What happens if you forget to renew your driver’s license, not by a month, but by a few years?
It’s the kind of nightmare that makes drivers wake up in a cold sweat. It may be hard to believe it happens, but it does. A reader asked that question after checking the date on the license in her wallet. It expired in 2017.
Does that driver have to start the process all over again and take all those tests? Believe it or not, she still has a shot to renew her old license, said state Motor Vehicle Commission officials. But it depends on how much time has passed.
Drivers have a maximum of three years to renew their license after the expiration date, said Jim Hooker, an MVC spokesman. After that, they have to start the process from the beginning to get a new license, he said. The MVC doesn’t have statistics on how many drivers miss their renewal date and need to be relicensed, he said.
Even the biggest procrastinator would be motivated to avoid that situation.
A license-less adult must go through the full process as a teenager. That includes getting a permit, taking the written test, practice driving with a licensed driver riding shotgun and taking a road test. The only thing they’re spared from is having to display the red “teen driver” decal on the car they practice drive in.
That possible ordeal should be enough motivation to put that license renewal notice on the top of the stack of bills to pay.
Some of that confusion resulted from 2017 state law that changed the expiration date to a driver’s birthday. The law went into effect on Jan. 1, 2018, and it is taking four years from that date for licenses with old expiration dates to be replaced with licenses that expire on a driver’s birthday.
The best advice for drivers is to renew by the date on MVC renewal form before the old license expires.
The good news? It turns our reader did renew her license, but misplaced the new document. She’s good until 2021.
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