What to do if you lost your driver's license, and is it possible to drive?

This article will talk about the unpleasant situation that some car owners have to face, namely the loss of their driver’s license. At the same time, the mood is spoiled both by the loss of the document itself and by the recovery procedures that need to be done in the future.

In this case, it does not matter what happened to the old ID: whether it was lost due to negligence, stolen by your ill-wishers, or lost due to a natural disaster.

The main task of the driver in any case is the timely restoration of lost rights, because Without this document, driving vehicles is impossible.

Let's consider the actions that need to be taken in 2021 to restore a driver's license if lost:

• What to do if you lose your driver's license?
• Obtaining a temporary permit to drive a car.
• Driver's license restoration: Where to go?
• What documents are needed?
• What is the price?
• Receiving a discount.
• Exams passage.

To begin with, I would like to note that a driver’s license, like all other personal documents, must be stored in a sufficiently secure place to minimize the possibility of its loss or theft. However, this phrase is little consolation for a person who has already lost his rights and does not know what to do.

What to do if you lose your driver's license?

The first action that needs to be taken in the absence of a driver’s license, no matter how paradoxical it may sound, is that you need to make sure whether the license is really missing .

Try to remember where and under what conditions you last saw or could use a document, examine the relevant places:

• clothing pockets;
• bags and wallets;
• vehicle interior;
• shelves and bedside tables where documents, keys, phones, etc. are usually stored.

Don’t be surprised, but I know of dozens of cases where a driver’s license simply fell under a car seat or behind a sofa, and was found only after receiving a duplicate from the traffic police.

If the driver can find the license on his own, he will save on paying the state fee and will not lose at least one day of time. In general, it will be much more effective to “rummage” through the entire apartment than to immediately contact the examination department of the traffic police.

Naturally, it makes sense to search for rights only if you have lost them. If the document is stolen and you are sure of it, then there is no point in looking for it under the chest of drawers.

If your driver's license is stolen, you can contact the nearest police station with a corresponding statement. Whether to do this or not is up to you. In this case, I can only say that such an appeal will take up your time, and whether it will lead to any results is a big question.

If the lost license was not found on your own, you must contact the traffic police to obtain a new document.

Recovery not at your place of residence

Today, it is not uncommon for a citizen to live far from his official place of residence. What to do if he lost his driver's license far from home? After all, according to the regulations, the crust needs to be restored only at the local traffic police department, at your residence address.

And indeed it is. The motorist will not receive a new license in any other MREO structure. But he can submit all the necessary certificates and papers for verification at the nearest multifunctional center.

Unlike the traffic police, it does not have a territorial connection to the driver, although otherwise the entire procedure for restoring rights through the MFC occurs the same way. The only disadvantage of this option is that you will still have to go to the traffic police department located at your place of registration to get a new license. Therefore, it is better not to lose your rights far from home.

Driver's license restoration:

Where to contact?

The first important question is where you can restore your driver’s license if it is lost. Currently, this can be done in any traffic police department in the country:

3. Conducting examinations for persons permanently residing in the Russian Federation, issuing Russian national and international driver’s licenses and exchanging foreign driver’s licenses are carried out in the departments of the State Traffic Inspectorate at the place of application of these persons.

Conducting examinations for persons temporarily residing or temporarily staying on the territory of the Russian Federation, issuing Russian national and international driver's licenses and exchanging foreign driver's licenses are carried out in departments of the State Traffic Inspectorate located within the constituent entity of the Russian Federation in which these persons temporarily reside or are temporarily staying.

In this case, it does not matter whether you have registration at your place of residence (propiska) in the selected subject of the Federation. Rights will be restored in any case.

What documents are needed?

To restore a driver’s license to replace a lost one, you must provide the traffic police with the documents listed in paragraph 30 of the rules for conducting examinations for the right to drive vehicles and issuing driver’s licenses:

30. To issue a Russian national driver's license to replace a previously issued Russian national driver's license, the applicant provides the following documents:

a) statement; b) passport or other identity document; c) medical report. In the cases provided for in subparagraphs “b” - “d” and “f” of paragraph 29 of these Rules and subparagraph “d” of this paragraph, a medical report is provided at the request of the applicant; d) Russian national driver's license (if available); e) diplomatic, consular, service cards or certificates issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation - in the case where the applicants are employees of diplomatic missions and consular offices of foreign states in the Russian Federation and members of their families, employees of international organizations and their representative offices accredited with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, and members of their families; f) a document confirming the availability of a benefit for paying state duty - for persons who, in accordance with the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, have a benefit for paying state duty.

