Florida Driving Licences

[hall-67]

<center>As a new member to the forum i would first like to say hello and what a huge help this site has been to me and my family .</center>
Enough creeping !
We are to move to florida this year under the E2 visa scheme . We are just at the start of the whole process after much thought and consideration and are hoping to be there in May / June this year .
I have gained a huge amount of information and knowledge from this site and other sources .
But there are a few things i cant find information on and i hope that you can help with this and other posts i place on the Forum in the future .
Driving in Florida .
My partner and I have UK full , clean driving licenses . I have heard that to drive in Florida on these Uk licenese means insurance is very expensive .
So :-
1.How do you apply for a FL licence , where do you go , what do you need and can you do it straight away ?
2.What does it entail to get a FL licence , type of tests , how long , how hard etc ?
3.How much does it all cost ?
4.Does it reduce your insurance cost greatly ?
5.Any other things i should be aware of ?

Thankyou for help - in anticipation !

[esprit]

You can only drive on your UK licenses for 30 days after you have taken up full time residence so not doing the test and paying higher insurance premuims is not an option. After 30 days, you are illegal. Go to a driving test center ( I went to Orange Blosson Trail). You take an eye test, a theory test and if you pass that a driving test, It is around a car park and is an obstacle test really. You need to turn left, right, do an emergency stop, parking on a hill, three point turn, reversing backwards in a straight line and parking and reversing out. It is cheap ( $20-25 or so, cant remember) Not hard ( I passed!!!) It took a couple of days to learn the theory. Theory is 40 multi choice questions, driving test 10 mins or so, wait in the waiting room in my case about five hours!!!

I would not like to try and get US insurance without. Ours was $1400 on a very ordinary vehicle with!!! Insurance is expensive in the US.

[hall-67]

Thankyou very much . Greatly appreciated .

Going on a different tack now , but it seems all insurances are very high in the us , i.e car , medical . I assume that home , buildings and life insurance are the same ?
What about business insurance i.e public liabilty etc ?

[esprit]

Medical is high. Home not too bad ( mine is around $700 a year) Dont have life, kept my UK life policy going.

[hall-67]

I assume you kept your UK bank account going and pay your uk life insurance through that and top it up with funds now and again ? You found that this was the best way to go ?

Did you keep your pensions going too in the UK or transfer to us scheme ?

[esprit]

I have villas so use the English booking money to top up my English bank account. I had to keep my UK bank account going anyway as I still own a house in the UK ( my son lives there until he finishes Uni) My husband took his pension ( at 51) before we came here and that also gets paid into our English bank account. We dont intend to take one out here.

[markfried]

Hello everyone. I was wondering whether anyone could give me more information about the driving test system. Where abouts on OBT the centre is, whether one can obtain a license for Florida without having a UK license at all!

Thanks.

Mark

[blott]

The rules, regulations, etc are here http://www.hsmv.state.fl.us/html/dlnew.html and this is the OBT location http://www.hsmv.state.fl.us/offices/osceola.html

A Florida driving licence is only valid for the length of time noted on your visa.

[markfried]

ah, it may not be of any use to me then, as I was planning on having it as my main driving license for use in the USA but i come and go, and am on the normal 90 day addmitance to the US.

[blott]

It wouldn't be much use to you then as it would only be valid for 90 days at a time, they send it to a Florida address only and you'd have to renew it (not retake the driving test) each time you visited. BTW, each US State has its own driving licence - you don't get a national one like you do in the UK.