For those of you who received the May 29th notice cancelling your license unless you were able to verify, to the satisfaction of Penn DOT, the veracity of your social security number by June 19, 2009, there’s been a momentary reprieve: Penn DOT has temporarily cancelled their cancellation notices in order to work on a new letter and set of guidelines that more clearly establish who is legally permitted to drive in the Commonwealth. Such new guidelines will better mirror the USCIS guidelines as to who is legally in the U.S. and thus who is permitted to legally drive in our state.

Why is this happening? Does Penn DOT want to make sure that illegally present individuals can legally drive in Pennsylvania? Absolutely not. Instead, Penn Dot, after meeting with a group of immigration attorneys and community leaders, recognized that one of the databases upon which they have been relying in part for these social security mismatches is not always 100% correct. Moreover, Penn DOT now understands that oftentimes even those who are legally present in the U.S. still cannot quickly document their lawful status and need time to obtain the necessary and correct documents from both USCIS and social security.  Penn DOT also understands that there must be a clear and easy path for those who are legally present in the U.S. and whose social security numbers incorrectly sparked the May 29th cancellation notice to make corrections to the official government records without resorting to expensive and time consuming lawsuits. Recall: as a result of these cancellation notices there was a rush to City Hall in order to file lawsuits which cost $174 in filing fees alone because drivers were unable to resolve their no match issues with local Penn DOT offices.

It’s also important to understand that many Penn DOT customers who hold legal statuses in the U.S. are unable to obtain social security numbers because those statuses, which while they allow them to be legally present in the U.S., do not legally permit them to work (i.e. H-4 dependents). Unfortunately, they, too, have been caught up in this cancellation web. To their great credit, Penn DOT has indicated a full willingness to unravel these and other similar cases. They are now reviewing their current written instructions which appear in their manual #195 which sets forth the types of documents individuals who are legally present in the U.S. should present to their offices when applying for a driver’s license. In addition, they will be providing training to their staff in order to be certain that Pennsylvania drivers with lawful status in the U.S. will be able to establish such legal status to Penn DOT and thus be able to continue to drive without running to the courts.

What does this all mean? It means that if you received a cancellation notice and surrendered your license it will be returned to you, with instructions to attempt to correct any discrepancies that resulted in the loss of your license.  Does it mean that if you know that you are not in the U.S. legally and used an ITIN number to drive that you will be fine? No. Your ITIN number, if you are not in the U.S. legally, will not be the basis for a continuation of your Pennsylvania license. Rather, when Penn DOT sends the next round of cancellation notices in the near future, you will lose your license and hence right to drive in the U.S. There will be no remedy for your loss since Pennsylvania law unequivocally states that only those individuals who are in the U.S. with USCIS permission may legally drive. Therefore, appeals will be absolutely useless and are not recommended.

The final question: when will this change? When the immigration laws change. Until then thousands of formerly licensed Pennsylvania drivers will be without licenses and subject to arrest if they are caught driving.