provisional

I apologise if this has been covered before. But I want to apply for my provisional, but do i HAVE to send my passport to them? Im a bit concerned about it being lost in the post.
Also I have had some speeding tickets in america. do they check your history in america and can see that you've had fines for speeding there? or do they just check that your passport is original and thats it? thanks

I apologise if this has been covered before. But I want to apply for my provisional, but do i HAVE to send my passport to them? Im a bit concerned about it being lost in the post.

Yup. Unless you have a biometric ID and you can send that instead.

Also I have had some speeding tickets in america. do they check your history in america and can see that you've had fines for speeding there? or do they just check that your passport is original and thats it? thanks

No idea. I don't think they do or they'd ask for your US DL as well I would think. I think they want an official ID so it proves that you are who you say you are.

ok thanks
another question is I have had my passport for 7 years now, and US passports have changed since then, with the whole microchip and the colours on the pages inside. do you think this will be a problem or do you think they will realise its an older one?
the reason i ask this is because ive been googling and found another forum where someone sent in their older passport and the dvla told her that the passport isnt acceptable and confiscated it from her and told her to apply for a new passport with the updated look on it.

No, they don't check your US record and no, it doesn't matter that you have an older passport. That story you read is just that - a story. DVLA isn't going to confiscate anyone's passport.

ok great thanks!

Just do what I did and send the envelopes one day shipping there and back, I got my passport back in one week. I know it says that you can be without your documents for up to a month, but in my experience, the turnaround time was a week. You can ring them after a few days and see if your license has been issued, if it has, that means they will send your documents back.

I agree with an above poster that they don't check your US driving record - even when it comes to getting insurance. My record in the US was bad. I had about five or six speeding tickets from the time I was 18 to 25 (when I moved to the UK) and those tickets were never found by the DVLA or my UK insurance company.

On a related note, you will be considered a brand new driver when it comes to insurance, so rates will be VERY high. Get ready to pay well over £1000 per year. Check into Sainsbury's, though, as they took into consideration my US license and let me be a driver with 10+ years of experience when I first got my full UK license and was added to my husband's insurance. They were the only company that did this for us - and we called every company we could.

I sent my passport to them and had it back in 2 days....as far as insurance goes not sure how much that will be as I was just added to my DH's insurance as a secondary driver with a provisional.....we pay just under £700.00 a year with the Co-operative but maybe that is because we are older.....and I had driven in the US for 42 years.......

It probably does have something to do with your age, but your husband's driving record in the UK will keeping your costs low, too. Years of no claims will reduce the amount significantly, even if you're a "new" driver. We were paying around £550 per year when I first got my license and my husband had 3 years of no claims.