Which states issue driver's licenses regardless of immigration status (2026): 19 states and DC do, 31 do not

Which states issue a driver’s license regardless of immigration status

The finding: whether an undocumented resident can get a driver’s license is decided entirely at the state level, and the country is split. As of 2026, 19 states and the District of Columbia issue a standard driver’s license or driving card to otherwise-eligible residents without regard to immigration status. 31 states do not. Puerto Rico also offers access. Washington has done it the longest, since 1993; the most recent state to join was Minnesota, in 2023.

Every state — do they, or don’t they

Whether a state issues a driver's license (or driving card) to eligible residents regardless of immigration status, as of 2026. 20 jurisdictions (19 states and DC) do; 31 states do not. Requirements (documents, fees, whether it is REAL ID-compliant) vary — confirm with your state DMV. General information, not legal advice.

Sources: NCSL and NILC (table, Aug 2025). The year is when the law was enacted; Puerto Rico also issues licenses regardless of status (2013).

What the data shows

• The country is split almost in thirds to two-thirds. 19 states and DC issue licenses regardless of status; 31 states do not. Access depends entirely on where you live.
• It was a slow build, then a wave. Washington (1993), New Mexico (2003) and Utah (2005) were early and alone for years. Seven jurisdictions joined in 2013, and the rest came in 2019-2023. NILC’s table, last updated August 2025, shows no new state after Minnesota in 2023; its 2025 entries amend existing programs, such as Colorado’s SB 25-276 (May 23, 2025) and New Mexico’s SB 36 (April 10, 2025).
• A license is not a REAL ID. These are standard, non-REAL ID licenses or driving cards. They make driving legal, and whether they also serve as ID inside the state depends on the state’s law: NCSL’s summary says Delaware’s card “is not considered a valid form of identification” and Utah’s is “expressly prohibited from being used for any identification purposes by a governmental entity.” Federal REAL ID standards include evidence of lawful status, so a standard license cannot by itself be used to board a domestic flight or enter certain federal buildings after the REAL ID enforcement date.

Why this matters

For a working adult, a driver’s license is the difference between a legal commute and a risk with every trip to work or school, and where state law lets it double as identification, it is an ID a bank, a pharmacy or a landlord may ask for. In the 19 states and DC that issue them regardless of status, that door is open; in the 31 that do not, it is closed, and residents rely on other identification and on rides they cannot always control. This dataset is the map of where that line falls.

Two things it deliberately does not do. It does not track each state’s document list, fees, or residency requirements — those are set by each state’s motor-vehicle agency and change, so the page sends you to your state DMV for the current rules. And it does not give individualized legal advice: it is general procedural information about what each state’s law allows.

Method and caveats

This is a curated per-state list of whether each of the 50 states and DC issues a driver’s license or driving card to eligible residents regardless of immigration status, as of 2026, with the year the enabling law was enacted. It is cross-checked against the two authoritative trackers: the NCSL and NILC tables (NILC’s table updated August 2025).

Three limits are stated plainly. The “year” is the enactment year of the enabling law — a stable historical fact — not the date issuance began; NCSL’s table lists a separate effective date for each law, and for Illinois (SB 957, enacted 2012) that date is November 28, 2013. Requirements vary and change — accepted documents, fees, whether the card is REAL ID-compliant, and data-privacy protections differ by state; confirm current rules with your state DMV. And this is general information, not legal advice. Puerto Rico also issues licenses regardless of status (2013) and is noted but not counted among the 50 states and DC.

How often the sources update

Neither tracker publishes a schedule. What each one shows, as checked on October 10, 2026:

This dataset was built on July 22, 2026 from those versions. A law passed after a tracker’s stamp will not appear in that tracker until its publisher revises it, and it reaches this dataset only when we rebuild the file by hand; the date in the file’s _meta block is the one to cite.

How this dataset is built

• Rows: 51, one for each state and DC. Puerto Rico is described in the file’s notes but is not a row.
• Fields: state, abbr (postal code), offers (true or false), and, on the 20 rows where offers is true, enacted_year and enabling_law. A summary block counts 20 jurisdictions that offer access (19 states and DC) and 31 that do not.
• Which law is named. enabling_law is the law that first opened access, cross-checked against NCSL’s table (bill numbering can differ: Minnesota’s HF 4 appears in NCSL’s table as HB 4/SB 27). NILC’s table names a later law for some states: for New Mexico it lists HB 99 (signed March 8, 2016) and for Washington HB 5008 (2017), noting that Washington licenses “have been available to state residents regardless of immigration status for decades.” A bill number here can therefore differ from NILC’s.
• What is left out, and why. Effective dates (NCSL’s table has them; the dataset keeps only the stable enactment year), accepted documents, fees, REAL ID status and data-sharing rules. Those are set and changed by each state’s motor-vehicle agency or legislature, so a static file would go stale.

How to use this data — limits

• It is a yes-or-no map of state law, not an application guide. NCSL calls its page a brief that “provides a summary of state legislation authorizing driver’s licenses or authorization cards for unauthorized immigrants.” For what each law requires, NILC’s table is the more detailed source: “The laws are listed by state, bill number, date signed, and effective date. A description of each law, including its license eligibility requirements, is provided.”
• The trackers are dated. NCSL’s stamp is from 2023 and NILC’s from August 2025, so check your state’s motor-vehicle agency for anything newer. The site’s DMV guides by state collect each agency’s own pages.
• Card names differ. The NCSL summaries use names such as driver’s license, driver authorization card (Nevada) and driving privilege card (Delaware, Utah, Virginia); what the card can be used for follows each state’s law.

Download the data: license_access.json — all 50 states and DC, whether each issues a license regardless of status, and the enabling law.

Suggested citation: MigrantUSA, “Driver’s licenses regardless of immigration status by state, 2026,” https://migrantusa.com/datasets/driver-licenses-regardless-of-status-by-state/ (accessed [date]).

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<p style="font-size:12px">Source: <a href="https://migrantusa.com/datasets/driver-licenses-regardless-of-status-by-state/">MigrantUSA — driver's licenses by state</a></p>

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This is general information, not legal advice. License rules, documents and fees are set by each state and change. Consult an attorney for your specific situation.