Driver's License (military)?

Question

My husband is stationed in Iraq right now, and will be coming home soon. His DL expires on his 21st Bday in November. He gets back in December. He will be going to Alaska but he has an Ohio DL. What can he do to renew his DL when he gets home?

Answer 1

You need to contact the DMV and ask them this question. It all depends on that specific state regulation. Most states allow you to have your license expire if you are in the military. You just have to make sure you show your military ID if you get pulled over. The soldiers and sailors act makes sure military members don't get penalized for things like this, specially if he is coming back from deployment. You can also contact the legal office at his current station (stateside), and they should also have an answer for you.

Answer 2

Driver License Information Center
614-752-7600



There are provisions to allow an individual to renew via the postal service. A renewal packet can be sent for completion and a new license is then sent to the customer. If the individual wishes to wait until their return, the persons should still be active duty or separated not more than 6 months.

Each law enforcement jurisdiction makes the determination whether the expired Ohio driver license, motorcycle endorsement or commercial driver license will be accepted as valid when presented with a military identification card. If a driver license has not been renewed, upon expiration the Ohio BMV record will indicate "Expired". The Ohio BMV record does not have any special notations to indicate if a driver is active duty military or a dependent of an active duty military service member, therefore if stopped by a law enforcement agent, the record will read "Expired".

The Ohio Revised Code, 4507.03 states in part "...Every person on active duty in the armed forces of the United States, when furnished with a driver's permit and when operating an official motor vehicle in connection with such duty, is exempt from the license requirements..." "...This section does not prevent such a person or his spouse or dependent from making an application for renewal of a driver's license, motorcycle endorsement or commercial driver's license during the period of his active duty or service..."

Answer 3

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Answer 4

Is Ohio a state where he can renew it online? When I turned 21 I just renewed it online b/c I didn't need a new picture and my info wasn't changing. I don't know if Ohio is your husband's home of record w/ the military, but if it is, he may not want to get a driver's license in a different state (then u have to change everything else like your license plates as well to Alaska) If this is the case, he doesn't have to wait until he gets home to renew it, he can just do it over the computer, plus most states have a grace period whether military or not. If Ohio doesn't and he gets a ticket, u usually have 10 days or so to get it renewed and then u just show the new one and they drop the charge like it never happened anyway.

Answer 5

Check with state law, some states don't let Active Duty Soldiers DL expire, as long they are in the military. Other states will give a grace period for Deployment. As long as he has his Deployment Orders he will be ok. Check with the state that you are currently living, and Ohio to see what they can do. He should be ok for at least 30 days post deployment, just keep a copy of the orders in the vehicle at all times, just in case he needs to show his DL.
Best of Luck

Answer 6

Like most of the other posts have stated... when my husband was active duty, he didn't get his DL renewed for 20+ years. It was a little strange seeing a 40-yr-old with a driver's license photo from when he was 18. :-)

Answer 7

First of all, check on the state laws. A lot of states will allow an expired out of state drivers liscense if the person has a military ID.

Second, contact Ohio, usualy you can get a mail in test. Fill it out, mail it in, and they send you a new licenes... depends on the state again.

The other option is to get a new DL in the new state, or the current state you are in.

Answer 8

When military members deploy or they are stationed outside their state of residency, their drivers license do not expire. Your husband can renew his license in Ohio or apply for a drivers license in Alaska once you there. To ease the process, he may want to have a copy of his DD214 to prove that he was deployed during the time his drivers license expired.

Answer 9

im a military spouse that just returned from 6 months in japan. both mine and my husbands ohio license's expired while there. the dmv in ohio told us when we contacted them that we had 6 months once we returned to come to ohio and get a new one. just had to carry a copy of our orders with us at all times in case we got pulled over to justify the expired license.....also if we couldnt come to ohio to do so we could renew through the mail and we would get a new license the only thing is where the picture usually is they stamp no photo available and you have to have either your military id or your expired license with it or its not valid.

Answer 10

First check to see if his state give an extension to Active Duty Military...many states do...if not he can apply for one by mail or you can if you have his Power of Attorney...worse case scenario he will have to get a license in the state you are in or go back to Ohio and they will give him another one...even if the other is expired...I found this out the hard way...Alabama doesn't give an extension, so mine was expired, so I had to retake the whole thing in Hawaii..but when my Hawaii expired I went to Alabama to get another one and they just gave it to me...