Reading the Small Print on the Front of the Card

FEDERAL LIMITS APPLY is printed across the front of your card and it looks like a warning. It is closer to a filing category. It marks a California card as federally non-compliant — meaning it was not issued under the federal REAL ID standard — and that is the whole of it.

Who has this marking

Far more people than you would guess. Every California driver's license and identification card that is not a REAL ID carries it, including cards belonging to lifelong citizens who renewed by mail, never needed to fly, or simply never got around to the upgrade. Cards issued under Vehicle Code section 12801.9 carry it because AB 60 applicants cannot apply for a REAL ID compliant card. So does the card of the person who did not bring two residency documents to their renewal.

Reading the marking as a label about the holder is a mistake. It is a label about the card.

What it prevents

Two things, and the DMV states them directly. A card reading Federal Limits Apply cannot be used to board a domestic commercial flight, and it cannot be used to enter a secure federal facility — a military base, a federal courthouse, that category of building. The DMV also notes such a card may be used as photo identification, but not as evidence of legal presence in the United States.

What it does not prevent

Driving. That is the point of the card and nothing about the marking limits it. It also does not prevent you from registering a vehicle, buying insurance, opening ordinary accounts that accept a state ID, or doing anything else at the state and local level where a driver's license is the requested identification.

It does not appear on your driving record. A police officer running your license sees a valid California license. An insurer's system sees a California license number.

Why insurers do not care

Because the marking is not a rating factor and could not lawfully be one. Insurance Code section 1861.02(a) requires automobile rates to be determined by applying, in decreasing order of importance, the driver's safety record, annual mileage, and years of driving experience, followed by other factors the commissioner has adopted as substantially related to the risk of loss. The typography on the front of a card is not on that list.

Where the card does matter is administrative: a given carrier's application software may handle a license issued under section 12801.9 differently, or ask for a different accompanying identifier. That determines which company is the easy starting point, not whether you can hold a policy. Tell us what your card looks like and we will begin somewhere sensible.

If you want a card without the marking

That means a REAL ID, which requires documentation an AB 60 applicant cannot supply. If your circumstances change and you become able to document what REAL ID requires, you can upgrade at a DMV office. There is no advantage to it for driving or for insurance; the reasons to upgrade are flying and federal buildings.