The Legal Aid Justice Center supports this bill. Aligning the validity of driver's licenses with limited-duration licenses helps streamline the administrative process and ensures uniformity of expiration dates. This will simplify the renewal process for both applicants and the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). More barriers to integration, like having to renew the DPC every two years, disincentivize immigrants from living in Virginia, encouraging them to move to more welcoming states like Maryland or DC. This has lasting economic impacts for all Virginia localities. When immigrants move to Virginia, the economy grows: there are more consumers, more workers, and more business owners. 29% of Main Street business owners in Virginia are immigrants. Immigrants uplift the Virginia economy, paying $16.2B in taxes, with a spending power of $42.4B, and generating $2.7B in business income in 2022.

We thank Senator McPike for bringing this forward and strongly support this bill.