Application for Disabled Person Placard or Plates

Getting a Disabled Placard or Plates in California

REG 195 is California’s Application for Disabled Person Placard or Plates. It’s the form you and your medical provider fill out together to apply for a DP parking placard, DP license plates, or to reassign existing plates to a different vehicle.

DMV looks at mobility and certain medical conditions when deciding who qualifies, including losing the use of one or both legs or both hands, a diagnosed condition that substantially limits movement, needing an assistive device to get around, or specific vision, heart, or lung conditions written into California Vehicle Code. Your medical provider is the one who certifies which of these applies to you.

Placard or Plates: Which One Do You Actually Need

Both give you the same parking privileges, so the real question is how you’ll use them.

• A placard hangs from your mirror and travels with you, not a specific car. It works for you as a passenger, as a driver, or being driven around by someone else.
• Plates stay on one vehicle registered in your name. They make sense if you’re the one driving and don’t want to move a placard between cars.

You don’t have to choose only one forever, but you do need to pick which application you’re filing, since plates require vehicle details that a placard-only application skips entirely.

The Three Placard Types, and How Long Each One Lasts

REG 195 covers three different placard types, and which one you check in Section 2 decides how long it’s good for.

• Temporary. For a disability that’s expected to improve. Good for up to 180 days or whatever shorter date your medical provider writes in. It can’t be renewed more than six times in a row, and it carries a small fee.
• Permanent. For a lasting disability. Valid for two years, always expiring June 30 of an odd-numbered year, and free.
• Travel. For a California resident who already holds a permanent placard, DP plates, or Disabled Veteran plates, or for an out-of-state visitor who qualifies back home. Good for 30 days if you’re a California resident, or 90 days for a visitor.

Filling Out Sections 1 Through 4

The first few sections of REG 195 are the applicant’s responsibility, not the medical provider’s.

• Section 1. Your legal name, birthdate, and address, matching a driver’s license, ID card, or similar proof you’ll attach.
• Section 2. Check which placard or plate type you’re applying for. There’s also a yes-or-no question asking if you’ve ever held a California DP placard or plates before, which matters a lot for whether a new medical certification is even required.
• Section 3. Only for plate applicants: license plate number, VIN, make, and year of the vehicle the plates will go on.
• Section 4. Your signature, under penalty of perjury, confirming everything above is accurate. Only an original signature counts, no photocopies or faxed pages.

Who Can Sign the Medical Section of CA REG 195

Not every provider can certify every condition, which trips up a lot of applicants who assume any doctor’s note will do.

• A physician, surgeon, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, or certified nurse midwife can certify any of the qualifying conditions.
• A chiropractor can only certify lower extremity or mobility limitations, not vision or cardiovascular conditions.
• A podiatrist can only certify a disability tied specifically to the foot or ankle.
• An optometrist, or a physician who specializes in eye disease, can only certify the vision-related qualification.

The description your provider writes matters just as much as their license type. A diagnosis code on its own, like “R60.9,” or a symptom alone, like “trouble walking,” gets the whole application sent back. DMV wants an actual description of the condition itself, something like “Parkinson’s disease” or “arthritis of the ankle and foot,” written clearly enough to meet the state’s certification standard.

Already Had a Placard Before? Skip the New Certification

If you’ve previously been issued DP plates, Disabled Veteran plates, or a permanent placard in California, you generally don’t need your provider to certify you all over again. Enter your old placard or plate number in Section 2 of REG 195 instead, and DMV will match it against their records.

A new medical certification only gets required again in a few specific situations: your old placard was cancelled by DMV, it’s no longer showing up on your record, or you’ve already gone through four replacement permanent placards within one two-year renewal period. Outside of those, this is the step that saves most returning applicants a doctor’s visit.

Renewing a Permanent Placard

A permanent placard runs on a two-year cycle, but you’re not filling out paperwork every single time. DMV automatically renews it twice without you doing anything, covering four more years on top of the original two, six years in total.

At that six-year mark, state law requires a signature before DMV will mail you a new one, a rule that’s been phased in gradually since 2017. DMV sends a renewal notice when it’s your turn, and you sign either by scanning the QR code on that notice with your phone’s camera or by entering your name, birthdate, and placard number online. No new medical certification gets requested at this step, only your signature confirming you still hold the placard.

Submitting Your Completed DMV Form 195

Once both you and your medical provider have signed, you have three ways to turn it in:

• In person. Any DMV field office, no appointment required.
• Online. Through DMV’s virtual office, once your provider’s portion is complete.
• By mail. Sent to DMV’s dedicated Placard processing address in Sacramento, which is different from a standard DMV office address.

Whichever way you file, attach a copy of your driver’s license, ID card, or other accepted proof of your legal name and birthdate. Applications arrive without it more often than you’d expect, and DMV rejects every one of them for it.

Rules That Come With Your Placard

• You can park in any space marked with the wheelchair symbol, next to blue or green curbs without a time limit, in metered spaces for free, and in areas needing a resident or merchant permit.
• Carry your placard ID card with you whenever the placard’s hanging in use, and show it if an officer or parking enforcement official asks.
• Your placard is yours alone. Lending it out, even to another disabled family member, is against the law.
• Only one permanent placard is allowed per person at a time.
• Plates or placards have to be surrendered to DMV within 60 days of the placard holder’s death.

Frequently Asked Questions