I just moved to DC and here is what is required to get your car registered here:
A DC driver’s license (which requires among other things, your social security card, I haven’t seen my social security card in at least 20 years when I left in some jeans that I washed, most states are satisfied with a passport, but DC requires a passport AND the original social security card)
Title to your car (so you have to get your lender to send DC your title)
About 8 other peices of documentation and identification.
What exactly is the concern in DC that makes them require about triple the hoop jumping and time and expense that the surrounding states require? Are people with fake passports running around who don’t have access to fake social security cards? Are criminals stealing cars and trying to register them? What?
Welcome to the hell that is public service in DC. I live in Petworth, where are you living in our fair city? Some advice, bring a book and get there as early as you can, the facility at Brentwood is probably the quickest. Have you got your car inspected yet? If not you are in for a treat. Get everything registered for two years to avoid doing it again, you also will soon get jury duty. Everyone gets it at least every two years.
According to this, this and this, the requirements are no more onerous than they are in Pennsylvania. How have you been able to make it through all these years without a Social Security card?
Anyway, since you are in the home of the Social Security Administration, it shouldn’t be any big thing for you to get a new one. Hell, I went to my nearest SSA office in Harrisburg and got a new one in less than a week. It’s free, it’s easy, and as long as you don’t wash it again you’ll not have to go through this a second time.
I did all of that last year. Getting the license was not so bad. Getting the car titled was an ordeal.
I was able to get my license fairly quickly since I assembled all of the paperwork before. I wound up taking a certified copy of birth certificate. The main thing that was a pain is that you have to show documents proving that you reside in the District. I took a copy of my deed. Some of the new more stringent requirements are thanks to Congress. The Real ID bill tightened up the requirements which is why all these things are required. See also this article.
For me, it was an interesting comparison since I got my license in VA more than 10 years ago. When I got my learner’s permit in VA, I used a school form from my guidance counselor. When I was renewing it, I only had to present my old license, and I renewed it by mail the second time.
If you can, I recommend doing it on a weekday and getting to the inspection center early. I got there around 7:30 in the morning. I was done by 9:00. Bring a good book. One of my neighbors who has lived in the city for about thirty years and is a city employee told me the best day to go is on a Friday, preferably payday. He said that worst day to go is Saturday because they will be hungover and pissed at you.
The title to the car is what killed me. Our credit union is officially the stupidest collection of individuals known to mankind. We stay with them because their studpidity sometimes benefits us. They lost the title to our car. They mailed it to the old address. However, their stupidity paid off because in order to not have to go to the VA DMV, they filled out a form waiving any liens they had on the car. We took that to the DMV in Arlington, got a duplicate title and took that to the DC DMV.
I wound up using the main office at C Street. As you can imagine, there isn’t any parking nearby, so you might want to take the Metro. They open the earliest during the week if you want to try doing it before work.
Who the hell still has their card? I lost mine decades ago, and have never needed it in the meantime. As long as I know the number, what good does the card serve? No picture, no proof it’s really mine. Sorry, but those requirements are stupid and un-necessary. In California, all you need is:
Application for Title or Registration
California Certificate of Title OR Application for Duplicate Title
Signature of the seller (and leinholder, if any) on the title
Signature of the buyer on the title
Odometer disclosure if the car is less than 10 years old
Smog certification (depending on the car’s age)
Title transfer fee of $15
Registration fee of $31
Use tax (this can be in the thousands of dollars for newer cars)
Additional applicable fees (use the calculator to see the breakdown)
No ID at all, apparently.
I’ve been doing without a social security card for quite some years. Of course, the fact that my military ID card has the social security number on it helps.
I went three times years ago and have yet to receive the replacement. Of course, I’m not going to complain as I should’ve continued until I got it. And, yes, I’m going to apply for a replacement again this evening.
If I ever start to go insane and decide that more government is the solution to a problem, all I’ll have to do to return to reality is cut my driver’s license in half and visit the DMV.
DC Requirements for Proof of SSN. From the link that [b[Airman Doors** provided, you can bring a W-2 and a payroll statement that contains your social security number. For what its worth, I didn’t bother bringing my social security card and instead used thse documents.
The main DMV office is downtown and during the week there is very little to no parking in that part of the City. I found a metered spot a few blocks away and I considered myself pretty lucky. Some of the other locations are better for parking but they don’t open as early.
Besides, if you consider that the DMV is the worst of the DC government offices think again. Try getting a permit to do some work on your house. There is a reason that most people in the city avoid doing so.
Sounds like they haven’t improved things since the last time we had dealings with a DC “public service” office… in 1989.
We had to get a medium-term permit for our car. We were subletting an apartment near Dupont Circle for a few months, not long enough that we were required to register the car there. We had to get some sort of paperwork from the landlord and take it to the DMV office. We had to pay a fee at window 1. Then go to window 2 and show that we’d paid, and provide the letter from the landlord. Window 2 stamped some forms… which we had to take to window 3 to get the actual permit.
None of these windows wer more than 15 feet away from the others.
But 3 of Marion Barry’s friends sure earned their salary that day :mad:
We’re a little short on land in that part of town. Besides, Judiciary Square station is steps away. Even if there was parking, I don’t know why anyone would want to drive when the subway drops you off right at the building.