Many states currently require persons applying for a driver’s license to divulge their Social Security Number, and if they don’t have one, to get one.  This is an invasion of privacy and we discourage people from having licenses from states that have this requirement.  One way around this is to get a driver's license in a state that doesn't require SSN's.  The other way is to obtain an International Driver’s Permit (IDP).  Per international rules, you cannot be issued an IDP in the country that you live in.  The driver’s permit must be issued for a country outside of your home country. 

One easy way get an IDP for other than your home country is to obtain a P.O. box and postal remailing service at a foreign address outside of the country by looking up providers on the Internet.  The P.O. box must also offer “remailing services”, which means that if anything comes destined for you at the P.O. box, it is forwarded in bulk every so many weeks or days to your address in the states.  Make sure the foreign address used by the postal remailing service doesn’t say “P.O. box”, but instead looks like a real street address.  This will not draw attention to the fact that you might be using a foreign P.O. box.

After you get your foreign P.O. box, then use that address on your International Driver’s permit application and have them mail the IDP to that P.O. box, which will then be forwarded to you in the states. 

Any AAA office also issues International Driver’s Permits good for any country other than the one you reside in.  After you get the International Driver’s Permit, cancel your state driver’s license so you and your Socialist Security Number are removed from the state database, making it harder for them to locate you by your social security number.  The beauty of using an IDP over a state driver’s license is that the IDP cannot be revoked by a state court, nor can they record demerits on the permit, which means you can’t lose it.

In some cases, the officer who is stopping you may ask for your state driver's license or another form of ID.  One of our readers came up with an ingenious solution to this dilemma that has worked several years for him.  Here is how he solved this problem:

1. Got a sign and hung it on his house that had one word in big letters, and that word was the word for a state other than the one he lived in that he wanted a driver's license in.  For instance, he lived in Nevada so he got big sign for his house that said "Idaho".  He did this so that he wouldn't be lying or committing fraud by saying that he "lived in Idaho".  The best state to pick in order to name your home is one that is furthest away from the one you live in so that the cop who stops you won't know what the license is supposed to look like anyway.
2. He got a color photocopy of the Idaho driver's license so he would know what it was supposed to look like.
3. He went down to the county business office and applied for a fictitious business name that was the same as his real name, but in all capital letters.  If the application required the SSN, he used the one obtained below.
4. He filled out a W-9 and got an SSN for the business from the Social Security Administration.  He used his PO Box for the address.
5. He made his own laminated driver's license that looked just like the real thing for "Idaho".  On the license, he used his fictitious business name in all caps and put the SSN of the business he had just obtained.  He used the PO box address for himself as the address on the license.  The license expired in five years.
6. He cancelled his business license and SSN and continued using the license he had just made for five years.  Every five years, he would make himself a new license.
7. When stopped, he would present his license and the IDP.  If the cop asked him if he lived in "Idaho", he could truthfully say yes, even though he also lived in Nevada.

Pretty creative, huh?  This keeps you from being charged with fraud because everything on the license is completely accurate but also totally unrelated to you personally, so there is no trail.

The same trick with the SSN and business name above can be used to get a state-issued driver's license as well.  Get the license for your BUSINESS instead of for you, and use the SSN of your BUSINESS.