their birthday on the expiring year.

 

[Guest-Thomas]

I was once almsot denied passage on Amtrak when the Conductor asked to see ID and it had expired within a week. She would not accept the ID but finally let me ride since I had another photo id (was a theme park annual pass, was surprised she accepted that).

I now carry a valid State ID and a Passport card in my wallet, and my passport book in my luggage. Better safe than watching the train leave me! ha.

 

[rusty spike]

According to Chapter 8 Section 1of the Amtrak Service Standards Manual, a current Student Photo iD is a valid as a government issued ID.

United States Residents – Examples of
Government-Issued Photo Identification (One
required)
• State-issued driver’s license
• State-issued identification card issued by the
same agency that issues driver’s licenses
• U.S. Passport
• U.S. Resident Alien Card
• University, college or middle/high school
photo identification – public or private
• United States Armed Forces military
identification
• Job Corps photo identification
• Veterans Access Card issued by the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs
• Tribal identification (Native American/First
Nations, etc.)
• Law enforcement (police, etc.) photo
identification
• Amtrak employee photo identification
• Federal, state, county or local government

However, unless you are checking luggage, you probably are not going to need ID, I doubt you wil be ask for any ID on board the train. I would leave my passport and I would definitely leave my SS card at home.

 

[Rachel]

Thanks for all the responses. I'm not checking any luggage, I already have my ticket printed and ready to go. I was hoping my college ID would work but the only info on the id card is my birth date and my college id number, no validity or expiration dates listed, so that's very inconvenient. I was hoping to not take my passport or birth certificate just because I will be staying with friends in Baltimore, in not necessarily the safest location and don't want that extra thing to worry about, but I do want to get the train... So I'll bring what I have to bring.

 

[Peter KG6LSE]

Jeeez how nutty can amtrak get . Lets be real .

every uni I went to had IDs with photos. .... whose to say they cant be faked? they are as far from the Enhanced ID that your friends at the DHS want you to carry as, papers please ..

Yet a hologramed barely expired ID from a state has some how less value then a laminated over prized library card from a random college.

/rant/

IMO take the passport and Yes leave the SSnumber paper wad at home

* for the record . WHY is such a important number on PLAIN paper. at 20 USD bill has more cotton in it and lasts longer .

 

[jis]

Interestingly neither the US Passport Card, nor the US Globa Entry Id Card, both of which are acceptable Ids for crossing a terrestrial border into the US, are listed in Amtrak's list, expkicitly, but as Federal Government issued card I suppose they should be acceptable. Hey! TSA has no problem with accepting either I guess I will have to give my Global Entry a try on Amtrak and see what happens

Don't even get me started..... Oh well, I guess too late, already did ...

The US Social Security Card related rules are beyond insane. When I got my SS Card it was a cardboard card with the SS# typed on it using a typewriter. Heck I could have created myself one in my lab if I was inclined to do so. There were no anti-forgery features on it at all! Anyway, It said that it must not be laminated. So of course the first thing I did with it was laminate it so that it would not fall apart. Since then I have used it officially several times and no one has complained about the lamination. It has lasted in its original form with lamination now for 38 years.

A young whipper snapper of an agent who was born a decade after my SS card was issued to me, who interviewed me for the first round of GOES, sat there wondering how I managed to get an SS Card before I got a work permit. I suggested that he go and read up on the history of when SS cards started requiring a work permit. It was way after '77. He mistakenly thought that I was paying SS tax when I was not allowed to work, just because I had an SS card. A quick reference to my SS tax collection record disabused him of that. Sheesh! I wish they'd actually educate these characters a bit about the history of things that they have to deal with, before sending 'em off to the field. Of course it is also possible that the whole thing was a put up act too

 

[me_little_me]

Jeeez how nutty can amtrak get . Lets be real .

every uni I went to had IDs with photos. .... whose to say they cant be faked? they are as far from the Enhanced ID that your friends at the DHS want you to carry as, papers please ..

Yet a hologramed barely expired ID from a state has some how less value then a laminated over prized library card from a random college.

/rant/

IMO take the passport and Yes leave the SSnumber paper wad at home

* for the record . WHY is such a important number on PLAIN paper. at 20 USD bill has more cotton in it and lasts longer .

I agree. There are only 50 states so anyone regularly checking IDs from people all over the country should be able to recognize them. With thousands of colleges and zillions of high schools, anyone can fake an ID from Podunk College of Terrorism and Jihad and nobody except the dean would know it was a fake.

