Thursday, April 1, 2010
The Alachua County health department and Department of Motor Vehichles have teamed up to ease the burden of new, tougher state requirements to obtain a license. A county health department worker is now stationed at the Northwest 34th street drivers license office to provide certified copies of Florida birth certificates. Registrar of the Alachua County Health Department Shirley Allen says the plan is to help residents get their drivers license without being turned away from not having their birth certificate. Allen says there's a nominal fee to get your birth certificate and it's a rather speedy process. And a birth certificate is just one of the forms of identification now needed to get or renew a drivers license. Residents must also take two proofs of address, their social security card, and a marriage certificate in order to fulfill the requirement. The new licensing requirements took effect back in January following the Federal Real ID Act as Allen mentioned. The measures are in place to prevent licensing fraud and to keep illegal immigrants form obtaining a driver's license.