Guus Bosman

Yesterday I went to get a Virginia photo ID. A photo ID is a state-issued pass, the size of a credit card, that contains your picture and personal data.

Even though it's not mandatory to carry an ID, unlike in Holland, it is still very useful to have a form of ID with you.
There are quite some times that you have to show your ID, such as when buying alcohol. Until now I was always carrying my passport, because that's the only official type of identification I have. But carrying a passport is a bit scary -- if I'd loose it, there would be a lot of paperwork to replace the passport and my US visa.

Most Americans use their driving license for identification in daily life. Since I don't drive a car, I got this "Photo ID". Just like a driving license, it's issued by the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, or DMV, that deals with driving and car registrations.

The only office of DMV around here that's open on Saturday afternoon is at Springfield mall. The good thing is that it's reachable by metro -- many of the other offices are hard to reach by public transport. Yesterday I took the blue line all the way down to the last station, Franconio/Springfield. From the metro it was a 15 minute walk to the mall.

The mall was large, and it's easy to get lost in these huge shopping buildings. I asked the way at an information stand, and the lady told me where to go. There was a long line in front of DMV, Saturday afternoon is rush hour for them it seems. Once inside I received my card pretty quickly. They took my picture and captured my signature digitally (no fingerprints here) and the whole things was done it 15 minutes. I didn't know my length in the US measuring system, so the lady at the counter guessed and we filled in 6 feet 4. Later when I was home that turned out to be a fairly accurate guess, my real length is 6 feet 3.