How long does an SR-22 last?

Usually three years. But two years or three matters less than what the clock is anchored to — and some of these states run a rolling look-back rather than a countdown, which is a much worse thing to get wrong.

How long does an SR-22 last?

Three years in 25 of the 37 states read here. Georgia, Ohio, Kansas, Vermont, North Dakota and New Mexico run one year; Texas, Iowa, Missouri and North Carolina two; Alaska five years or more after a DUI; and Tennessee ties the filing to the length of the suspension itself. Those are the lengths. What decides when your filing ends is the date each state counts from — the date proof was required, the end of the suspension, reinstatement, the collision — and whether a ticket during the period moves the finish line. The table gives every state's length, its clock and the section it comes from; the sections after it explain the designs.

37 states, nineteen different designs

“How long do I need an SR-22?” gets answered with a number — usually three years — and the number is the least useful part of the answer. What differs between states is not the length. It is the shape: what the clock is anchored to, what stops it, and whether an event during the period extends it or restarts it.

The 37 states whose filing provisions this site has read use nineteen visibly different designs, and three of those designs are shared by more than one state. The length runs from the length of a suspension in Tennessee to, in Alaska after repeated DUI convictions, as long as the person holds a license; the anchor runs from the date of a collision to the end of a suspension.

Design one: elapsed time from the date proof was required

California, Arizona and Oregon share this one. The statute is written as a cancellation rule: the department may release the filing at any time after 3 years from the date the proof was required. Note what the clock is attached to. Not the date of the offense, not the date you bought the policy, not the date the certificate was accepted.

Oregon uses the same anchor — its requirement ends when “more than three years have passed from the date the filing was required” — and adds an early exit most states lack: termination on request if the requirement came from a department or insurer error, or if the driver was in fact compliant or reasonably believed they were.

Arizona's section is worded almost identically to California's — and then adds a clause the others do not have. If proof was released because the driver surrendered their license and registration, and they apply again within three years of the date proof was originally required, the director reinstates the requirement. Stepping out of the system does not run the clock.

That anchoring is why people who spent six weeks finding a carrier feel cheated: those weeks are inside the period, and they bought nothing.

Design two: elapsed time from the event, conditional on no claim

Texas. The release arrives at the second anniversary of the date of the collision, provided the department is satisfied that no action for damages arising out of that collision was brought during the two-year period.

So it is shorter than California's, and it is conditional on something outside your control — whether someone sued. That second half rarely appears in summaries of Texas requirements.

Design three: a rolling look-back

Washington, and this is the one worth understanding properly. The department may release the requirement after three years from the date proof was required, but only where the three-year period immediately preceding the request is clean of any conviction, bail forfeiture or infraction finding that would require or permit another suspension.

Read as a countdown it looks the same as California's. It is not. A qualifying conviction eighteen months in does not add eighteen months to the end; it means the window the department examines will contain that conviction until three years have passed from the new event. The end date moves, and it moves by more than the offense itself seems to warrant.

South Carolina uses the same design, with a narrower test. Its release is available after three years “when, during the three year period preceding the request,” there is no record of a conviction or a bail forfeiture that would require or permit suspension. Washington's test also counts a finding that a traffic infraction was committed; South Carolina's does not name infractions.

Indiana is the third look-back state: release after three years only if the preceding three contain no conviction for a listed offense. It layers a much shorter track on top for insurance suspensions — 180 consecutive days, per the BMV — which is why an Indiana driver can be told two different numbers and both are right. The Indiana page separates them.

South Carolina also answers the surrender question differently from Arizona: someone who handed in their license and comes back inside the three years must re-establish proof for the remainder of the period, not start it again. The South Carolina page has both clauses.

And the one that is not a period at all

Florida. The higher FR-44 limits must be carried for a minimum period of 3 years, but the exemption that ends the requirement is written as a record test: no DUI and no felony traffic offense for three years from the date of reinstatement of driving privileges.

Reinstatement is a later date than conviction, often by months. People who count from the courtroom finish late and do not find out until they ask.

What resets it, everywhere

Across all nineteen designs one thing behaves identically: a lapse in the underlying policy is not a pause. The insurer notifies the state, the license action resumes, and re-filing starts a fresh certificate. There is no version of this where being uninsured for two months shortens the two months you have left.

The practical implications are dull and worth following anyway. Pay the policy annually rather than monthly if you can, because the commonest cause of a lapse is a missed installment rather than a decision. Do not switch carriers mid-term without confirming the new filing is accepted before the old policy ends. And when you believe you have reached the end, ask the agency rather than assuming — in Washington the release is something you request, and filings left running past their earliest release date are common.

Design five: elapsed time from the end of the suspension

Virginia anchors later than any of the others. The Department may not issue or reinstate a license for 3 years after the person otherwise becomes entitled to one — that is, three years measured from the end of the suspension rather than from the conviction or from the date proof was required.

A one-year suspension followed by three years of filing is four years from conviction before the obligation ends. It is the easiest design to underestimate, and the Virginia page works the arithmetic through.

