DMV License Extension Experience in NJ

I am from New Jersey. I recently had a scenario wherein my H1B visa was expiring say on Dec 31st and so was my Driver’s license.

I had to visit couple of DMV centres with the hope that I would get the DL extended.

But what I got to know is that DMV has a strict policy for visa holders for DL extension.

By law, we are eligible to get extra 240 days for DL based on the H1B/L1 receipt i.e. I797C.

Below are the steps where in we can get the DL extended for 240 days.
1) First, you must have all the valid documentation (in case of NJ, it must satisfy the 6 points https://www.state.nj.us/mvc/license/docselector/index.htm)
2) Some of the documents are your Indian passport, SSN, Visa, latest i94 copy, original I797C receipt, current DL.
3) You must have the original I797C. If not, please request your attorney or employer to provide you the same, else DMV might not agree to help you out.
4) You must also ask your employer to provide you an Employment letter on the Company’s letterhead with proper seal and signature in the format shown here https://www.state.nj.us/mvc/pdf/license/H1B_status_employer_letter.pdf
5) Go to the DMV with all these documents.
6) The first thing they will do is to validate your immigration status with USCIS. If that goes through then you will get your DL extended. However usually with visa extension in progress, that would fail.
7) Then they will open a SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlement) case for you. More details here: https://www.uscis.gov/save/about-save
8) SAVE is part of USCIS which will validate your immigration status.
9) DMV personal will typically give you the SAVE case number. The status can be check on the SAVE website. https://www.uscis.gov/save/casecheck
10) Once the SAVE validation is complete and the case is returned to the Agency, you can go to DMV and ask for the update. In most cases, if all your documentation is fine, you will be given an extension of 240 days for your DL.

Hope this info helps.
Let me know.
Good luck with your DL extension!!!!!

Goose and Jesus

   There was once a man who didn’t believe in God, and  he didn’t hesitate to let others know how he felt about religion and religious holidays. His wife, however, did believe, and she raised their children to also have  faith in God and Jesus, despite his disparaging comments.
One snowy Eve, his wife was taking their children  to service in the farm community in which they lived.
They were to talk about Jesus’ birth. She asked him  to come, but he refused.
“That story is nonsense!” he said. “Why would God  lower Himself to come to Earth as a man?
That’s ridiculous!”
So she and the children left, and he stayed home.

   A while later, the winds grew stronger and the snow  turned into a blizzard. As the man looked out the window, all he saw was a  blinding snowstorm. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening.  Then he heard a loud thump.
Something had hit the window. He looked out, but  couldn’t see more than a few feet.
When the snow let up a little, he ventured outside  to see what could have been beating on his window.
In the field near his house he saw a flock of wild  geese. Apparently they had been flying south for the winter when they got  caught in the snowstorm and couldn’t go on. They were lost and stranded on  his farm, with no food or shelter. They just flapped their wings and flew around  the field in low circles, blindly and aimlessly. A couple of them had flown into his window, it seemed.

   The man felt sorry for the geese and wanted  to help them. The barn would be a great place for them to stay, he thought.It’s warm and safe; surely they could  spend the night and wait out the storm.
So he walked  over to the barn and opened the doors wide, then watched and waited, hoping they  would notice the open barn and go inside. But the geese just fluttered  around aimlessly and didn’t seem to notice the barn or realize that it could  mean for them.
The man tried  to get their attention, but that just seemed to scare them, and they moved  further away.
He went into  the house and came with some bread, broke it up, and made a bread crumb trail  leading to the barn. They still didn’t catch on.
Now he was  getting frustrated. He got behind them and tried to shoo them toward the barn,  but they only got more scared and scattered in every direction except toward the  barn.
Nothing he did  could get them to go into the barn where they would be warm and safe.
“Why don’t  they follow me?!” he exclaimed.
“Can’t they  see this is the only place where they can survive the storm?”

  He thought for  a moment and realized that they just wouldn’t follow a human “If only I were a  goose, then I could save them,” he said out loud.
Then he had an  idea. He went into barn, got one of his own geese, and carried it in his arms as  he circled around behind the flock of wild geese.
He then  released it. His goose flew through the flock and straight into the barn -and  one-by-one, the other geese followed it to safety.

  He stood  silently for a moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes earlier replayed  in his mind: “If only I were a goose, then I could save them!” Then he  thought about what he had said to his wife earlier. “Why would God want to be like us? That’s ridiculous!”

Suddenly it  all made sense. That is what God had done. We were like the geese-blind, lost,  perishing. God had His Son become like us so He could show us the way and  save us.

As the winds  and blinding snow died down, his soul became quiet and pondered this wonderful  thought. Suddenly he understood why Christ had come.
Years of doubt  and disbelief vanished with the passing storm. He fell to his knees in  the snow, and prayed his first prayer:
“Thank You,  God, for coming in human form to get me out of the storm!”

Tree

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