u/LtCashh

Hello, I’m sorry if this is not the subreddit for a problem like this, but I couldn’t figure out if this should go in some driving law subreddit or an immigration one because the situation is intertwined between the two.

So I’m an on an F1 visa in FL. I graduated in Dec 2025. Applied for OPT in November, when the USCIS website showed the normal processing times to be 2-3 months (which would fall somewhere in Feb). Th original timeline ends, I checked the new processing times website and it said normal processing time will now take about 4.5 months. The 4.5 months end, The website says to fill out a service request, I did that. The service request confirmation says wait for 60 days for it to process. I called USCIS and was told she can only tell me what I can already see on the website or else pay about 2k for the expedited one, which apparently guarantees a decision in under 30 days. Since i was a student and running low on cash as my on campus employment ended right after graduation but the apartment rent did not, i don’t think I could just up and pay 2 thousand for the expedited process when the normal processing times is way past its due date and could be processed any day now, delusional but also broke. I cannot work as my OPT hasn’t been approved yet so I don’t have the EAD card, which I could use to work and get some money.

Also, my license got expired shortly after my graduation and when I went to the DMV to renew it, I was told they cannot do it since they cannot find any reason for me to stay here until my OPT is approved and only then could they renew my license, so basically I had no EAD and no drivers license (expired).

Now the situation, I had a car that I bought in cash from marketplace in the initial months that I got to the US, she served me well for the years and i always worked on it myself but a big engine fault came up that i could not do by myself and was too much for me to pay because it would cost me more than the car, I let that car go for cheap and started looking for another car, i found one, slightly out of my expected range but i loved it. I met the guy who was selling it, go a pre purchase inspection done and everything, finally took it out on a test drive.

There’s a highway near where I live so I took the highway just to see how the car holds up on highway speeds, the seller, who was in the passenger seat let me know there’s a sport mode in the car too. Now I’m used to driving cheap cash cars I don’t like monthly payments so I’m not used to fast cars. I put it in sport (MY FAULT I AM NOT SAYING THIS IS THE SELLERS FAULT IT IS ME WHO IN ALL CONSCIOUSNESS PUT THE CAR IN SPORT MODE WITH MY OWN HANDS) and the car zoomed right past an unmarked cop.

I got pulled over, gave the cop my license, never admitted to anything. Got 2 tickets, driving with exp license (6 months or less) and over speeding, both of which I have to go to court for. These would be my first tickets that I’ve gotten and I gotta go to court. I would post the instructions sides of the ticket here but there’s not an option to attach pictures to the post for me.

I asked a friend of mine (citizen) who’s gotten an over speeding ticket with an expired license as to how he tackled it, he said “pay the over speeding fee right now (about 350-400$) and go renew your license right now, so when you got to the court and the judge sees that you have renewed it and paid the over speeding ticket, he might drop the charges for you”

Now how do I explain to him that I cannot just go and renew my license because the DMV won’t renew it for me.

I’m just confused as to how do I go about this situation, what do i tell the judge? It’s not really about the fee amount I can make that work somehow and pay it off, I just don’t want my license suspended/go to jail i guess.

If this post does not belong in this subreddit, my apologies I just don’t know where should it go, because yall know immigration but I don’t think any driving law subreddit would be as savvy in immigration.