How long do I have to update my driver license?
It depends on your state, and only some publish a figure. The ones we have read directly off a statute or an agency page run from 10 days to 60 days.
A deadline exists in some states and not in others, and the figures circulating online are frequently somebody else’s state, or a rule about moving house rather than changing a name. These are the ones we have read off the state’s own statute or agency page:
- Arizona — 10 days
- Washington — 10 days
- Delaware — 30 days
- Minnesota — 30 days
- Texas — 30 days
- Georgia — 60 days
- Nebraska — 60 days
- North Carolina — 60 days
Every other state is a check we have not published. Your state’s own page carries the current figure if it sets one, and your state sheet links to it. We would rather send you there than print a number we have not read.
About penalties
We publish no fine figures, because the statutes we read set none. Georgia’s says in terms that failing to make the change does not make the license invalid, and names no fine. Nebraska’s agency says there is no fine for making the change late. Treat a deadline as the date to aim at rather than as a threat, and treat any page quoting you a dollar penalty as a page that has not read the statute.
Why sooner is easier anyway
The license is the document everything else asks to see. Most banks want photo ID in your new name before they will change an account, and it is the ID most people present for a domestic flight. Once it is done, the rest of the list moves quickly.
Social Security still comes first, deadline or no deadline. In the states that check, a license application made before that record has updated is turned away at the counter.
Other questions people ask
When you’re ready to do it
Two questions about your situation first, because there is one answer that means we can’t help — and we would rather tell you that before you pay than after.
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