Florida License for Virginia Living

I'm in Misdemeanor court when a guy is called before the bench on a charge which has something to do with his license. As part of the case, he pulls out his driver's license and hands it to the judge. It's a Florida driver's license, but it has, plain as day, a residence on it of 123 Kyle Busch Street, Shire, VIRGINIA. The judge looks at the license skeptically, but the guy keeps saying something about Florida giving "dual-residence" and the license being valid. Nobody buys it, but the case ends without the judge (who tries) convincing him he ought to get a Virginia license.

I go down to my office and spend a good portion of my lunch trying to figure this out. I look on Florida's DMV site, but it doesn't tell me anything helpful and doesn't even give me a number I can call for help. However, it does give me links to local offices and they have phone numbers. First, I try calling a couple bigger localities, figuring they probably have more people working and more experience with strange things. But, after hitting automatic answering machines, I realize this isn't going to work. Finally, I purposefully call a smaller office in Hardee County. Lo and behold, a live person answers and as a bonus he's polite and helpful (always the advantage of calling a smaller office instead of a big city one). I explain who I am and what I am checking out. He tells me he's never heard of such a thing, unless someone is in the military, but offers to let me speak to his supervisor. She gets on the phone and I explain it again. She doesn't know about this sort of thing either. Still, she's helpful as can be and gives me the number for the Tallahassee main office.

Next, I call Tallahassee. I get a customer service rep who helps me out a little, tells me she's heard something about this, and offers to link me up to an "analyst" who can help me further. I agree and she puts me on hold for about 10 minutes.

Then a man picks up the phone. I again explain to him that someone who lives in Pitcarin County Virginia, in the town of Shire, has a Florida license with a Virginia residence listed on it.

"Oh, sure, we do that."

Me, stunned and after picking my jaw up off the floor: "Ummm . . . Are there any limitations you place on this? After all, she has a house in Virginia."

"Not really. Some other States don't like it too much. And car rental places usually won't rent to people with this type of license. That's about it."