Minnesota helping undocumented immigrants prepare for new driver’s license law

MINNESOTA (Valley News Live) - Staff in Minnesota’s Driver and Vehicle Services (DVS) division are hard at work making sure undocumented immigrants across Minnesota are prepared for October 1, when the Driver’s License for All law passed by the Minnesota Legislature goes into effect.

The new law will allow up to 81,000 people to get their driver’s license, according to an estimate from the Migration Policy Institute.

DVS is hosting town hall events, making employees available to those who have questions about the law and how it will affect them. If you are an undocumented immigrant who lives in Minnesota, you can begin the process of getting a license by requesting an appointment to take the two tests. Appointments can be made up to 30 days in advance at mn.gov.

An interpreter can meet before and after a road skills test with the driver and the DVS examiner prior to getting in the car; however, Minnesota rules do not allow the interpreter to be in the car during the test. Information provided on the application is private data, and DVS cannot share it with civil immigration enforcement or disclose the information to state or federal agencies that primarily enforce immigration law.

For more information on Driver’s License for All and to get a copy of the driver’s license manual to study, check out the DVS website.

The Driver and Vehicle Services also just launched a new multilingual virtual assistant, which is already helping Minnesotans get their driver’s license and vehicle registration questions answered. People can ask questions, gather information and research topics in one of four languages - English, Spanish, Hmong and Somali - using the virtual assistant.

The virtual assistant was turned on March 1 and has had 45,642 total conversations in the first few weeks. You can find the virtual assistant at drive.mn.gov in the bottom right corner.