Friday, January 14, 2022

License Chatter

 So for those who didn't know.....when you applied for German driver's licenses (going back decades).....once issued, it lasted your entire life.  One single card could be around for seventy-odd years.

Well....no German ever complained about this deal.

The EU stood up around three years ago....had a talk and then said this is totally wrong.  So they established a EU mandate.....starting late 2021, you had to go and apply for the new license.  Figure around 40 Euro for this card.

There's a schedule for this....folks born in this period....would have a six-month period to renew.  

So starting 1 January 2022.....the herd started to attempt appointments.  The district license bureaus?  They were never set up to run this type of massive renewal.

Today, they announced nationally....the fine business (10 Euro) for the first herd, if they fail to get renewed on time....is suspended.  

A total screwed-up mess?  I would say that the EU had good intentions but never considered how renewal would work.  

My local Wiesbaden office?  Basically, it's four desks, and your appointment is rigged for 15 minutes.  At best, each desk might be able to do 30 (max) per day.  

Also, if you didn't grasp this with all the advertising.....auslanders (we foreign folk)....are on a totally different schedule, and our deadline doesn't pop up until 2026 (January).  My current German license?  At that point, it will be 27 years old.

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