Statement. In this case, the application must indicate that you are asking for a driver’s license to replace the lost/stolen one. Detailed information on completing the application is provided in this article.

A passport is necessary so that employees can verify that it is the driver who is applying to obtain a license.

A medical certificate currently not required . You can find out more about this in the article “Cancellation of a medical certificate when replacing rights.”

However, the certificate can be provided to the traffic police at the driver's request . If there is a certificate, new rights are issued for the full term, i.e. for 10 years.

Driver's license. It will not be possible to provide this document to the traffic police, as it is lost.

A document confirming completion of training in 2021 is not required, because... all information about issued rights is contained in the traffic police database. However, if the license was issued a long time ago, it makes sense to take your driver’s card with you.

In this case, we are talking about the loss of rights issued 20 or more years ago, when the traffic police did not yet use databases.

Such cases are quite rare, because licenses are valid for 10 years and 99 percent of drivers make changes in a timely manner.

What is the price?

In addition to the documents listed above, to obtain a new certificate you will need to pay the appropriate state fee:

431) for issuing a national driver’s license, including replacing a lost or unusable one:

made from plastic-based consumables - 2,000 rubles;

made from new generation plastic-based consumables - 3,000 rubles;

In 2021, only plastic driver's licenses will be issued in the Russian Federation. At the same time, for issuing a new generation document (with a built-in storage medium) you will have to pay 3,000 rubles, for issuing ordinary plastic licenses - 2,000 rubles .

Receiving a discount

When restoring your ID through the government services portal, you can get a 30 percent discount on the state fee. Those. The production of a driver's license in this case will cost 1,400 rubles . The discount is valid from January 1, 2021 to January 1, 2023. You can find out more about it in this article.

Please note that the document confirming payment of the state fee is not in the list above, but I recommend taking it with you. The fact is that before issuing a license, the traffic police inspector must receive information about the payment through the system of interdepartmental interaction. However, in practice, electronic failures are possible, the payment may not be processed in time, etc. This, in turn, may cause a delay in the restoration of the ID. So take your payment receipt with you, it's easy.

Once all documents have been submitted, you must wait for the new driver's license to be issued.

Exams

you do not need to take qualifying exams , i.e. You can forget about traffic rules exam tickets at this stage with a clear conscience.

Filling out an application - what information needs to be included in the text

1. The header of the document must contain the number of the traffic police department where it (the document) is submitted. As a rule, the application is submitted to the department that was busy executing the decision to deprive the driver of a driver’s license, but it will not be a violation to apply to another traffic police department. The main thing here is to notify the inspectorate of the fact of loss of rights.
2. In addition, the header must contain all information about the applicant driver (full name, full address and contact phone number)
3. The text of the document must state the essence of the problem, namely: indicate that a particular driver is asking to begin counting the period of deprivation of rights without the procedure for surrendering the license, since they have been lost. This phrase will be quite sufficient, however, the text can be supplemented with information regarding the court ruling (indicated in brackets in the given example). This will simplify the task for traffic police officers, who will be able to quickly figure out exactly what case this statement relates to.
4. Below the text you should put a personal signature, as well as the date the document was completed.

For how long is a new certificate issued?

The new driver’s license will differ from the stolen one only in that the word “Duplicate” will be entered in the special notes column. The rights will be valid until exactly the same date as the previous ones. Those. restored rights are issued not for 10 years, but for a shorter period .

Starting from April 4, 2021, it is possible to obtain a renewed certificate for the full term, i.e. for 10 years . To do this, you need to provide a medical certificate to the traffic police.

How to fill it out

There are no requirements for the application process other than its format. Filling can be done manually of any type and type.

But it is important that the data reflected in the application be as accurate as possible. Verification is carried out using electronic databases.

If there is an error in the application, the likelihood of documents being accepted will be significantly reduced.

You can simply download the application via the Internet. Then enter all the necessary data into it and print it. In this way, the likelihood of making mistakes will be reduced to a minimum.

An example of such a statement can also be obtained directly from any traffic police department. The institution’s employees will provide all the necessary advice in this case. It is best to work out this point in advance.

