Bureaucrat Bingo aka dealing with gov on move from Canada to US

[Okanagan]

Honest truth, the following is not intended as a whine.  It is intended for humor value and snapshot of citizen interaction with the US government rather than whining.  It has a bit of heads up caution to anyone dealing with US Social Security or Medicare.

1.  Social Security staff at the office in Bellingham, WA were courteous, helpful... and gave me wrong information on 100% of my personal visits.  Other than stress, the only long term serious effect was that my social security benefits are lower per month forever than they could be.  I am glad to get what we do.

2.  Medicare sign up took most of a year and then another seven months of battling their bulldog intent to charge me a penalty every month for the rest of my life because I had not moved from a US health insurance plan to Medicare.  They would accept Canadian Health insurance, then a month later send me a letter denying it, over and over.  They kept putting me in a category of people who had no health insurance coverage prior to Medicare.  A US citizen moving back to the US from Canada was as strange a creature to them as a Martian moving in from Pluto.  They had no category for anyone who has lived outside the US and the people I dealt with seemed unable to comprehend such a thing.

3.  Getting a WA State driver's license was so comical it was almost fun.  Went to get a WA license plate for my vehicle and was told that can't be done without a WA driver's license.  The driver's license lady in her office told me flat out that I could not get a WA driver's license.  I replied that I am a US citizen, registered to vote in that county who has never let his WA State residency lapse.  Tough.  None of that counts, she said.  If I was homeless or undocumented alien, then I could get a license.  I said, “OK, I'm homeless.”  She replied that she already knew that I wasn't so would not issue me a license.

She wanted a telephone bill or something proving my street address.  We had just moved into a house sitting arrangement with all bills in the owner's name till we move into our place.  She told me to contact British Columbia Driver's license department and have them change my address from BC to a WA street address.  I said, “So you want me to ask your counterpart in Canada to do what you won't.” She laughed and said, “Yes.”  She is a nice gal, just red tape bound.

A woman in the BC driver's license office laughed hugely and said, “We will change your address to anywhere in BC, but will not issue a BC driver's license with an address on it outside of BC, whether that is in Canada, US or anywhere else.”

Back to the woman at the WA driver's license office.  She came up with a solution.  She told me to get an insurance company to give me a quote for car insurance on their letterhead stationery addressed to me at a street address.  A friend at a car insurance place had his secretary do that in minutes.  Voila! With that heavy duty impossible-to-forge security document I magically became entitled to get a driver's license.  The driver's license office is in the next town, 35 miles round trip, and only took me three weeks to get.  Downright easy compared to Medicare...


 

[nastygunz]

Welcome home🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸👍👍👍😇

[Okanagan]

Welcome home🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸👍👍👍😇

Thank you!

Your comment made me sputter my morning coffee and nearly cost me a keyboard however.

[nastygunz]

Lmao, calm under under fire!

[FinsnFur]

I had to deal with social security card replacements for my kids after the Ex's accident. I almost gave up. I felt like there was no one in my corner. I'm glad they tightened down to prevent false documents, but wow.
medicare? I dont even want to think about that.

[remrogers]

Just need to remember who you are dealing with. Government employees who won't answer a phone fifteen minutes before closing time and don't really give a darn about your issues with their systems. They are right, even when the are wrong.

[JohnP]

There will be more bureaucratic crap than you can shovel, just wait until you try to buy a plane ticket without your "magic" drivers license.  You should be glad you don't have to deal with the VA.