Each application for an original or a renewal of a driver‘s license shall contain all of the following information:

(a) (1) The applicant’s true full name, age, gender category, mailing address, residence address, and, except as provided in Section 12801, social security account number.

Terms Used In California Vehicle Code 12800

  • Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
  • Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
  • Department: means the Department of Motor Vehicles except, when used in Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 2100) of Division 2 and in Divisions 11 (commencing with Section 21000), 12 (commencing with Section 24000), 13 (commencing with Section 29000), 14 (commencing with Section 31600), 14. See California Vehicle Code 290
  • driver: is a person who drives or is in actual physical control of a vehicle. See California Vehicle Code 305
  • Highway: is a way or place of whatever nature, publicly maintained and open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel. See California Vehicle Code 360
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • motor vehicle: includes a recreational vehicle as that term is defined in subdivision (a) of §. See California Vehicle Code 415
  • Person: includes a natural person, firm, copartnership, association, limited liability company, or corporation. See California Vehicle Code 470
  • traffic: includes pedestrians, ridden animals, vehicles, street cars, and other conveyances, either singly or together, while using any highway for purposes of travel. See California Vehicle Code 620
  • vehicle: is a device by which any person or property may be propelled, moved, or drawn upon a highway, excepting a device moved exclusively by human power or used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks. See California Vehicle Code 670

(2) The applicant shall choose their gender category of female, male, or nonbinary.

(3) The department shall not require documentation for an original driver’s license applicant’s initial choice of a gender category or a licensed applicant’s request for an amendment to a gender category other than the following:

(A) The applicant’s self-certification of their chosen gender category.

(B) Documentation required by this code and the California Code of Regulations as necessary to establish that an applicant is lawfully entitled to a license.

(b) A brief description of the applicant for the purpose of identification.

(c) A legible print of the thumb or finger of the applicant.

(d) The type of motor vehicle or combination of vehicles the applicant desires to operate.

(e) Whether the applicant has ever previously been licensed as a driver and, if so, when and in what state or country and whether or not the license has been suspended or revoked and, if so, the date of and reason for the suspension or revocation.

(f) Whether the applicant has ever previously been refused a driver’s license in this state and, if so, the date of and the reason for the refusal.

(g) Whether the applicant, within the last three years, has experienced, on one or more occasions, either a lapse of consciousness or an episode of marked confusion caused by a condition that may bring about recurrent lapses, or whether the applicant has a disease, disorder, or disability that affects the applicant’s ability to exercise reasonable and ordinary control in operating a motor vehicle upon a highway.

(h) Whether the applicant understands traffic signs and signals.

(i) Whether the applicant has ever previously been issued an identification card by the department.

(j) Any other information that is necessary to enable the department to determine whether the applicant is entitled to a license under this code.

(k) (1) Commencing January 1, 2027, a statement informing the person that they may also need to change their address for purposes of their vehicle registration.

(2) The information described in paragraph (1) shall be given to the person orally if the driver’s license application or renewal is done in person.

(l) The department shall adopt regulations to provide a process for an amendment to a gender category.

(m) This section shall become operative on January 1, 2019.

(n) This section shall become inoperative on the effective date of a final judicial determination made by any court of appellate jurisdiction that any provision of the act that added this section, or its application, either in whole or in part, is enjoined, found unconstitutional, or held invalid for any reason. The department shall post this information on its internet website.

(Amended (as added by Stats. 2017, Ch. 853, Sec. 16) by Stats. 2022, Ch. 969, Sec. 1. (AB 2594) Effective January 1, 2023. Section operative January 1, 2019, by its own provisions, if a judicial determination as described in subd. (n) has not taken effect. Conditionally inoperative as provided in subd. (n). If a judicial determination as described in subd. (n) takes effect on or after January 1, 2019, see the later operative section amended by Sec. 2 of Stats. 2022, of Ch. 969.)

  Previous section
Next section  
 Article 3 Contents