Read about the rules for passing qualifying exams and issuing driving licenses here.

My driver's license was stolen: should I contact the police?

There is no consensus among experienced drivers about whether it is necessary to file a claim that your license has been stolen. On the one hand, their abduction is recognized as a crime and is punishable under Article 325 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, therefore the internal affairs bodies must be notified of the incident.

On the other hand, if your driver's license is stolen, it is easier to report the loss than to initiate a criminal case. In the first case, the license will be issued after 2 months, in the second - after the case is closed. Remember that crimes involving the theft of car documents are rarely solved, and therefore sometimes it is better to abandon the idea of ​​​​punishing the culprit and take care of your own comfort.

Your license was stolen: how to restore it?

If your license and car documents were stolen, to obtain new ones you need to go to the same structure that issued the first copy - the Interdistrict Registration and Examination Department of the Traffic Police at your place of residence or registration. To obtain a duplicate, you must pay a state fee of 2,000 rubles. This can be done at a bank branch or directly in the MREO building: there are usually special terminals there.

To restore your rights, you will need the following documents:

1. resolution from the internal affairs bodies;
2. passport;
3. medical certificate;
4. receipt of payment of the fee;
5. document confirming the driver's qualifications.

If you were unable to find the last item on the list, do not delay your visit to the traffic police. The government agency can issue new licenses without it by making a request to the traffic police department that issued the first copy.

You will also need two photographs 3 by 4 cm. Most MREO offices have the opportunity to take photos at the time of submitting documents, but if you are not sure about this, it is better to take them with you.

To obtain a duplicate of a stolen license, you do not need to confirm your qualifications and driving skills.

To quickly recover a lost or stolen document, you must:

1. Immediately after the loss is discovered, you must visit the traffic police department and fill out a statement. From this moment on, the driver's license will be considered lost. This will help avoid misunderstandings in the event that a criminal wants to use them for personal purposes, and will relieve responsibility for all violations recorded after filing the application.
2. The inspector needs to be informed what things were missing along with the driver’s license, at what time this approximately happened, and whether there are any suspects. It is also worth remembering all the details of what happened to you at this time.
3. Next, the police will find out whether your license was actually stolen or whether you lost it. After this, a decision is issued to initiate a criminal case or to refuse it.
4. Next, you need to pay a state fee of 2000 rubles.
5. To restore your driver's license, you should contact the traffic police with a resolution, receipt, application, passport and an extract from a driving school on successful completion of driving courses.

After your license has been stolen, a temporary certificate is issued for the period of its restoration, with which you can drive. The procedure takes up to 2 months.

If your driver's license has not expired, you do not need to undergo a medical examination or take a re-exam.

Can't visit the traffic police department? Fill out the application on the State Services portal:

1. Go to the section.
2. Next, select “Replacement of driver’s license due to loss.”
3. After this, you will be given the opportunity to familiarize yourself with the conditions for replacing the document and the timing of the service.
4. If you agree to the terms, click the “Get service” button.
5. Next, indicate which category of rights you have.
6. Select the address of the traffic police department where it will be convenient for you to obtain a new license.
7. Select a available date and time.
8. Click "Submit".

Your request will be registered and reviewed within 1–2 days. The advantage of submitting an application through the State Services portal is that you can do this without a personal visit to the traffic police department and pay the state fee with a 30% discount.

The driver needs to know what to do to restore his license. In general, it is not difficult to obtain a new document, and the procedure does not take much time. Naturally, we are talking about a situation where a citizen does not want to look for an attacker. In this case, it will be possible to obtain a certificate within a day, or in rare cases within a few days. It all depends on the efficiency of government employees and their workload.

The following documents must be prepared:

1. National passport.
2. Completed application. It can also be written on the spot.
3. Photo. It is often done at the traffic police department.
4. Driver's card.
5. Receipt for payment of state duty. The paper version costs 800 rubles, and the plastic version costs 2,000 rubles.
6. A document from the police, if the person applied there.

After this, all that remains is to submit the documents to the traffic police and wait until they are checked and a duplicate is issued. But if the person is a foreigner, then the procedure will be more complicated for him. Often citizens of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Spain, Ukraine and other countries move around Russia with international rights. If they are lost, there are two options for the development of events: undergo training at a Russian driving school or go to your home country to obtain a license. Both options will require financial costs, because studying is paid, and the trip home will not be cheap.