DMV adds offices for LI, NYC to handle driver's licenses

ALBANY – The state Department of Motor Vehicles has opened two new offices on Long Island and three in Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan to serve people who make appointments online to apply for driver’s licenses or to renew licenses.

The action follows weeks in which people living in the country illegally jammed DMV offices to secure driver’s license under the state’s new Green Light Law.

The offices opened Wednesday for those who make appointments online (https://dmv.ny.gov/offices/make-reservation-visit-dmv-office).

The department said Wednesday that the new locations will be in the Empire State College’s Selden campus in Suffolk County and on Oak Street in Garden City.

A mobile testing center for learner’s permits will be added to the DMV’s Riverhead office to reduce wait times for those seeking licenses.

State officials said the locations will handle all license applications including drivers seeking learner’s permits or upgrading to REAL ID-compliant license such as the Enhanced License. Licenses that comply with the federal REAL ID law will be needed by all air travelers beginning Oct. 1, including those taking domestic flights.

The new New York City offices will be at Queens College, the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building in Manhattan, and the Shirley A. Chisholm State Office Building in Brooklyn.

DMV offices on Long Island saw long lines after the state’s Green Light Law became effective Dec. 14. The law allows people living in the country illegally to obtain driver’s licenses.

The state will issue only standard driver’s licenses to those immigrants, which means they won’t be able to obtain trucker’s licenses or other commercial licenses. The standard licenses also won’t meet federal standards for identification and so the holders won’t be able to use them to board airplanes or enter federal facilities. Under the law, these licenses also “shall be visually identical” to standard licenses issued to U.S. citizens.

The lines were so long that in January a woman told Newsday she and her teenage son took three hours to move about 100 feet in the line outside the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Hauppauge.

By Michael Gormley

michael.gormley@newsday.com@GormleyAlbany

Michael Gormley has worked for Newsday since 2013, covering state government, politics and issues. He has covered Albany since 2001.