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Gold Star Family Plate — $0, and Eight Relationships Qualify

The plate for the immediate family of a resident killed in action while on active duty sits in the motor vehicle office's free price group. Spouse, mother, father, brother, sister, child, grandmother and grandfather are all named.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

The plate for the immediate family of a resident killed in action while on active duty sits in the motor vehicle office's free price group. Spouse, mother, father, brother, sister, child, grandmother and grandfather are all named.

What it's worth: $0 where you keep your current plate configuration and take the new background

  • The motor vehicle office's special plate application names the eligible immediate family as spouse, mother, father, brother, sister, child, grandmother or grandfather of a service member killed in the line of duty.
  • The application cites Public Act 07-167 as the authority for the plate.
  • The plate appears in the application's Price Group B at $0 for a registrant keeping their current plate configuration and selecting only a new background.
  • The legislature removed the fee the motor vehicle office was previously required to charge to cover the cost of making the plates; that charge had been payable on top of the ordinary registration fee.
  • To order the plate the vehicle must be currently registered in the state.
  • Where the registration is due to expire within the next 45 days, the registration must be renewed before applying for the plate.
  • Neither the application nor the plate listing states a remarriage condition or a limit on the number of family members who may hold the plate.

Who is entitled to it

  • The plate runs to the immediate family of the service member killed in the line of duty.
  • Your home is in this state.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

  1. 1Check your registration expiry first. If it falls inside the next 45 days you must renew before applying, and an application filed in that window will simply come back.
  2. 2Keep your current plate configuration and take the new background if cost matters. That is the combination that sits at $0 — a full plate remake or a vanity configuration moves the plate into a charged price group.
  3. 3Read the eight-name list before ruling yourself out. Grandparents and siblings are on it, which is wider than most people assume a Gold Star plate reaches.
  4. 4Have the proof of the death and of your relationship ready even though the application form itself does not spell out the documents. Every comparable plate in this corpus asks for both.
  5. 5Do not pay a plate-manufacture charge. The legislature removed it, and it is the one line most likely to appear out of habit.
Form
Special Plate Application (M-22)
File with
Department of Motor Vehicles
Documents you will need
dd214
No renewal
Once granted it does not need renewing.
Worth knowingFree here means free in one specific configuration. The price groups on the application are the thing that decides the cost, and a family that also wants a vanity string will find the plate is no longer free at all.
Known gapThe proof the motor vehicle office actually requires was not established. The application names the qualifying relationships and the statute but does not list the documents, and the statute host did not resolve this session.

Sources

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.