Additional intermittent outages may affect verifications of legal presence status for non-US citizens
Harrisburg, PA – The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) today announced that Verizon network maintenance will impact the operations of the National Highway Transportation Safety Agency's (NHTSA) Problem Driver Pointer System (PDPS), rendering several driver licensing services unavailable on Saturday, March 18. The Verizon network maintenance affects all states nationwide, including Pennsylvania. The network maintenance will conclude at 12:00 PM and these services will resume at 12:01 PM.
This network maintenance was rescheduled by Verizon from a previous scheduled time that was set for Feb. 25.
The Verizon telecommunication services are provided to PennDOT by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA). AAMVA is a nonprofit organization which develops and serves as an information clearinghouse for state, provincial and territorial officials in motor vehicle administration, law enforcement, and highway safety.
Due to this Verizon network maintenance impacting NHTSA and AAMVA, PennDOT will not be able to access the PDPS, as required by law, before issuing driver license products and will not be able to perform many driver license-related transactions.
The following driver's license transactions will be unavailable at PennDOT Driver License Centers and PennDOT's Riverfront Office Center in Harrisburg on Saturday, March 18 from opening to approximately 12:01 PM:
- Initial issuance, renewals, and duplicate commercial and non-commercial driver license transactions;
- Initial issuance of a driver license for out-of-state transfers;
- Initial learner permit or duplicate learner permit, and commercial learner permit transactions; and
- Any other transaction that results in issuance of a driver license product.
Road testing will be available as scheduled, but PennDOT will be unable to issue a Driver License immediately upon completion. PennDOT will make arrangements to return for processing with those individuals who successfully complete their skills testing.
Applications for photo IDs, Medical Examiner Certificate transactions, or those customers with an existing camera card (without changes needed) seeking a photo will be processed normally.
Services through PennDOT's third-party authorized online agents will also be affected by the Verizon network maintenance, and they will also be unable to provide renewals and duplicates of driver license products Saturday morning.
While most online services will be unaffected, the following services will also be unavailable on Saturday from approximately 12:01 AM to 12:01 PM:
- REAL ID renewals or duplicates; and
- Non-REAL ID non-commercial driver's license duplicates.
Additionally, the United States Department of Homeland Security informed PennDOT that the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system may have intermittent outages affecting PennDOT's driver license operations on Saturday, March 18. The SAVE system is used to perform electronic verifications of legal presence status for non-U.S. citizens. When the system is not available, PennDOT Driver License Center staff are not able to issue driver licenses or ID cards to legal-presence customers.
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Contact: Diego Sandino, dsandino@pa.gov or 717-787-0485