Renewing a lost expired drivers license?

July 28, 2008 9:05 AM

Renewing an old, lost, and expired driver's license out of state?

I got a driver's license in Texas about 6 years ago and I lost in college about 2 years ago. I think it has since expired, and I now live in Chicago. Is there any way to renew it without having to go to Texas? How can I find out my old driver's license number? Anyone have experience with this kind of situation?

posted by AceRock to travel & transportation (5 comments total)

I lost my (current, not expired) Michigan driver's license a few months after moving to Chicago. I was able to get a letter from the Secretary of State in Michigan saying that I had a license and a clean record. But, because I couldn't turn in my Michigan license when applying in Illinois, I still had to take the vision, written and road tests.
posted by BugsPotter at 9:13 AM on July 28, 2008

I tried to replace an expired NJ license with a new CT one. It was not pleasant. The CT DMV disavowed knowing any way to verify the NJ license unless I had a valid one with me. As a compromise, they let me take the written test after 30 minutes of serious cramming.

(My license wasn't actually expired, but I only had an expired copy on me, which is practically the same thing to everyone except the police.)
posted by smackfu at 9:15 AM on July 28, 2008

Happened to me. The easiest solution: get a license in your new state. It is sorta the rules anyway.
posted by k8t at 9:35 AM on July 28, 2008

I lost my expired Michigan license when I moved to Maryland. I wrote to the Michigan Department of State asking if they could provide me with a license number and driving record. There is a Bureau of Driver and Vehicle Records Record Lookup that can provide this for a fee ($7). It is worth doing since in Maryland if I did not have this record I would have had to get a learner's permit and have to go through their coursework, log in driving time, etc. But I still had to take written and road tests.
posted by violette at 10:46 AM on July 28, 2008

Happened to me in a roundabout way with a foreign twist.

Had a VA driver's license and moved overseas. In order to get the foreign version (Belgium if you must know), I had to surrender my VA one. No big deal.

Move back to USA after being gone for about 5 years. Went to get new license (in Maryland if you must know) and previously having a stateside license in good standing, I got a new one made with minimal fuss. Only had to take a vision test, no written or road test.
posted by Dagobert at 11:44 AM on July 28, 2008