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A Free Permanent Hang Tag With the Disabled Veteran Plate — Everyone Else Pays $3

A veteran who qualifies for the Disabled Veteran plate — a service-connected disability of 50% or more — may also be issued a permanent handicap placard on request at no charge, and holders of the plate are given the same privileges as holders of mobility impaired plates. An ordinary applicant needs a physician’s certification form and pays $3.00, with a four-year tag for a permanent impairment and a one-year tag for a temporary one.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

A veteran who qualifies for the Disabled Veteran plate — a service-connected disability of 50% or more — may also be issued a permanent handicap placard on request at no charge, and holders of the plate are given the same privileges as holders of mobility impaired plates. An ordinary applicant needs a physician’s certification form and pays $3.00, with a four-year tag for a permanent impairment and a one-year tag for a temporary one.

What it's worth: Permanent handicap placard at no charge on request, against the $3.00 an ordinary applicant pays

  • The $3.00 is the published hang tag fee for an ordinary applicant and for a replacement tag. The saving is small in cash and large in paperwork — the veteran route skips the physician’s certification.
  • The placard is issued on request. Nothing in the policy issues it automatically with the plate, so it has to be asked for.

Who is entitled to it

  • The plate and the placard follow the veteran.
  • Your rating is at or above the plate threshold.
  • You live 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. 1Ask for the placard at the same counter visit as the plate. The policy says a qualifying applicant may ALSO be issued a permanent handicap placard, upon request, at no charge — the request is the trigger.
  2. 2Bring affidavit LDVA-17, signed by a veterans affairs service officer, attesting to eligibility. It is required for initial issuance only.
  3. 3Bring a copy of the registration certificate of the vehicle the plate will go on. If the vehicle is not registered in your name, bring everything needed to title it.
  4. 4Know what the plate itself is worth: the policy calls it a free lifetime plate, with $10.00 to replace one lost or stolen, an $8.00 handling fee on every transaction except renewals, and $3.00 to move it to another vehicle in your name.
  5. 5Do not convert an unexpired ordinary plate expecting money back — the policy states no credit or refund is given for that.
  6. 6If you do not hold the Disabled Veteran plate, the ordinary route is a Physician’s Certification of Mobility Impairment, form DPSMV 1966, plus $3.00. A permanent impairment gets a four-year tag with no recertification at renewal; a temporary impairment gets one year and may be renewed once, with a fresh certification.
  7. 7If you are too disabled to attend an office in person, the veteran route is easier there too: proof of a special disabled veteran licence plate, or an affidavit from the veterans affairs office, plus a separate medical examiner’s statement that you cannot attend, replaces the ordinary certification.
  8. 8Remember what the plate carries with it — the policy states that holders of Disabled Veteran plates are afforded the same privileges as holders of the special plates for mobility impaired persons.
Form
Affidavit LDVA-17 signed by a veterans affairs service officer, with the plate application
File with
Office of Motor Vehicles
Documents you will need
va benefit summary letter
No renewal
Once granted it does not need renewing.
CorrectionThe plate and the hang tag are different things and a veteran needs both. The plate sits on one vehicle; the hang tag moves with the person into any car. Holding the plate alone means losing the space whenever you travel as a passenger in someone else’s vehicle.
Worth knowingThe veteran route skips the doctor entirely. An ordinary applicant must get a physician to complete DPSMV 1966; a veteran with the qualifying plate does not, because the veterans affairs service officer’s affidavit has already done that work.
Known gapThe statutes behind these policies could not be read this session — the Legislature’s statute server did not resolve from this network. The policies are the internal instructions the motor vehicle office applies, which is why they are cited as authority here.

Sources

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