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Gold Star Family Plate — and the Surviving Spouse Plate That Carries the Veteran’s Own Plate Forward

The Division of Motor Vehicles issues a Gold Star Family plate on form DMV-48-L to a parent, spouse or relative of a deceased service member, on authorisation from the Department of Veterans Assistance. A separate application, form DMV-48F, lets a surviving spouse hold the same military plate the deceased veteran held.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

What it's worth: A Gold Star Family plate, or the deceased veteran’s own military plate carried forward by the surviving spouse

The Division of Motor Vehicles describes form DMV-48-L, Application for a Gold Star Family License Plate, as: "Gold star family license plate application. Can only be applied for by a parent, spouse, or relative of a deceased service member. Service member information is required along with authorization from the department of veterans assistance."
The Division describes form DMV-48F, Application for a Surviving Spouse Special Military License Plate, as: "Surviving spouse military plate application. The plate applied for must match the plate the deceased veteran owned."
Form DMV-48-L was retrieved this session and its fields include the deceased member’s name, the applicant’s relationship to the deceased, the date of death and the current plate details.
Authorisation by the Department of Veterans Assistance is a condition of the Gold Star application, not a formality — the Division states it in the form description.
The Department of Veterans Assistance states, on its own state benefits page, that veterans plates are available to all other honorably discharged veterans "for a one-time fee of $10 over and above the regular license fee required by the state Division of Motor Vehicles", and that special plates and disabled veteran tags go to veterans who qualify for federal Department of Veterans Affairs auto grant benefits or who have a 100 percent permanent and total service-connected disability rating, with former POWs, Purple Heart recipients and Pearl Harbor survivors also eligible for special plates.
No fee for the Gold Star Family plate itself was published on any page read this session, so none is stated here.

Who is entitled to it

These plates belong to the family of a service member who died.
Your home is in the 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

1Ask for the plate by its form number. DMV-48-L is the Gold Star Family application, and asking for it by number avoids being handed the general veteran plate form instead.
2Get the Department of Veterans Assistance to authorise it first. The Division names that authorisation as a requirement, and the application will not proceed without it.
3Have the service member’s details ready. The form asks for the deceased member’s name, your relationship to them and the date of death.
4A surviving spouse should ask about form DMV-48F as well, or instead. It lets you hold the exact plate the veteran held — the Purple Heart plate, the POW plate, the branch plate — rather than a generic one.
5Remember the matching rule on DMV-48F: the plate you apply for must match the plate the deceased veteran owned, so find out which plate that was before applying.
6The Department of Veterans Assistance maintains benefits offices across the state and its service officers are the people who process the authorisation. Start with the nearest one rather than with the Division counter.

Form: DMV-48-L for the Gold Star Family plate; DMV-48F for the Surviving Spouse Special Military plate
File with: W. Va. Department of Veterans Assistance for authorisation, then the Division of Motor Vehicles
Annual: Claimed once a year.

CorrectionThe surviving spouse plate is the one families never hear about. It is not a generic memorial plate — the application exists so that the exact plate the veteran carried, decoration and all, stays on a car in the family.

Known gapNo fee, no eligibility list of which relatives count as a "relative", and no statement of whether remarriage ends eligibility was published on any page read this session. code.wvlegislature.gov refused retrieval again, so the statute behind the plate was not read. Ask the Department of Veterans Assistance before assuming either way.

Worth knowingEvery military plate in this state runs through the Department of Veterans Assistance rather than through the Division of Motor Vehicles alone. Two of them — the DAV plate and the American Legion plate — instead need authorisation from the organisation itself and are posted to it.

Sources

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