What do people who cross the Border to the US do, if they are driving on US expired plates here?

What do people do who cross the Border into the US, if they are driving on US expired plates?

John:

Assuming that you will be crossing into Texas, it might be helpful to look at the following site: https://vision21.txdmv.gov/Vehicle/VehicleLookupForPermit.aspx

While there have been plenty of stories about people leaving Mexico with expired plates and driving just about anywhere including Canada without any hassles. Myself, I would prefer to jump through the hoops and obtain some sort of official document allowing me to drive a car from point A to B.

We had expired Canadian plates on our car when we drove it out of Mexico this past September, through the U.S. and into Canada. Never had a problem (and we took 10 days on our drive to sightsee). Even stopped in Texas to ask directions from a State police with our car plates clearly visible to the cops. They either didn't notice or couldn't be bothered to say anything about the expired plates. Prior to leaving, I did try to get a permit from the Department of Motor Vehicles in Ontario, Canada for the expired plates to enable us to drive it legally but was caught in a "catch 22" situation because they insisted we have the car insured through an Ontario insurance company and of course, they wouldn't insured it because it didn't have current plates. So we took our chances and had a wonderful road trip!

Irish Gal wrote:We had expired Canadian plates on our car when we drove it out of Mexico this past September, through the U.S. and into Canada. Never had a problem (and we took 10 days on our drive to sightsee). Even stopped in Texas to ask directions from a State police with our car plates clearly visible to the cops. They either didn't notice or couldn't be bothered to say anything about the expired plates. Prior to leaving, I did try to get a permit from the Department of Motor Vehicles in Ontario, Canada for the expired plates to enable us to drive it legally but was caught in a "catch 22" situation because they insisted we have the car insured through an Ontario insurance company and of course, they wouldn't insured it because it didn't have current plates. So we took our chances and had a wonderful road trip!

I wouldn't drive without insurance in the US; too many lawyers up there.

You can get a ticket for starters..

No inspection sticker... Ticket
No current registration.. Ticket
No Insurance,, could impound your car..
No US Current DL.. Jail
Outstanding warrants... Jail

Better have a good explanation.. State Troopers and State HWY Patrol are reasonable.

Small town Hick Cop/ Equal A-Hole
A-hole Yankees from Mexico w/ an attitude...They are not fond of ....

I am being serious..

Texas loves to write tickets and put people in jail!!! Income for the state/ county

WELCOME TO TEXAS... Watch out if you go to Louisiana..

espiritu - You don't need a State DL to operate a vehicle in the US. My current Mexican license should do.

You might get questions, I mean you will if you get pulled over in a small town.

Good Luck

Sideways wrote:

Irish Gal wrote:We had expired Canadian plates on our car when we drove it out of Mexico this past September, through the U.S. and into Canada. Never had a problem (and we took 10 days on our drive to sightsee). Even stopped in Texas to ask directions from a State police with our car plates clearly visible to the cops. They either didn't notice or couldn't be bothered to say anything about the expired plates. Prior to leaving, I did try to get a permit from the Department of Motor Vehicles in Ontario, Canada for the expired plates to enable us to drive it legally but was caught in a "catch 22" situation because they insisted we have the car insured through an Ontario insurance company and of course, they wouldn't insured it because it didn't have current plates. So we took our chances and had a wonderful road trip!

I wouldn't drive without insurance in the US; too many lawyers up there.

Sorry, I left out one important piece of information about insurance for this trip. I was able to obtain a 30-day insurance policy for liability through Tio Corp. at Lakeside before we left. I believe the maximum coverage was for $300,000 U.S. to cover us from the U.S. border and into Canada. I would have preferred a higher liability but that was the maximum we could get. We sold the car before the 30 days was up.

Was your car legally registered with current plates to get the insurance?

The ownership of our car was legally registered in Ontario since 2002, although the sticker for the plates was not current as the car would have had to have an emissions test in Ontario before we could get that. Prior to selling the car in Canada, we had a safety check, got the emissions test which brought it in good standing in Ontario. We were able to get insurance here for the return trip and the insurance company was aware of the status.

This comes from working for a City Attorney in a previous life. Unless the states have reciprocity laws, and very few do, the ticket is just a piece of paper. The state can't collect a fine on an out of state car and they know it. Take the ticket, be charming and polite and use it for TP. Drive carefully and stay on the Interstate. As long as you have insurance, you should be fine.