Special Plates

Special plates include qualifying plates and personalized plates (qualifying, non-qualifying, or regular county plates).

A qualifying plate is a special plate that requires valid proof of eligibility. For example, a Purple Heart plate requires valid military documentation stating that the customer received a Purple Heart during military service. If a customer does not produce valid proof of eligibility for a special qualifying plate, a denial notification letter is generated and sent to the customer.

A personalized plate is a regular county standard plate or a special plate with personalized text. Personalized plate text must be checked against existing plate, existing plate ranges, and disallowed text. If the personalized text requested is not available or is not allowed, a notification letter is generated and sent to the customer.

Applications for special plates are reviewed and denied or approved by DMV.

Note: You can assign a non-qualifying non-personalized special plate from inventory during the registration process. For more information, see Assigning a Specific Plate.

The following diagram shows the process for assigning qualifying and personalized plates.

Assigning qualifying and personalized special plates