Experience: Exchange U.S. DLs in ON, Canada

[Publius_Cornelius_Scipio]

We went to The Service Ontario at the below address
ServiceOntario
777 Bay Street
Lower level
Toronto, Ontario

This service of Ontario is below the ground level.
The washroom of this location is outside of Service Ontario in the mall. Once you finish, you must circle around to get inside from the entrance of Service Ontario again.

It seems like this is the only location for a new driver's license in GTA. [Even Oakville residents need to come to this location.] I would highly suggest people arrive even before the opening time to join the waiting line because the waiting time would be soul-crushing if you don't come early.

There would be a line to reach the receptionists for tickets. After getting the tickets, ones would need to sit and wait for calling. If you don't come early, you likely would need to suffer around 2 hours in total before reaching the counters:

• We arrived 30 minutes after the opening time, waited 1 hour to get the tickets and then another hour to get to the counter.

We brought official driver records of DMV:

1. If you moved across states in the U.S. and your current state's DMV's driver record does not show the date of issuance of your first license, you need to contact prior state's DMVs to get more driver records until the date is shown on a driver record. What you really need is a driving record that shows the issuance date of your first DL.
   • This issue is likely to happen if you have a gap in the validity of your DLs.
   • This date is important as it would determine the driving duration ON would credit to your ON DL.

You can choose to gamble in relying on the exchange agreement between American states and provinces of Canada. If you succeed, you would save some bucks as driver records cost money to request. However, if they ever fail to pull your information in the database, you would be asked to get the driver records from the DMVs in the U.S.

The new, paper, temporal ON DL is without a picture and would cost 90 CAD. It is only valid for 90 days.

 

[subodhp]

We went to The Service Ontario at the below address
ServiceOntario
777 Bay Street
Lower level
Toronto, Ontario

This service of Ontario is below the ground level.
The washroom of this location is outside of Service Ontario in the mall. Once you finish, you must circle around to get inside from the entrance of Service Ontario again.

It seems like this is the only location for a new driver's license in GTA. [Even Oakville residents need to come to this location.] I would highly suggest people arrive even before the opening time to join the waiting line because the waiting time would be soul-crushing if you don't come early.

There would be a line to reach the receptionists for tickets. After getting the tickets, ones would need to sit and wait for calling. If you don't come early, you likely would need to suffer around 2 hours in total before reaching the counters:

• We arrived 30 minutes after the opening time, waited 1 hour to get the tickets and then another hour to get to the counter.

We brought official driver records of DMV:

1. If you moved across states in the U.S. and your current state's DMV's driver record does not show the date of issuance of your first license, you need to contact prior state's DMVs to get more driver records until the date is shown on a driver record. What you really need is a driving record that shows the issuance date of your first DL.
   • This issue is likely to happen if you have a gap in the validity of your DLs.
   • This date is important as it would determine the driving duration ON would credit to your ON DL.

You can choose to gamble in relying on the exchange agreement between American states and provinces of Canada. If you succeed, you would save some bucks as driver records cost money to request. However, if they ever fail to pull your information in the database, you would be asked to get the driver records from the DMVs in the U.S.

The new ON DL is without a picture and would cost 90 CAD. It is only valid for 90 days.

One can go to any of the drivetest locations as well
https://www.ontario.ca/page/exchange-out-province-drivers-licence

 

[Publius_Cornelius_Scipio]

One can go to any of the drivetest locations as well
https://www.ontario.ca/page/exchange-out-province-drivers-licence

today I learnt

 

[subodhp]

We went to The Service Ontario at the below address
ServiceOntario
777 Bay Street
Lower level
Toronto, Ontario

This service of Ontario is below the ground level.
The washroom of this location is outside of Service Ontario in the mall. Once you finish, you must circle around to get inside from the entrance of Service Ontario again.

It seems like this is the only location for a new driver's license in GTA. [Even Oakville residents need to come to this location.] I would highly suggest people arrive even before the opening time to join the waiting line because the waiting time would be soul-crushing if you don't come early.

There would be a line to reach the receptionists for tickets. After getting the tickets, ones would need to sit and wait for calling. If you don't come early, you likely would need to suffer around 2 hours in total before reaching the counters:

• We arrived 30 minutes after the opening time, waited 1 hour to get the tickets and then another hour to get to the counter.

We brought official driver records of DMV:

1. If you moved across states in the U.S. and your current state's DMV's driver record does not show the date of issuance of your first license, you need to contact prior state's DMVs to get more driver records until the date is shown on a driver record. What you really need is a driving record that shows the issuance date of your first DL.
   • This issue is likely to happen if you have a gap in the validity of your DLs.
   • This date is important as it would determine the driving duration ON would credit to your ON DL.

You can choose to gamble in relying on the exchange agreement between American states and provinces of Canada. If you succeed, you would save some bucks as driver records cost money to request. However, if they ever fail to pull your information in the database, you would be asked to get the driver records from the DMVs in the U.S.

The new ON DL is without a picture and would cost 90 CAD. It is only valid for 90 days.

One more thing, the new license that you mention is likely temporary license that you get on the spot. Your real license with five year expiry will come by mail in a week or so and it will have your photo.