The Veteran Flag on Your Licence — Free at Renewal, $5 If You Cannot Wait
The Secretary of State must, on request, issue a driver’s licence or non-driver identification card carrying a military service designation to a serving member or an honourably discharged veteran. Adding it at renewal costs nothing; adding it in between costs the $5 duplicate credential fee. It is a proof-of-status card that named businesses and the state park system accept in place of a DD214.
Verified August 23, 2026
What this benefit is
The Secretary of State must, on request, issue a driver’s licence or non-driver identification card carrying a military service designation to a serving member or an honourably discharged veteran. Adding it at renewal costs nothing; adding it in between costs the $5 duplicate credential fee. It is a proof-of-status card that named businesses and the state park system accept in place of a DD214.
What it's worth: Free when added at renewal; $5 duplicate fee to add it at any other time
- The $5 figure is the Bureau’s own published duplicate fee for adding the indicator outside the renewal cycle. The statute sets no fee at all.
- The designation is proof of status, not a discount in itself. The value is whatever the accepting business or agency gives.
Who is entitled to it
- The designation goes on the credential of the person who served.
- Your discharge is inside the section.
- 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
- 1Time it with your renewal if you can. The Bureau charges a $5 duplicate fee to add the flag indicator to a credential at any other time.
- 2Bring the DD214, or a certification from the federal veterans department or the appropriate branch of the armed forces verifying the service and the honourable discharge. §1412(1)(B) names those two proofs and nothing else.
- 3If you are still serving, bring military identification — §1412(1)(A) is satisfied by current service and the Bureau makes the determination from an examination of the applicant’s military identification.
- 4Bring residency and legal presence documents as well if you have not already proved them to the Bureau.
- 5Check whether you already have it. The Bureau notes that a credential carrying the field-of-stars background may not need additional information added.
- 6Know that the designation renews on continuing eligibility only for the serving-member branch — §1412(2) attaches that condition to subsection 1, paragraph A, not to the veteran paragraph.
- 7Use it. The Bureau publishes the list of Maine businesses that accept the designation in place of a DD214 for a military or veteran discount, and the state parks and historic sites are on that list.
- 8If you run a business and want to accept it, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles points you at the veterans bureau on 207-430-6035 rather than at itself.
- Form
- Driver’s licence or non-driver identification card application, requesting the military service designation
- File with
- Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Secretary of State
- Documents you will need
- dd214
- No renewal
- Once granted it does not need renewing.
Sources
- authority · statute29-A M.R.S. §1412 — military service designation for active military personnel and veterans: the mandatory issuance on request, the two eligibility branches, the DD214 or federal certification proof, the renewal condition, and the Secretary of State’s control of design and placement
- operating · published policyBureau of Motor Vehicles, Secretary of State — I Want to Get a Veteran Designation: available from 8 July 2015, the $5 duplicate fee to add the flag indicator other than at renewal, the field-of-stars background note, and the published list of businesses and state parks that accept the designation
This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.