First, I want to thank everyone on this site for providing their experience with the NJ to Ontario license exchange. I was able to use this valuable information to navigate my way through the process of the exchange - which is insanely and unnecessarily complicated for NJ! I would like to share my experience as it may prove helpful for others.
Some background on my transfer: I’ve had a NJ license for about 25+ years, which means after I got it the first time around, I’ve had to renew it many times as they expire every 4 years.
What Ontario is looking for is 2 years of driving experience in the last 3 years and a current valid driving status with no suspensions.
I did the route of getting the driving record (both certified complete and 5 year), along with the infamous DO-11 mentioned on this forum. My current active license was just renewed in April 2019, which means an active license and the driving record with no initial licensing date is a problem. I even managed to find ALL my expired licenses and thought that was my lucky day because I have all the cards with the same record and no break in licensing activity. However, on my first visit without the DO-11, I was told old and current licenses along with a certified driving record cannot be submitted as proof of driving history in their eyes.
For the DO-11, it does get sent to Canada if you put the Canadian address in the first section of the request form. However, as mentioned by someone on this forum, what you get in return from the NJMVC explicitly states that they CAN destroy records three years after the expiration date of a document (I.e., license renewal). This means when you request a DO-11, the oldest information you may possibly get is limited if you’ve had a record for a long time like me. My DO-11 included a Transaction File Record for a license that expired in 2015, just a bit over 4 years ago. In the DO-11, they also included a sheet called Driver Inquiry that only gives you the information of your CURRENT active license. So in my case, it says expiration is set for 2023 for a license I renewed in 2019. This Driver Inquiry does not give me any more date information than my current driver license does (as I have no suspensions). Drive test rejected this because the DO-11 form I got has documentation of a license that expired in 2015 but nothing to detail the license that expired in 2019. There were many questions on this site to ask whether you need to get a DO-11 for every license you had. From what I received, I did not get my full history with one request. However, I suppose if you submit a DO-11 form with a specific date of when your last expired license was renewed, 2015 in my case, perhaps that would be good to fulfill the 2 out of last 3 years rule. Don’t do what I did for the DO-11 form request (put initial licensing date) if you have had many renewals.
Now, the complicated part is that the Drivetest employees are looking for a document called “Driver Abstract Inquiry” when it comes to NJ. This is part of their script somehow and they are trained to look for this document which they believe has the entire record of initial licensing date and all subsequent renewals. From all the hours I’ve spent trying to ask for this document, it seems that it really doesn’t exist. I even reached out to the Customer Advocacy office in Trenton and they told me the same thing - it doesn’t exist. The closest thing is the DO-11 form. There is someone on the forum that mentioned that the initial licensing date was provided in the DO-11 form but I could not get this. Perhaps it is possible for someone who got their first NJ license within the past few years and only had one renewal.
The key to remember in this whole process is that if you’ve had a license for a very long time, the initial licensing date is not that important. Sure, you want to get credit for all your years of driving so you get better insurance rates but you can do this directly with the insurance company. If you get insurance with an american company that operates in Canada, they can access your US insurance history and credit that way.
Request the DO-11 form with the initial date of your last expired license (or current one if you are still on your first) and it should be fine. I say should because I went another route that worked as well, though it may not for others. Instead of asking for another DO-11 form with different dates and waiting 3 more weeks, I tried again and brought my 5 year abstract along with my current and all expired licenses. Most people don’t have all these cards so it really is a method that may not work for all. The 5-year abstract and the licenses alone were not enough when I first tried. This time, I went to the NJMVC website and printed out the page that says the 5-year abstract covers a person’s record for the LAST 5 years and showed them. For some reason, the Drivetest office also thinks a 5-year abstract isn’t necessarily the last five years and is any 5 years!?!? When I did this, they went back to their script to ask for this non-existent Driver Abstract Inquiry form with the initial licensing date and all renewal dates. I calmly asked them, why do you even need this type of document when what I have shown you gives you documentation for the 2 out of last 3 years rule for a G license? I didn’t care if they credited all my 25+ years of US driving history, I’m ok with just 5 and the license exchange. She thought about this, consulted with many people, then issued the exchange.
Good luck to all and I hope this helps.
Just keep driving on your US license. Mail the DO-11 form (with required payment and docs) to NJ DMV in Trenton. It will take CAD1.25 stamp to do so. From the day you mail it out, you will receive the response from Trenton in 21-25 calendar days. Thats it!
