Illinois Veteran and Disabled Veteran License Plates

Illinois issues 44 military and veteran license plate designs through the Secretary of State. Three matter most. The Service-Connected Disabled Veteran plate, often called ISERVE, goes to a veteran with proof of a 50 percent or greater service-connected disability. It carries no registration fee for one first division or second division motor vehicle weighing no more than 8,000 pounds. A motorcycle version is available. The waived registration fee, not the plate itself, is the benefit worth having, and it repeats every year. Applying requires a copy of the VA Notice of Decision or Rating Decision letter showing at least a 50 percent rating, together with a DD-214 showing an honorable or under honorable conditions discharge. Apply at a Secretary of State facility or by mail to Springfield. A separate Disabled Veteran plate exists for a veteran with a service-connected walking disability, with a lower rating threshold, and carries its own parking implications. A veteran whose disability affects mobility should ask about that plate specifically rather than assuming the ISERVE plate covers parking. The Congressional Medal of Honor plate costs nothing for the first set, and a surviving spouse may retain it. The Purple Heart plate is free for the first set, with a motorcycle option. A veteran with a rating below 50 percent who does not have a walking disability can still display a branch plate or another military design, but pays the ordinary registration fee. Two changes to the no-fee plates. Public Act 104-0230, effective January 1, 2026, amended 625 ILCS 5/3-609.3, the military series plate a veteran at 50 percent can take instead of the section 3-609 plate, so that when a military series plate carries its own additional issuance or renewal fee, that fee is not waived; only the registration fee is. Public Act 104-0603 (HB 4385), effective July 1, 2027, lets an eligible veteran take up to two sets of the no-fee disabled veteran, prisoner of war, Medal of Honor or Purple Heart plates, for two vehicles, instead of one, and adds a new section 3-609.4 and an exception to the one-pair limit in section 3-806.2. Until July 1, 2027 the one-vehicle rule above governs. ilga.gov prints section 3-609 twice, once as amended by Public Act 104-0603 and once as amended by Public Act 104-0682, effective July 31, 2026, which changed only the fee a property tax relief recipient pays for a second set to the reduced fee in section 3-806.3. The 104-0682 copy still reads "one motor vehicle" because it was drafted on the older text, not because it undoes the second set. Under 5 ILCS 70/6, two acts of one General Assembly that amend the same section are read together, and they conflict only where they make inconsistent changes to the text as it stood. These two changed different words, so both apply.