Veh. Code, § 12817 · Article 3. Issuance and Renewal of Licenses
Veh. Code, § 12817
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) A California driver’s license held by a person who enters or is in the United States Armed Forces shall continue in full force and effect, so long as the service continues and the person remains absent from this state, and for a period not to exceed 30 days following the date the holder of the license is honorably separated from that service or returns to this state, whichever is earlier, unless the license was suspended, canceled, or revoked for cause as provided by law. The license is valid only if it is in the immediate possession of the licensee and the licensee has in their immediate possession discharge or separation papers if the licensee has been discharged or separated from that service.
(b) A California driver’s license held by a spouse of a person described in subdivision (a) shall continue in full force and effect, so long as the person described in subdivision (a) continues in the service and remains absent from this state and the spouse remains absent from this state, and for a period not to exceed 30 days following the date the person described in subdivision (a) is honorably separated from that service or the date that the person or the spouse returns to this state, whichever is earlier, unless the spouse’s license was suspended, canceled, or revoked for cause as provided by law. The license is valid only if it is in the immediate possession of the licensee and the licensee has in their immediate possession discharge or separation papers of the person described in subdivision (a).
(c) A California driver’s license held by a person who enters or is in the United States Foreign Service shall continue in full force and effect, so long as the service continues and the person remains absent from this state, and for a period not to exceed 30 days following the date the holder of the license returns to this state, unless the license was suspended, canceled, or revoked for cause as provided by law. The license is valid only if it is in the immediate possession of the licensee and the licensee has in their immediate possession verification of active service papers.
(d) A California driver’s license held by a spouse of a person described in subdivision (c) shall continue in full force and effect, so long as the person described in subdivision (c) continues in the service and remains absent from this state and the spouse remains absent from this state, and for a period not to exceed 30 days following the date the person described in subdivision (c) or the spouse returns to this state, unless the spouse’s license was suspended, canceled, or revoked for cause as provided by law. The license is valid only if it is in the immediate possession of the licensee and the licensee has in their immediate possession verification of active service papers of the person described in subdivision (c).
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2019, Ch. 503, Sec. 1. (SB 267) Effective January 1, 2020.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH§ionNum=12817.
- Text hash
- sha256 9fc42f92e75fcfceaf53368ccf77853dd052a375d83ef565c379f198a7dbb710
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.