IID Obligation from CA DMV If One Lives Outside CA?

Los Angeles and Orange County are popular vacation destinations for those living outside California, as well as where many business meetings take place, including business conventions. 

Our office consequently often represents people who were arrested and charged with DUI in California, but who live outside California, i.e., Texas, New York, Florida, etc.

This can present unique challenges for the client to comply with the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) requirement that the client attend a DUI class in person in California (solved with a 1650 waiver usually), serving jail time for a second or third-time DUI and installing an ignition interlock device (IID).

This is important to understand because when the California DMV suspends one’s driving privileges in California, the client’s license in Texas, New York, Florida, etc., is then also suspended due to the Interstate Compact, wherein all states share information about DUI’s (six states are not part of the Interstate Compact – Georgia, North Dakota, Nevada, Michigan Wisconsin or Tennessee).

The scope of this article is limited to discussing how one complies with the California DMV requirement to install an ignition interlock device after this is made a requirement to reinstate one’s driving privileges in California and thus, reinstate one’s driving privileges outside California.

After all, many states do not have ignition interlock device installers.  Does this mean that to comply one has to drive back to California, have the IID installed on one’s car and then drive back home to, for example, Maine?  What if one lived in Alaska?  Or Hawaii? 

No is the answer to this rhetorical question.  Instead, one can submit California DMV Form DL 4602, Ignition Interlock Device Exemption Request, which permits a person to request, under Vehicle Code § 23575(g), a waiver of the requirement to install an ignition interlock device because he or she resides outside California. 

To prove this, the applicant must submit to the DMV proof of living outside California, by submitting documentation showing this, such as a utility bill in one’s name for an address outside California, or a rental or lease agreement for property outside California, or receipts for resident tuition at an out-of-state educational institution.  The form has a list of other acceptable documents to submit to show this.

After one’s 4602 request is granted, we suggest one also submit California DMV Form 4006, Application for Termination of Action, which allows one living outside California to avoid additional license reinstatement obligations imposed by the California DMV as requirements for regaining one’s right to drive in California, which must be regained for one to be eligible to drive in another state, i.e., New York, Texas, Florida, etc.  One cannot qualify for a 4602 exemption until the IID requirement is excused.

Form 4006 allows one, upon producing one acceptable out-of-state residency document, to avoid the California DMV requirement to produce an SR-22 (proof of financial responsibility), payment of the license reinstatement fees and completion of the in-person alcohol awareness class.

It should be mentioned that one can separately and also request permission to avoid the in-person alcohol awareness class completion requirement from the DMV by submitting a 1650 request, which we suggest one living outside California request immediately after a conviction for DUI in California.  However, if one did not do this, it appears that the same permission to avoid taking the class in-person may be gained via a Form 4006 request.

We hope this article helps the out-of-state defendant navigate the obstacle course of California DMV requirements that all defendants face, but which can be especially perplexing to an out-of-state defendant.  Many criminal defense attorneys, judges and prosecutors are unaware of these forms that can make life a lot less stressful for someone living outside California but with a DUI conviction from California.

For more information about a DUI arrest and / or conviction in California if one lives outside California, please click on the following articles: