As you know, I'm having a bit of trouble with the Flemish authorities. The police are on my ass, and they said I had to get my Belgian driver's license. Well, I'm trying to, but have hit a wall of bureaucracy. The town hall of my Flemish town, Grimbergen (also the name of a great beer), says that in order to get a license, I need my Belgian ID card, my US license, an official certificate in Flemish from the US embassy saying that my US license is real, and finally, "proof that the license was granted to me by the country where I had my official residence, and that I had that residence at least 6 months before the date they granted it to me."
Huh?
This item was also written in Flemish, and even after giving it to my Flemish colleagues, they had no clue what the town hall wanted.
I went to the US embassy, and for the bargain price of 25 euros I got a nice piece of paper saying that my license was real (in Flemish). With regards to the last item on the list, it didn't make sense to me. If I wasn't a resident of the US, why would I have a US license in the first place? It also was a bit more complicated for me. I had a Massachussetts licence. When I moved to NYC, I didn't change it because hey, I didn't drive in the city and the Mass license was still valid. For my year in London I never became a true UK resident with an ID card and as I never drove, I didn't get a UK license. I came to Brussels, and during a trip home I updated my Mass license - on September 10, 2001. |
