Reply #12: Nope...never [View All]

In fact, I went off to school in Arizona in 1994 and got a license there. When I came back to California, they asked me for a birth certificate (that requirement started in 1994), however I did not have one (was probably in a box somewhere). Well it turns out Arizona screwed up and while I was gone my California driver's license was never cancelled. So to save me the hassle of getting my birth certificate, California DMV simply treated my return to California as a renewal.

I've never been asked by the State of California to provide proof of legal residence or birth to get or renew my driver's license.

So I asked a couple of my friends if they did --and they both said they did not.

It's not my imagination --it was simply not a requirement for us until the mid 1990's and if you had your license by then, you were grandfathered in.