DC DMV - Southwest Service Center — Attraction in Washington

I would like to say that obtaining a driver's license was smooth, it was not and overall a bad experience. The web site is terrible, poorly organized and difficult to navigate with broken links I ruined a precious entire day off work and was trapped essentially at DMV without food or water except to go out every two hours all day to pay parking on m street. Rather than rant, for people moving into DC I'm going to tell you exactly what to do: Do EXACTLY as I say and you have a chance to get out of there in a couple of hours but plan for a whole day.Take Uber/lyft parking is too hectic.They don't allow water or food, but you will need it for how long you are probably there.Take something in your bag. Come into the building like you are going to DSW Shoes from M street and go down the escalator. There is a door missing on M street so it has a Wood construction door, right next to dean and deluca, easy to miss. Go down the escalator and take a left. You wait in a line and that gets you to a receptionist that checks your documentation, but they may or may not know exactly what you need. They give you a paper number like a bakery or a butcher and a nice UK voice reads the numbers. You can't listen to head phones because you need to stay alert for your number. They are random so do not raise your hopes by letter or number. STAY ALERT and calm! the number order really means nothing. Its totally random. READ CAREFULLY: Bring your mortgage closing papers or your apartment lease agreement, the WHOLE thing and make sure you have the signature page. Bring in a print version of your renters insurance or homeowners insurance that shows the address. Bring in your passport/passport card plus your out of state license. If you don't have your social security card, get a copy of your W-2, it has your social security number on it. Make two copies of these documents because if you get bumped out of line and the clerks lose the paperwork they don't keep paperwork it just goes wherever, new number is requested and start again. Don't be surprised, Have a DUPLICATE and tabs so you can find each document when your nerves are frazzled and you are trying to contain your temper or crying. It's hard to find individual documents in a pile or a teary haze so think tabs! Fill out the application then expect to wait thru two or three tries to get your license. If you have exactly the right thing it may work but the staff is not trained to adjust to even the most minor deviations, it must be exactly like I described. If you have other documents you want to bring like phone bill or power bill go ahead but collate them in your DMV personal notebook. Most people do banking and utilities on line as well as phone bills so you may not get those bills and that is why I'm suggesting the documents above. Start early as possible. FedEx Office is across the street if needed and bring your smartphone to email to office while you are there. Get mentally ready. The place is like a nursery with no nurse. People bring their kids and they promptly ignore them so they can scream or do whatever they want. Early in the day they are cute, but after spending 8 hours there your nerves will be shot. If you get impatient or upset they bring a big guy in to ask you what you want... then put you to the back of the line so stay calm try not to cry! Expect to need to go through two times.. likely more. Don't give up if you do remember you will spend another day there making it up, If you are Christian, Jew, Islamic, Hindu or Buddhist, you need to pray or meditate several hours before you go longer the better. You need to be extremely calm. It's your best shot, lose your cool= start over. If you are atheist, figure out what calms you so you can endure it. I saw one man have a total melt down, others held it together, but the big guy was busy keeping the calm. Several younger women just left in tears. The lady at the end of the day on my 6th number of the day and running out of time, she was nice and was able to complete the license. Next is...

TL;DR - Be prepared to go back to this DMV multiple times with different tellers having different rules for what you need in order to be successful. For the highest chance of success, physically bring everyone listed on the car's registration/title, more forms of residency proof than the website says you need, and really every document you can think of relating to the car.

If you are in the mood to read:

The best thing that can be said for this DMV is that they move through appointments relatively quickly. Still, be prepared to wait an hour or so for your number to be called.

The most important thing to know about going to this DMV is that every teller is like their own little entity, with their own rules. One person telling you something means very little when you are working with a different teller. They will not care when you say "but the person yesterday said...." I just finished applying for a reciprocity permit and it took 3 separate trips, each more frustrating than the last.

My first trip, I brought a lease that was starting a few days after the appointment to prove residency. The teller told me that I needed one that was current, even though the website says an "unexpired" lease. Frustrating that they couldn't just say "current" lease on the website, but whatever. I asked the person "is everything else in this packet ready to go?" "Yes, the rest of this is all good."

I went back the next day with a copy of my current, expiring-in-two-days lease. That was now fine, but this next person said that I had a title, not a registration, and she needed the registration. I am not a car person and don't really know the difference, but this one was on me. I asked for clarification on what exactly they are looking for with registration and she told me that the fact that I didn't know meant that I was risking jail time. Very, very odd conversation. I went home and found it on my own.

I went back again just yesterday, having obsessively looked over all of my documents to spot any potential issues. I waited 1.5 hours to be seen. This latest person told me that all of my documents were ok, but that my wife needed to be with me to secure the permit because she is also listed on the registration. I asked where it says that she needs to be with me. She printed me out the list of things needed for a reciprocity permit which says nothing about all owners of a car needing to be there. I asked for her to point me to where it says this on the website or anywhere and she refused. She sent me away.

So I got back in the line, got a number and called my 9 month pregnant wife to come down to the DMV. She got there about 2 minutes before my number was called again, and we were seen at a different window. This person never even looked at or asked about my wife, but did try to deny me the permit based on me being listed as an "additional driver" on my insurance, as opposed to the primary policyholder. I argued this to a supervisor and won.

I walked out of the DMV with permit in hand, adrenaline pumping. Hell of a ride. Let's do it...

I had a great experience here this morning! There are a few things you need that they don’t have written on their website, which I figured out by reading these reviews: the active lien certificate from the lien holder (which my lien holder actually ended up sending along with my title!), a signed letter from the co-owner of the vehicle stating you can register the car in DC, plus a photocopy of the co-owner’s license.

Idid hit a snag with my proof of residence documentation (they are very specific about what counts), but it turns out you can print out the items rather than having items that were mailed. Luckily, when I hit this snag, my agent told me I had ten minutes to email the required documents to the front desk email address to print them out for me—if I had the documents within ten minutes, I didn’t need a new ticket number. I was able to find and email the documents I needed (credit card bill and renter’s insurance POLICY) and the front desk promptly printed them for me. I then went straight back to the agent I had been working with, not needing to wait in line again!

If you are moving from another state and need a new license/registration/title, make sure you have:

old state driver’s license proof of social security (I used my SS card) passport or other proof of citizenship 2 proof of DC residence (bills, insurance policy, copy of lease) vehicle title (if your lein holder has it, you need to request that they send it to the DMV. there is a document online for this) insurance binder copy of lien contract signed letter from co-owner authorizing you to register the car in DC photocopy of co-owner’s driver’s license inspection certificate from inspection center down the street

Make sure you have EVERYTHING gathered and good to go, and you should be totally fine!! But if you forget something, you could probably print it out like I did. Also, when I told my agent that the co-owner documentation wasn’t listed on the website, she was like “oh man that is a problem, that should be on there… I’m going to get to the bottom of that and make sure it’s on there.” My agent was clearly very competent (she was helping answer questions for the other agents around her) so I was in good hands!

Hope this is...