 

[andersone]

I carried my draft card from 1968 until three years ago when it disintegrated. Hope they don't want to call my number anyore

 

[Headache]

As a former truck driver I can definitely state that since 9/11 everything changed regarding travel, shipping, IDs, etc. Where we used to be able to get away with a freshly expired ID of some form it's rarely the case now. Even more importantly is keeping ON TOP of your IDs and expiration dates because of identity theft. I had a friend that went in to renew her drivers license only to find out that it already had been by someone else. I would do everything possible to renew it before I left.

 

[Guest]

Would an expired driver's license really be an invalid form of ID? I mean, while you could not legally drive, its not like your ID itself expired (you cease to exist as a person).

I know that an expired passport can still be used for ID and such, just not for customs/international traveling.

 

[Guest]

I carried my draft card from 1968 until three years ago when it disintegrated. Hope they don't want to call my number anyore

I still carry mine.

It says I must, until I am notified that I no longer have to, and I have never received any such formal notice. Otherwise, face a $10,000 fine, and/or 5 years in prison. I am not about to take such a risk.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Good story jis! When my late wife first came to the US from Canada on her temporary non-resident "alien" visa ,( guess the Govt thought Canadians were from Mars! LOL)she was able to get a drivers license and Social Security # before she got her temporary Green Card!( they actually used to be green!)

She was then allowed allowed to work but couldn't leave the US without permission for a year!! When her father became seriously ill that first year, and passed away, she was allowed to travel to/ from Canada and used her Canadian passport @ the Airports in Austin, Houston and Toronto. They wouldn't take her temporary Green Card and written permission letter!!! ( it was actually typed and notorized on an official US Govt. INS Form!!)

After 3 years, she was issued her permanent Green Card and was then eligible to apply for US Citizenship!

I know the procedures depended on what country of origin was involved and changed several times, especially after 911 and the creation of the Giant Octupus, the DOHS! Just curious if it was the same for you back in the day??

 

[jis]

Andersone, maybe just for the heck of it you should apply for a replacement draft card since yours fell apart and see what happens

Jim, back in '77 they did not bother with so called ITIN for those that did not have work permits. They just gave you an SS card, and with no special annotation on it about anything either. My sequence was F-1 Student (no work permit but allows one to work under certain circumstances like one year training at a job after completion of degree program, and collect scholarship, fellowship, teaching and research assistantship and such, and not eligible to pay SS tax), H-1 Alien Employee (allows one to be employed and pay SS tax), Green Card (which then used to be grey in color and no concept of temporary card when you got it on Third Preference. Once you got I-155 authorization you just received a card for life). That was in 1985. And finally Naturalization in 1990 or 91, I forget exactly which year off the top of my head.

Incidentally, when my Dad came as a student back in 1946, he was directly given a Resident Alien Visa (unlimited number of entries with no expiry date!) stamped in his Passport. That was what Green Card looked like back then. Since he went back after graduating, no one in our family has ever had a problem getting a non-resident visa to visit the US. The American Consular Service keep extremely good records. They (The Consular Section in the US Embassy in New Delhi) knew my Dad's history when I applied for my F-1, and even before that when my Dad applied for J-1 and J-2 for us to visit in 1965.

 

[Headache]

If a drivers license has expired it is considered invalid for anything in some states. Check your state regulations to be sure. Since I carry a CDL I'm under tighter rules.

Also, the regulation that required one to carry their draft card was removed in the 70s and has not been reinstated since removal. The removal of the law also removed the requirement to notify you that you don't have to carry it.

http://www.sss.gov/FSdraftcd.htm

Selective Service Regulations required each registrant to have his card in his possession at all times. This requirement was removed from the regulations in late 1974, shortly before registration was suspended, and it has not been reinstituted.

 

[Braniff747SP]

You'll be fine -- even if they ask for it, you're unlikely to run into someone anal enough to care.

I always carry around a driver's license and a passport card... Good for situations like these, I guess.

 

[andersone]

I actually complied with something for more than twenty years longer than I was supposed to> Mother would be shocked - and thanks for the good read JIS

 

[Headache]

When I made my reservation the agent brought up randomly being subject to an inspection. She said it happens to about 30% of the passengers and I'd need a current form of ID in case of that as well as when I check in for initial boarding. YMMV

 

[JoeBas]

If you're checking bags, you'll likely get your ID checked.

If your ID is no good, there's a small but nonzero chance that the person checking it will be bored, or a drone, or having a bad day, or just generally an a-hole, and deny you a ticket/boarding.

Last summer, there was a woman at HOS who had come from NOL on an expired ID, only to be told when she went to pick up her return ticket at HOS that she was SOL (and I don't mean the station). She was... less than thrilled.