Dear sjohns6121-ga;
Thank you for allowing me to answer your interesting question. The
answer to your question is complicated by the fact that one of your
licenses is invalid from the beginning. In other words, because you
hold two licenses one of them (probably the one you obtained
secondarily) is invalid because both New York and Florida require a
person to surrender any existing out-of-state license as part of the
application process to get a new resident license. Failure to do so is
a violation of state law and essentially means that the applicant
fraudulently obtained the license, therefore it is invalid from the
beginning.
?Once you establish residency here you'll need to get a New York
license from the Department of Motor Vehicles within 30 days AND
SURRENDER YOUR OUT-OF-STATE LICENSE.?
NEW YORK DMV
http://www.dmv.org/ny-new-york/apply-license.php
To further complicate matters, both New York and Florida require an
insurance policy to be in force in order to maintain a license. In
both states law says that a company licensed to do business in those
states must underwrite the insurance. For example, in New York a
company licensed by the New York State Insurance Department must issue
the insurance; out-of-state insurance is unacceptable.
NEW YORK DMV
http://www.dmv.org/ny-new-york/car-insurance.php
Likewise, in Florida a company licensed by the licensed by the Florida
Department of Insurance must issue the insurance; out-of-state
insurance is unacceptable.
FLORIDA DMV
http://www.hsmv.state.fl.us/ddl/frfaqgen.html#2
So, no matter what the circumstances you are in a quandary and in
violation of both states? laws to the extent that one or both of your
licenses may be suspended (if they are not both already suspended) or
considered invalid (for lack of surrender). The bottom line is that
under normal circumstances Florida ?could? suspend your license if
they learned you did not have Florida coverage in the same way that
New York has suspended it for lack of New York coverage. Along that
same line, Florida ?could? suspend your license simply because New
York did ? whether the NYS license was valid or not ? and that is what
I will address next.
New York and Florida are both members of the Non-Resident Violator
Compact (NRVC), which means that they do share information. Normally,
if you were a non-resident of either New York or Florida and received
a suspension there, one state would automatically notify the other of
a serious infraction. However, since you are hold a RESIDENT license
in both states, one state will not likely take the effort to notify
the other state when it ASSUMES you had no other license or already
views any your out-of-state license you might have had as being
invalid due to the disclosure and surrender that should have taken
place at the time of application.
So, here?s the deal: If you obtained the New York license AFTER having
had a Florida license, and did not surrender the Florida license, your
New York license was invalid because you did not follow the law to
obtain it. This is viewed as a fraudulent application since the
license was not disclosed or ?given up?. If you obtained the Florida
license AFTER having had a New York license, and did not surrender the
New York license, your Florida license MAY BE invalid because you did
not follow the law to obtain it. However, now that you do not have a
New York license and have only ONE license, your best bet is to simply
say nothing about it and the problem may correct itself. If Florida
finds out about these duplicate licenses and chooses to do so, it may
suspend your license because of reciprocal agreements between states
to take administrative action regarding out-of-state offenses.
We could never presume to tell you if your license is valid or not,
but we do know ways of helping you find out (a process which only you
could do). If you want to you can get a definitive response from by
calling the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles,
Customer Service Center, at 850/922-9000 and posing this complicate
issue to them. The downside to this solution is that you may actually
open a can of worms that would have remained unknown had YOU not
brought it up to them in the first place.
Alternatively you could simply request a routine copy of your Florida
driving record to find out of they even know about it (yet). It would
reflect the status as of today but not what might catch up to you down
the road:
FLORIDA DMV
http://www.hsmv.state.fl.us/ddl/dlfaqans.html#2
Your best solution in my opinion is to periodically check the validity
of your license online to see if a suspension ever shows up. This way
you could check it every now and then do see if Florida has taken any
action. If in a few months nothing comes of it, you are probably out
of the woods and your Florida license will likely have survived intact
without any problem:
FLORIDA DMV ONLINE LICENSE VALIDATION
https://www6.hsmv.state.fl.us/dlcheck/dlcheckinq
I hope you find that my answer exceeds your expectations. If you have
any questions about my research please post a clarification request
prior to rating the answer. Otherwise I welcome your rating and your
final comments and I look forward to working with you again in the
near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga ? Google Answers Researcher
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