Connecticut Veteran Vehicle Registration Waiver and License Plates

The Department of Motor Vehicles waives new and renewal registration fees, the temporary plate fee, the safety plate fee and the clean air act fee for an eligible service member or veteran. The condition that decides most applications is that the person was a Connecticut resident at the time they entered military service. A veteran who moved to Connecticut after service should check that condition before counting on the waiver. Connecticut issues sixteen distinctive military and veteran plate designs. The veteran flag-style plate is available to an honorably discharged veteran, an active duty service member, and a surviving spouse, with ten wartime period options to choose from. Purple Heart plates go to members of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, and Disabled American Veterans plates to members of that organisation. Medal of Honor recipients and former prisoners of war receive two sets of free license plates and special registration certificates. Gold Star Family plates are free to immediate family members of a service member killed in the line of duty. Separately from the plates, a veteran may have a veteran flag identifier added to a Connecticut driver's license. That needs ninety or more days of active duty, not counting initial entry training, and an honorable discharge or a discharge for a service-connected injury. The identifier is the cheapest proof of service to carry, and several benefits in this catalog are easier to claim with it in a wallet. Two recent acts cut licence fees. Public Act 25-15, section 5 (effective July 1, 2025), requires DMV to waive, or issue a voucher for, the driver's licence or identity card renewal fee for a veteran who attends a one-day Stand Down event hosted by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Public Act 26-35, sections 7 to 9 (effective October 1, 2026), requires DMV to waive the fee for an original driver's licence or identity card for a veteran the Department of Veterans Affairs has verified, where before only a blind veteran's identity card fee could be waived, and lengthens the grace period for licence and registration renewals and emissions testing after release from qualifying active service from 60 days to 90. Two items apply to people still serving rather than to veterans. A nonresident active duty service member may purchase or lease a motor vehicle in Connecticut at a reduced sales tax rate of 4.5 per cent. And an active duty service member holding a Connecticut license who completes a Motorcycle Safety Foundation course may obtain a motorcycle endorsement without the usual road test, for a thirty dollar fee. A commercial driver license skills test exemption is available to active duty, recently separated, and reserve component service members who can show two or more years of operating a military vehicle of the relevant class. None of these turn on a disability rating, so a rating filter never hides this entry. Registration fee waivers and plate eligibility are administered by DMV rather than by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the documentation each one wants differs, so confirm the current list before a trip to a branch office.