III. 2025 Annual Program Review
FMCSA initiated California’s APR in August 2025 (2025 APR) in accordance with 49 U.S.C.
§ 31311 and 49 CFR 384.307. On June 23, 2025, the DMV informed FMCSA that its records
reflect that more than 62,000 drivers hold an unexpired non-domiciled CLP or CDL issued by
the California DMV, as of June 1, 2025.
During the 2025 APR, FMCSA sampled approximately 145 records of drivers issued a non-
domiciled CDL by the DMV between June and August 2025. Approximately 26 percent of the
driver records sampled failed to comply with requirements in 49 CFR parts 383 and 384.14 Even
more concerning is the fact that, for three of the transactions, the DMV was unable to provide
documentation showing that it validated the drivers’ lawful presence documents before issuing a
non-domiciled CDL. Consequently, based on the documentation provided, it appears that the
DMV issued a non-domiciled CDL to three drivers without validating their lawful presence.15
The 2025 APR uncovered evidence of systemic policy, procedural, and programming errors. In
this regard, of the driver records sampled, FMCSA found 29 transactions where the DMV issued
non-domiciled CDLs that exceeded the expiration date of the driver’s lawful presence
documents. Through discussions with DMV staff during the 2025 APR, FMCSA learned that
this error occurs for several reasons.
One reason is that if the expiration date of a driver’s lawful
presence document is not electronically populated in the DMV’s driver record, and an employee
does not notice and correct this error, the DMV’s systems will issue a non-domiciled CDL that
exceeds the expiration date of the lawful presence documents. In addition, DMV officials
speculated that employee error in handling attachments to the application might also result in the
same expiration date error. In some instances, these errors cause the DMV’s system to
erroneously calculate the expiration date of the non-domiciled CDL based on the driver’s date of
birth, rather than the expiration date of lawful presence documents.
Another recurring error discovered during the 2025 APR is the DMV’s repeated issuance of non-
domiciled CDLs to citizens of Mexico who are not present in the United States under the DACA
program. As explained in greater detail in section III(b) below, of the driver records sampled,
FMCSA found 11 transactions where the DMV issued a non-domiciled CDL to a citizen of
Mexico who is not present under DACA.
In addition, through FMCSA’s review of the DMV’s training manuals as well as discussions
with DMV personnel during the 2025 APR, the Agency discovered the DMV continues issuing
“temporary” CLPs and CDLs, and that the DMV trains its employees to do so. In this regard, the
DMV issues temporary credentials to drivers pending final determination of the driver’s
