Straight Hedge Yardcore ([info]marlo) wrote,
@ 2008-11-13 16:25:00
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ICBC is retarded
At my work, we translate a lot of Chinese driver's licenses. Today my boss picked up a brochure with their rules for foreign drivers. Here's how it works.

- If you're a foreigner, your driver's license is only good for 3 months after entry.
- Unless you're a tourist, in which case it lasts for 6 months after entry. That's right, if you're here for non-tourism reasons, your license lasts half as long.
- Oh, and if you're a student it lasts indefinitely.

Good thing their rules aren't totally arbitrary and nonsensical!

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[info]toade_pole
2008-11-14 12:49 am UTC (link)
no.. that makes sense in a way. even going to another province, you're supposed to switch your license over. i mean... what other reasons are there for someone going to be over besides school and tourism? if they intend to remain for any length of time they should switch their license over, with a short grace period. then you'd want a longer period if someone didn't expect to stay long (but still longer than a grace period). i guess the student rules are a bit odd. they make sense if someone were to be staying a year, but not if they're staying for longer.

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[info]marlo
2008-11-14 02:14 am UTC (link)
The main thing I can think of that someone would be here for if they're not a student or tourist is if they're here on a temporary work visa. It makes absolutely no sense to me why someone who's here for, say, four years to do their undergraduate degree at UBC gets to use their foreign driver's license, but someone on a 6-month work permit only gets 3 months. And then if you're here on a 6-month vacation you can drive as much as you want. And what if you're here on business for more than 3 months? Totally, utterly inconsistent.

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[info]icecreamemperor
2008-11-14 02:28 am UTC (link)

It makes absolutely no sense to me why someone who's here for, say, four years to do their undergraduate degree at UBC gets to use their foreign driver's license, but someone on a 6-month work permit only gets 3 months. And then if you're here on a 6-month vacation you can drive as much as you want. And what if you're here on business for more than 3 months? Totally, utterly inconsistent.

It makes more sense (I think?) if you consider it in terms of the rules concerning change of address for other government purposes. The student here for 4 years technically never actually lives here, according to his/her and our respective governments: they continue to vote, pay taxes, etc. at wherever they lived in their home country.

Same goes for tourists and everyone else except (maybe?) people here on work permits.

But anyone who is here and is planning on moving their 'here is my actual human-government address' here is expected to do so within a reasonable period of time, so we can start making sure they pay taxes, vote, become citizens, etc.

From this point of view the limits on the student and tourist are actually the arbitrary part -- they could theoretically extend indefinitely, since the principle behind them is 'if they don't actually live here they don't need a license from here'.

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[info]marlo
2008-11-14 02:40 am UTC (link)
If you're here on a work permit (as most of our clients either are, are trying to be, or have been at some point) you do not get to vote or be a citizen of any kind. And in order to get a work permit, you have to give the government ridiculous amounts of information as to your current and intended whereabouts (residential as well as workplace). I think the reason tourists get a longer time to drive is because the government has more of an incentive to encourage the tourism industry than it does to do anything to help foreign workers. As far as students go, international students pay tuition up the ass compared to Canadians, so there's also a government incentive to make it easier for them when they're here. This is my theory, anyway.

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[info]icecreamemperor
2008-11-14 05:07 am UTC (link)
The more I think about it the less likely it seems that there is some kind of ulterior motive.

After all, the international student has no recourse -- they aren't a resident of BC, after all, so it is literally impossible for them to get a BC Driver License. ICBC/government/whomever would have to invent some kind of alternate certification that they could take that would give them some kind of BC-like license. ICBC's actions here seem more or less dictated by the government's approach to foreign students in general.

Same goes really for the tourists. Again they are by definition not local residents, so they can't get a local license. The sixth month grace period (and the four year period for students) has to be evaluated based on that fact -- do we want to just ban these people form driving, short of forcing them to immigrate to our country?

Or, alternately, short of forcing them to get a work permit (which would presumably not play well with whatever student-version of the same they have, I dunno.)

Now none of that covers whether three months is a reasonable period for someone on a work permit or someone moving to the country. Maybe that's too short a period of time to expect someone to go through all that paperwork (given that a Driver's License is pretty much the de facto ID in this country, it does not seem crazy to me from where I stand, but you've obviously got more experience there.)

But I guess my feeling is that none of this is about whether people can drive safely, it's about how government deals with residence in general.

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[info]marlo
2008-11-14 04:28 pm UTC (link)
International students have a student visa. They are temporary residents of BC. It's like having a work permit, but you have a student permit instead. You still have to give the government your residential address. Lots of international students, in fact, have jobs on campus (allowed within immigration rules) or work permits along with their student visa.

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