Anisa Ali is a veteran of the rutted road to obtaining a driver's license in Minnesota.
The 17-year-old, who lives in Blaine, passed the written exam on her first try. Then, after months of the requisite practice driving, she took the road test for the first time in February, but didn't pass. When she and her father, Abdi Hussein, tried to book a second try, the two watched as open times disappeared in the online booking system.
"The minute you click on it, it's gone," Hussein said.
It took weeks of repeatedly checking the Minnesota Division of Driver and Vehicle Services (DVS) website before Ali was able to lock in an appointment. There was just one option, for the following day at 3:20 p.m.
"Book it," Ali said her father quickly urged.
Ali isn't alone in this arduous journey to get appointments with DVS. Between last October and May, the agency had about 100,000 more requests for licensing services — including renewals — than in the same time period the year before. As a result, DVS isn't meeting the legal requirement to provide testing appointments within 14 days of a request for service.
There are multiple reasons for the congestion in the licensing system.
About 30% of the increase is attributed to standard ID applications and renewals. The Driver's License for All law, which went into effect in October 2023, ended a 20-year requirement that people show proof of legal residency to be tested for a standard license. At the same time, DVS says there has been an increase in requests for Real IDs, which will be required for domestic air travel starting next year. Top all that off with a years-old staffing shortage.
"We just don't have enough examiners when compared to other states," said driver services program director Jody-Kay Peterson. "We want to make sure we are meeting the demand and we're not having the backlog get bigger and bigger."
DVS has filled 12 new positions for written and road test examiners, as well as four other clerical and behind-the-scenes staff, that were funded as part of the 2023 law. The agency secured money to hire 30 more examiners in the coming year, which Peterson said will go a long way toward meeting the goal of 160 examiners statewide. There are currently about 120. Most new and future examiners will work at metro exam locations, where the demand is highest.
Dale Robinson, owner and chief instructor at Ken's Driving School, said it's not uncommon for his students to wait months for a road test. He's driven students from the Twin Cities as far as Grand Rapids to snag open appointments.
Ilyas Afrah drove the 95 miles from Blaine to Rochester for his daughter's written test last week.
Forgetting to bring a second form of identification to Rochester, the two then had to travel to the Arden Hills DVS station for the paperwork proving she passed the exam.
"The system is still working the way it used to be with COVID," Afrah said. "But COVID is done."
Some don't have time for a road trip, like Sonya Calgren, who has been trying to book a road test for her 16-year-old daughter for about a month. Calgren said she's been checking for available appointments online 10 or more times a day.
While some of her daughter's friends have booked their tests as far away as Duluth, Calgren said she's looking for something closer to Roseville, where they live.
"It's been a nightmare," Calgren said. "Maybe once in a while there will be one opening and it'll be in two hours, but it's four hours away."
Students at Hot Seat Driving School, based in Apple Valley, have also struggled to book tests nearby, said owner Crystal McWaters.
"That doesn't help with the testing anxiety," McWaters said. "It's already a pretty high-pressure situation, and then to have to drive three and a half hours one way, it puts the pressure on a little heavier."
McWaters and Robinson, both of them instructors who serve adult learners attempting to get licenses under the new law, said the system needs more support for English learners.
The DVS is translating its driver's manual into additional languages and seeking multilingual examiners but hasn't been able to keep up with demand. In the three months after the new law went into effect, DVS gave about 42,000 written exams in Spanish. That's almost 39,000 more than were given in the same time period the year before.
McWaters said she has seen more adults requesting lessons since October — particularly the six-hour supplementary lessons required if someone fails the road test four times. She said the current requirements for adult applicants don't help them succeed. Adults aren't required to take driver's education courses that teach how to avoid some of the common mistakes that lead to automatic fails, such as parallel parking too far from the curb or not turning into the closest available lane.
Robinson said language barriers can make it particularly difficult. "If they knew what they did wrong if they fail their first road test … well, maybe when they take the second road test, they'll pass instead of continuing to fail over and over again," he said.
Having to "start from square one" costs applicants money and time, Robinson said.
Test takers can bring translators to testing sites. But translators, who must be licensed and at least 21, can't be in the car during the road test. Peterson said they can talk with the examiner and test-taker before and after the road test. They can accompany the test-taker during the written exam.
With backlogs affecting applicants of all ages, the victory of securing a license is sweet — especially after the struggle.
Ali passed her driving test last week, a month after her 17th birthday. "It feels amazing, honestly," she said, beaming on the sidewalk after coming out of the Arden Hills testing center.
Now, she'll get to drive to school for her senior year.