Elapsed time from the first filing

Illinois is the only state read here that starts the clock at the filing. Proof is kept “for a period of 3 years after the date such proof is first filed”. In a required-date state, the weeks spent finding a carrier sit inside the three years and are lost; in Illinois they sit before the three years and push the end back. Either way they cost you — here, at the far end.

Three years from the last request

Utah amended its duration section in May 2025 so that proof is kept “for a period of three years from the date the filing of proof was last requested.” Every other anchor on this page is a single event; Utah's moves forward if the department asks again.

Wisconsin and Idaho join Virginia in counting from the end of the suspension or revocation rather than from the case. Idaho's words are “a three (3) year period commencing with the last day of the suspension or revocation”.

Iowa, Missouri and North Carolina run the look-back over two years rather than three, in almost the same words: release after two years from the date proof was required, if the two years before the request are clean. North Dakota shortens it to one year — the shortest look-back on this page.

Utah, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri and Idaho each have a page. Alabama uses the rolling look-back in almost the same words as Missouri and Iowa, over three years instead of two; its page covers the online verification route that sits beside the certificate.

A floor measured from reinstatement, and a waiver measured from the demand

Maine writes the period as a minimum: after a conviction and reinstatement, the person “shall maintain proof of financial responsibility for at least 3 years.” A separate subsection lets the Secretary of State waive the demand three years from the date of demand. The two dates are rarely the same, and the waiver is granted rather than automatic.

A ladder, not a period

Alaska replaces the ordinary three-year release for DUI and breath-test refusal convictions with a term set by the number of prior convictions: five years, then 10, then 20, then for as long as the person is licensed to drive. Every other state on this site that fixes a number of years stops at three or fewer.

Maine and Alaska each have a page.

Three years from reinstatement, with no early exit

Nevada counts 3 years from the date the license is reinstated, and its release section lists only death, permanent incapacity and surrender. There is no clean-record test because there is no early release; a lapse inside the period suspends the license and the registrations again.

Three years from the accident or the conviction

New Hampshire anchors its waiver to the event itself: three years “from the date of accident involvement or conviction requiring such proof,” provided nothing further — a conviction, an accident, a bail forfeiture or an unsatisfied judgment — has been recorded. Nebraska, by contrast, uses the familiar look-back from the date proof was required.

Nevada, New Hampshire and Nebraska each have a page.

Three years from the suspension itself

Wyoming ties the clock to the suspension: after most suspensions, proof is kept “for a three (3) year period beginning on the date of suspension”. Its cancellation section, like Nevada's, has no clean-record early release.

Montana and South Dakota use the rolling look-back from the date proof was required. Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota each have a page.

No number of years at all

Tennessee does not set a term. Proof is kept “for the period of the revocation or suspension” — six months of suspension, six months of proof. The notice that sets the suspension also sets, by itself, how long the filing lasts.

Three years from the last requirement, with unlicensed time counted

Colorado runs three years “from the date last required” and credits time spent without a license toward it. A single alcohol offense with no accident runs only as long as the restraint, up to three years. Louisiana, by contrast, writes three years “in all cases” and adds the usual clean-record release.

Tennessee, Colorado and Louisiana each have a page.

The newest pages add three more variations on the look-back. North Carolina runs it over two years, alongside Iowa and Missouri; Mississippi and Michigan run it over three. North Carolina, Mississippi and Michigan each have a page.

The one-year states, which do not agree on when the year starts

Six of the states read here run a single year, and they do not agree on when it starts — or even on whether the section says.

Georgia counts from the date the license is restored, and its companion section attaches a hard consequence: if proof is missing “at any time during the one-year period following the date of restoration,” the department revokes the license immediately.

Ohio counts from the date the registrar imposed the suspension — an earlier date. For the same driver, the Ohio year can be well under way, or over, by the time a Georgia-style year would only be starting. Ohio also bars phone proof of insurance for that year.

Kansas keeps the evidence on file “for a period of one year” after a single conviction on the list in K.S.A. 8-285, which includes DUI. The subsection says who files — the insurer — but not the date the year runs from, so the notice is the only place to find it.

Vermont relieves the driver “after one year from the crash, conviction, or judgment,” unless a suspension resulted — then one year after the reinstatement eligibility date. It also keeps a three-year tier for fatal careless or reckless driving and repeat DUI. North Dakota runs one year from the date proof was required, as a look-back. New Mexico counts its year from the evidence itself: release “after one year of providing satisfactory evidence.”

“One year” is therefore not one rule either. Georgia, Ohio, Kansas, Vermont, North Dakota and New Mexico each have a page. Hawaii, by contrast, runs the familiar three-year look-back.

Do not count from the wrong date

The table at the top of this page collects the anchors in one place, because counting from the wrong one is the single most common error. Most people count from the court date; almost no state does.

37 states, nineteen different starting guns. Your own notice is the authority on yours.

Common questions