Americans who have exchanged a U.S licence for Ontario licence.

[ontarioo]

My wife changed the name on her driver's license from her maiden name to her married name in Ohio (last December) before she became a PR (landed two weeks ago)

We went to exchange her Ohio DL for an Ontario one this week and apparently Ontario thinks that she has no driving experience beyond getting a license in December She has been driving for almost 20 years.

We were told to bring a driver's abstract, we ordered one from Ohio's DMV and again it doesn't go beyond December when she had the name change done. There's nothing about maiden names and driver's abstracts on the DMV website so we'll be calling them on Tuesday. Does anyone know if it's possible to get a state driver's abstract that shows both the record from the maiden name and married name?

 

[muffy1]

I, too, am trying to obtain a document that states the first date of driver`s license issue which was way back when at 16. If you call the main office in Columbus, hopefully you can get someone via phone and they can help provide a separate but official doc to you on letterhead. You might run in to the problem that they will only mail the document to the US address and not fax or email. But, hopefully, this might help. It``s been not so pleasant for us, as well, dealing with them. Good luck!

 

[ontarioo]

My wife spoke to someone at the Ohio BMV. They told her to fill out a particular form that we had to mail to a Columbus address. It's $10 (payable by money order in US dollars, we just used a postal money order from Canada Post) 10 days later we received my wife's DL renewals history since 2006. We put in a note asking them to send the records to our Canadian address and they did.

These forms coupled with the driver's abstract will get you an Ontario G licence. The front desk clerk at the Drive Test centre (who everyone has to see to get a number to wait their turn) asked her supervisor about the validity of our documents. This supervisor insisted that what we had brought was invalid because they "weren't printed within the last 6 months" (they have the date of the licence renewals on them i.e 2006, 2010 and so on) we were incredulous since we were already turned away once for having only a driver's abstract. We kept insisting we got them within the past few weeks (which we did) and she said "then you show me where it says this was printed this month" we took a long look at what Ohio gave us and in the tiniest print ever (looks like 2 point font) it actually shows the date the document was printed. Once we pointed this out we were able to get a number for my wife to go get her picture taken and exchange her licence.

Unfortunately since Ohio seems to only give out records going back 7 years Ontario insurance companies seems to all assume you've only had your full license for 7 years. There's probably a document you can somehow get from the Ohio BMV showing the number of years you've been licensed but if there is it's not on any of their forms and they won't tell you about it on the phone. We were tired of dealing with these frustrating driver's licensing people on both sides of the border so just settled for getting a full 'G' license even if it means they think she's been driving for 7 years only.

Moral of the story is when you go to exchange a licence have every trace of driving history with you. Ontario apparently has an agreement in place with certain states and it's apparently easy as pie to exchange your license if it's from one of these particular states (they can look you on the DMV system of certain states and see your entire driving history) Ohio is not one of these states.

 

[Bargeld]

My wife spoke to someone at the Ohio BMV. They told her to fill out a particular form that we had to mail to a Columbus address. It's $10 (payable by money order in US dollars, we just used a postal money order from Canada Post) 10 days later we received my wife's DL renewals history since 2006. We put in a note asking them to send the records to our Canadian address and they did.

These forms coupled with the driver's abstract will get you an Ontario G licence. The front desk clerk at the Drive Test centre (who everyone has to see to get a number to wait their turn) asked her supervisor about the validity of our documents. This supervisor insisted that what we had brought was invalid because they "weren't printed within the last 6 months" (they have the date of the licence renewals on them i.e 2006, 2010 and so on) we were incredulous since we were already turned away once for having only a driver's abstract. We kept insisting we got them within the past few weeks (which we did) and she said "then you show me where it says this was printed this month" we took a long look at what Ohio gave us and in the tiniest print ever (looks like 2 point font) it actually shows the date the document was printed. Once we pointed this out we were able to get a number for my wife to go get her picture taken and exchange her licence.

Unfortunately since Ohio seems to only give out records going back 7 years Ontario insurance companies seems to all assume you've only had your full license for 7 years. There's probably a document you can somehow get from the Ohio BMV showing the number of years you've been licensed but if there is it's not on any of their forms and they won't tell you about it on the phone. We were tired of dealing with these frustrating driver's licensing people on both sides of the border so just settled for getting a full 'G' license even if it means they think she's been driving for 7 years only.

Moral of the story is when you go to exchange a licence have every trace of driving history with you. Ontario apparently has an agreement in place with certain states and it's apparently easy as pie to exchange your license if it's from one of these particular states (they can look you on the DMV system of certain states and see your entire driving history) Ohio is not one of these states.

Or if you have a competent state government, they may know what you're talking about when you explain that you're immigrating to Ontario, and they may request not merely a driving record but a record of origin that directly relates to the exchange policy regarding G licenses and years of experience.

 

[sivabalan]

Dear ontarioo

Even I'm in the same situation now. I recently renewed my Ohio DL in 2013 Dec and then moved to Ontario in Mid Jan 2014.

With the renewed Ohio licence and Driver's Abstract, Ontario Licensing Officials are not considering me as an experienced driver.

I was desperately looking out for solutions in the internet and I came across your post. So, could you please help me with the specific form name that you used to obtain the right information from Ohio BMV, so that I can also follow the same procedure please.