Driver's licenses for Legal Immigrants after all!

On February 2nd, 2008, we reported the decision made by Michigan officials (Terry Lynn Land, et. all) to no longer issue driver's licenses to people who were not legal, permanent immigrants in Michigan. Now, not issuing a license to illegal immigrants makes sense. But note, their decision was to not issue licenses to anyone who was not a permanent resident of Michigan. This decision was made on Mike Cox's (Attorney General) opinion 7210 which can be found here.

Today, this saga is finally resolved because Granholm has agreed to sign a bill as early as tomorrow to ensure that legal but temporary foreign nationals will continue to be eligible to receive a driver's license in Michigan.

The law is expected to take effect immediately after the bill is signed.

Thank the stars that the officials realized the error in their thinking. The information for this post was made available to us by a Michigan India Chamber of Commerce member, Shaju Jacobs, who is an immigration attorney with Ellis Porter.