Iowa Dot Vision: Fill & Download for Free

From their website, if you are here temporarily as a student, but maintaining your permanent residence overseas, AND if you have a valid driver’s license from your home country you don’t need to get an Iowa license. However you need to carry your foreign license with you and if it is not in English, have it translated into English.If you plan on staying/living in Iowa beyond school, then you need an Iowa license. Iowa does not accept foreign driver licenses for this. You would need to:prove residency in IowaProve you are here legally (obtain a Social Security Number of your visa allows you to work in the USA; or provide your USCIS number on your visa and the DOT will verify this with the fed’s.Take a written test (you can get a free study book from the DOT)Take a vision test (either with or without your glasses or contacts, as long as you can pass)Take a driving test. Need to schedule with the local DOT office after you pass the vision and written tests above. You can retake if you fail. You normally take the test in your own car (or borrow a car from a friend).This is basically what any new driver in Iowa does - unless you have a valid driver’s license from another state, then you just need to pass the vision test.……..My advise, if you plan on going to school in Iowa for 3 or more years and plan to be driving a lot, buying a car, etc. save yourself some hassle in having to explain your foreign license all the time and bite the bullet and get an Iowa license. If you are just here for a couple years and not driving much then you can probably get buy with your foreign license.Note - this is just my observations and I do not have any direct legal or DOT experience in this area, just life experience.

Depending on what state you live in you should have a couple of different options. In the state of Iowa your license expires on your birthday after a set amount of years determined by the DOT. You have 60 days after this date in which your license is still valid to renew. However other states may not recognize or honor that 60-day grace period. It's a courtesy that Iowa specifically extends to the state's residents. Again in Iowa you're not required to retake the written or driving test for up to one year after a license is expired. However that can vary from state to state. So you need to check either online or in person at a motor vehicle department wherever you reside and see what your options are. Also for the state of Iowa you are allowed to renew online as long as you're not required to complete the vision test, you're in between the ages of 18 and 69, and the last time you renewed your license you renewed it in person. I would say just for future reference when you know that your license is going to be expiring go ahead and renew it prior to that date. Some states will allow you 30 days before expiration some allow you to do it sooner depending on the method of renewal. Bottom line is in my opinion don't wait for a renewal notice, again that's a courtesy that's awarded to the General Public it's not mandatory that states send you a renewal and in fact some don't while others only do it electronically if you registered your email address with them.

Well, my generation backpacked around Europe. They do not even call it that anymore. I still do! I was the Woodstock generation! we had a blast! As people in their 20’s should……without going overboard or getting arrested. It never goes away! Do not get caught with drugs ina foreign country. You are under THEIR laws now. Go to California and drive down Route One! Unbelievable beautiful. Go to all the National Parks. Once again, what a beautiful country we live in. Most people think they know it from school. They do not! Go to Yellowstone National Park…it is truly like another planet. Brief yourself before you go. Go to the Grand Canyon…the colors will amaze you. Like a painting by Money..far away looks totally different than close up..dots! Go to New Orleans,,,fun, fast and crazy! Yep, do it! Go to New York City or Acadia Park in Maine, or hike the White Mountain. There are thousands of places to visit, all more special than the other. It is safer here now than in Europe in too many places. Have some crazy fun along the way but also get to truly know the American people on their own turf. It is the most fascinating thing on the trip. Americans are polite, well spike( albeit some with accents? Wait We do not have an accent!! :) The food is different everywhere,,, all over the country there is cuisine from that area, that city. that block. Some really great stuff to some, “I will never taste that again in my whole life!” Take a chance and try some new stuff…some of ours too, with a twist! I guess I am doing a hard sell on America is because I love it the way it is. My husband ( 47 years) and I went on a six-week vacation thru The United Staes with our 4 small children, in a Volvo 242 , look it up 1972, it was the best 6 weeks of our marriage and that is saying something!!! We were squished for sure! We went Down 95 South to Florida( tented it or stayed with family and friends, I promise not to mention it again, LOL)Went on 80 to Texas. Man, that is a big state! Dessert all the way to Los Angeles. WOW! You can keep it! It is like being on a very very slow monorail! Yikes…went to Disney(remember, fun!) Drove to San Fran, this is when it was a beautiful example of 1900’s architecture in the country. Painted ladies they call them…the houses! Oh, what they have done to that city. Makes you cry for all the people. Really, we can not do better than that for the homeless??? If we started calling them human beings we would see things change. Yet, the media see no earthly reason to use those terms…human beings. Why? We went to the wine country in Marin County. Remember fun!! we drove across to 5 National Parks and the Mesa Verdi…important if you want to understand the plight of the Indians. Stone caverns that were homes to them. 100’s of them. Man was that a strange feeling in there! Went to Iowa and saw where they made our food! Freakin’ amazing. The breadbasket to the world! 100’s of miles long and just as wide! I can not fathom how much food that grows( at the time), now it is a google away. Miraculous! Then we went to Yellowstone and the Grand Titons! Go when there is still snow left on the peaks. A vision of sheer beauty like nowhere else in our country! Like diamond-encrusted silver jewels. As the sun of late daylights, it is lit up from behind it is 3-D magic.! Well, we made it back to Chicago, we ran out of money. 4 hungry children are exasperating at times. But this? We called my Mother and she sent us money at, of all things a midwestern truck stop! I am a people watcher. There were some characters to watch for sure. Happy characters, some with families, alone, or trying to pick up a girl! Yikes! All polite, with the sirs and mam’s. Love it! Then on home to Connecticut!Not only did we bond as a family like never before, but we also sang Green Bubble Up and the theme from “ The Greatest American Hero” great show for children. all over the country, it was a big hit! We still remember it sometimes and crack-up! By the end of the trip, everyone had played all their little tricks out. We were as one unit. What a fabulous feeling. Better than sex! ( Hmm?)It was the best trip we have EVER taken in our lives.