Interstate License Reporting

The Interstate Compact is a multi-state agreement between participating states to share information and reciprocate. It covers California license suspension actions and California DUI convictions.

If a resident of one state or holder of an out-of-state license has his or her driving privilege suspended or gets convicted of DUI in another state (e.g. California), the driver's home state can be notified. Your home state may honor and reciprocate, e.g. take action to suspend the driver's license of its resident.

Even if you do not have a California driver's license and even if you do not plan to ever drive again in California, it is critical to know that a suspension of your driving privilege in California may result in a suspension of your home state driver's license. No matter where you live, you probably want to avoid, if not at least minimize, any driver's license suspension action by the California Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV).

The list of states, below, indicates whether a given state belongs to the Interstate Driver's License Compact, and if so, the year they joined. Wisconsin, Tennessee, Georgia, Massachusetts, and Michigan are all Non-compact states and should not share DUI conviction information.

If you have any specific questions about how the Interstate Compact Act may apply in your case, you may want to contact a DUI/DMV specialist in your state. States vary in their respective actions. For instance, Michigan will sanction a Michigan resident for a non-Michigan conviction. While Michigan has not enacted legislation specifically adopting the Compact; it has done so administratively and statutorily by allowing the Secretary of State to consider out of state convictions.