What Can You do if Your License is Suspended – Can I Get a License From Another State?

What can you do if your Pennsylvania driver’s license is suspended?
Some folks have a suspension of their driver’s license for years and years. They get frustrated and come up with ideas such as: “Maybe I can go and get a license from a another State?”

Unfortunately, trying to get a license from another state won’t help you in Pennsylvania. First, if your Pennsylvania drivers license is suspended (we often call it a driver’s license suspension but really it is a suspension of your privilege to drive – because even someone who never had a license can have a suspension to serve) you can’t drive here, no matter if you have a license from another state or not. An example would be if someone from Texas visited here, got a DUI and were convicted, they would face a one year suspension of their Pennsylvania driving privilege. Even if they still had a valid Texas license, if they came back here during that year, they couldn’t drive. Their privilege to drive in Pennsylvania is suspended and if they did drive and were stopped, they would be charged with Driving Under Suspension (in this example DUI – related) and would face an additional one year suspension and mandatory jail time. Additionally, if you are from PA and try to go to another state to get a license you won’t be able to. There is a law called the Driver’s License Compact. This Compact between the States means that the state will look you up in the National Driver Registry (NDR) if you apply for a license there. If you are under suspension in Pennsylvania, it will show this and the state will refuse you a license because of the outstanding issue in PA.
The best thing to do is have someone experienced in driver’s license restoration work look into your driving records and history to see if anything can be done to eliminate or reduce the suspension time you face.

Coming up in later posts, “Can I get a work license if I am under suspension?” and “Can a Judge reduce my license suspension time in PA?”