![]() “Make sure that you pay fees only at Mass.Gov/myRMV or in person at an RMV location.” There are no special brokers authorized to help you get an appointment or a license," state officials said in a press release. ![]() “Customers needing credentials should never pay someone for an RMV appointment. Many nonprofits are reporting notary publics are advertising services where they stand in line for immigrants, expedite their applications and charge fees to let them know what documents are required.īut that list is available for free online. The registrar’s office also is cautioning residents to be aware of fraud. Driver’s license materials will be in 15 languages, permits in 35 and interpreters available in phone and in person in over 100 languages. There is a special informational phone line currently available at 85 with messaging about the law in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Haitian Creole and Vietnamese, with additional languages added soon. Starting July 1, appointments can be made at Mass.Gov/myRMV, and the office anticipates those filling up quickly. Intererested new drivers will need to make an appointment to come in, state officials said no walk-ins are available. “The goal is to get more people insured and licensed on our roads.” “People are really excited and just grateful that this is finally happening,” she said. Barber has participated in many community group sessions with the public to let people know what to anticipate as the law rolls out. Christine Barber, one of the lead sponsors of the law, told GBH News that providing language acccess is key to making the process a success. A GBH News investigation from 2019 found that, in Connecticut, a similar law is credited with a reduction in hit-and-run crashes. There are 19 states with driver's license laws on the books for undocumented immigrants - Massachusetts was the 17th state to pass one. “If we do have a customer that’s non-native English speaking, we can use the phone to call up an interpreter,” she said. Ogilvie says many new employees are multi-lingual and new phones are being installed in service centers to provide translations. The office has been meeting weekly with a coalition, called Driving Families Forward, to hear from immigration advocates on how to improve services starting next month. Massachusetts voters keep new immigrant driver’s license lawĪ huge part of the undertaking is expanding language access in the Registry of Motor Vehicles as a whole. “We are grateful to the advocates, legislators and public safety leaders who have worked so hard to get us to this point.”Īrrests for unlicensed driving plunge in New York following unauthorized immigrant license law like Mass.’s “The Work and Family Mobility Act is a benefit for public safety, for our economy, and for our immigrant residents who should be able to drive to work, school, or the grocery store without fear,” Healey said in a written statement. The Registry of Motor Vehicles released a press release Wednesday detailing some of its plans with comments from various state officials, including Gov. So those increased staffing levels are here to help meet that,” Ogilvie said. “Between July and December, we expect that would have the greatest demand. The law was passed after a contentious two decades of debate in the Legislature. The new law allows eligible Massachusetts residents to apply to obtain a standard driver's license, regardless of immigration status, removing a previous state requirement that residents provide proof of immigration status. At the service center, we're adding about 45% more staff.” “We have been working the last several months to add staff to our service centers, so that we have frontline staff that can accommodate more appointments,” she said. ![]() Registrar of Motor Vehicles Colleen Ogilvie told GBH News this week that the state is ramping up preparations for the influx of new clients - as many as 1,700 a day - expected with the roll out of the Work and Family Mobility Act on July 1. The state is readying to meet the needs of more than 100,000 undocumented immigrants expected to apply for driver’s licenses in the first six months after a new state law goes into effect next month.
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