2023-07-18 18:06:52
Written driving test for new Minnesota residents disappears
As of August 1, people who move to Minnesota will no longer have to take a written test to obtain a Minnesota driver’s license if they have a valid license from another state.
Bill author Sen. John Jasinski, R-Faribault, says the new law is intended to ease backlogs at testing centers for the driver’s license exam, or class D knowledge test, for individuals who have a license from another state. Governor Tim Walz signed the law into law in May.
While new Minnesotans didn’t have to take a road test before the policy change, they did have to wait in line to take the knowledge test.
“We just thought it made sense with some of the backlogs we’re seeing with both the driving test and the written test,” Jasinski said.
The delays date back to the pandemic but are still mounting, according to the bill’s authors. And they claim that demand is regarding to increase.
“Now, with the passage of driver’s licenses for the undocumented, too, there’s going to be a lot more people applying,” said House Rep. John Petersburg, co-author of the bill, R-Waseca. “So we thought there might be some relief in the fact that at least out-of-state drivers who have a driver’s license won’t have to take the written test, allowing more time for others who may need it like high school students. .”
Petersburg also said the requirement seemed redundant and would eliminate “headaches” at driver license offices and testing stations.
More than 30 other states do not require a written test if you are 21 or older and already have a driver’s license from another state. Last year, regarding 81,000 people with out-of-state licenses took the Class D knowledge test to get a Minnesota driver’s license, according to a tax memo on the law.
About 11,800 people, or more than 6 percent, had to pay a $10 fee for a third or subsequent knowledge test following failing the first two free tests. Last year, 39,378 new tests were carried out.
Nicole Justice, a new resident of New Brighton, Minnesota, recently moved from Fargo, North Dakota, and took the knowledge test shortly following settling into her new home. It took her a month and a half to get an appointment for the exam.
“It’s a good thing that they’re getting rid of that as one more thing that people have to do,” Justice said.
Driver and Vehicle Services hopes wait times for exams, which are currently booked online, will be reduced to less than a month for new residents.
According to a blog post from the Department of Public Safety, it will take regarding a week to process a driver’s license application and another two weeks for the card to arrive in the mail.
The Dakota County Licensing Center in Lakeville and the Clay County Department of Motor Vehicles in Moorhead will provide same-day services. Drivers will need two pieces of identification and an out-of-state driver’s license or driver’s record certificate and will need to pay a fee of $38 for a class D license.
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