So how long does it take to get a title or registration for a vehicle from the DMV? How about months? Well, that’s a little bit of a teaser because it doesn’t always take a month but here’s an article from WRAL News in North Carolina, where their own Department Of Motor Vehicles is saying they’re acknowledging that customers are experiencing extreme wait times from a backlog from the pandemic and a lot of the positions in the organization are vacant. Hiring problems don’t just exist in the public, the government faces the same problem. This is just one state but it’s an example of what you might find in your state. Remember, this is not in the middle of the pandemic, this is November of 2022. Getting a title or driver’s license or registration is an important event, you need that to drive your car. What can you do to speed up the process?
Well, first of all, make sure the paperwork is correct when it’s submitted. If you send something to the DMV, even if it’s a three-week wait time, but there’s something wrong with it, you have to wait three weeks to find out something’s wrong with it. Then fix it, then send it back in and then wait another three weeks. Sometimes the rejections take longer than a successful title. Here’s why. If you send in a package and it’s correct, it goes through the proper channels of issuing a title. If it’s incorrect, the first person in the department that gets it this supposed to issue a title. They see that it’s erroneous and they don’t just send it back, they pass it along to basically their supervisors to make sure that it’s really incorrect. They don’t want to just reject it right off the bat, they want somebody else to look at it to make sure they’re right. So sometimes you might have to wait longer to find out something is wrong than you would have if it was right in the first place. As an example, we find in the state of Vermont, if you send in the properly completed paperwork, you might get it back in 10 to 14 business days. If you send in erroneous paperwork, you might have to wait three weeks to find out that it’s wrong. So make sure your paperwork is correct.
What’s another strategy? Well, sometimes if you go in person to the DMV office closest to you, you might think that’s going to be faster, but maybe not. That office that’s closest to you might be a branch office, they might not actually process documents in the office. You might think Well if I go there in person I can walk out with my paperwork, it doesn’t work that way. Not every office is designed to actually process paperwork, they’re usually just reception desks in many states. The main branch is usually in the state Capitol in North Carolina it’d be Raleigh, in some states it’s in a different city than the Capitol, like in Connecticut it’s Weathersfield which is next door to the Capitol of Hartford, but that’s where their main branch is. Sometimes we find if you send it by mail to the main branch of the DMV, you will actually get faster results than if you try to walk in and make an appointment. So try using that as a strategy. Plus if there is something wrong with it, that’s where they determine it. You’ll get it sent back right away. If they find a problem at a branch they might have to send it to the main office have them review it and then send it back to you. If you mail it directly to the main office, you might find out instantly if you have to get more paperwork.
So be prepared for delays and try to work around them. Remember, a title is a legal government document issued only by a government agency. You can’t buy one from a company. You can’t download one from the internet. It has to come from that agency and it’s considered a legal document. So make sure your paperwork is correct, submit it correctly, and get your title as fast as possible.