New Tennessee Driver’s License Requirement for New Residents from Nine Non-S2S States Starting 2025

For folks eyeing a move to the Volunteer State, take note: starting January 10, 2025, transferring your driver’s license to Tennessee is getting a tweak if you’re coming from certain states. New and returning residents hailing from California, Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Nevada, Oklahoma, Vermont, or West Virginia will be required to bring along a Motor Vehicle Record (MVR) from their previous state when they apply for a Tennessee driver license, according to an announcement by theDepartment of Safety & Homeland Security.

The rest of the nation, sans those nine states, are buddies in the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators State-to-State (S2S) Verification Service, a handy tool that lets states share driver’s license histories digitally; meaning an individual’s full driving record is at Tennessee’s fingertips, at the click of a button and residents from these places won’t need an MVR, the Department noted that this system helps to prevent fraud and boost safety by ensuring folks with a spotty driving past aren’t slipping through the bureaucratic cracks.

Tennessee’s decision to require MVRs for those from the left-out states is a move to patch up a gap in the S2S system. The S2S network’s main feature is offering up-to-the-minute data about a driver, including chronicled convictions and withdrawals of their licenses, the purpose of which is to lower the chance of fraud and push up road safety by keeping those with a risky driving history on the sidelines, and it usually speeds up the whole process of getting a new license in Tennessee.

So, if you’re planning to make Tennessee your new home and you’re coming from the non-S2S states, better get that MVR sorted it has to be freshly issued (30 days fresh, to be precise), before you rock up at a Driver Services Center it needs to accompany your bunch of other necessary documents for a Tennessee license or ID application, per theDepartment of Safety & Homeland Securityguidelines.

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