How to Complete and Submit the New York PD-7 Plate Surrender Form

The New York PD-7 plate surrender form is a one-page DMV application you mail in with your physical license plates when you no longer need them. It has three fields and takes about a minute to fill out. What matters is the order of operations: New York requires you to surrender the plates before your insurance is canceled, because any day the vehicle is registered without coverage counts as an insurance lapse and starts stacking civil penalties.¹

Filling Out the PD-7

Download the PD-7 as a PDF from the New York DMV website.² The form asks for three things:

The full license plate number stamped on your plates.
The plate class — the three-letter code printed above the plate number on your registration document (PAS for passenger, COM for commercial, TRL for trailer, MOT for motorcycle, and so on).
The first three letters of the last name or company name shown on the registration.

There is no signature line, no address field, and no section asking why you are surrendering. Fill out a separate PD-7 for each set of plates you are returning.³ If you are returning plates from two vehicles, complete two forms and put both sets of plates in the same envelope.

The plate class code is what people get wrong most often. If you no longer have your registration document, the code also appears on your most recent renewal notice. A wrong code slows processing, and delay pushes you closer to a lapse.

Where to Mail the Form and Plates

Plate surrender in New York is handled by mail. Put the completed PD-7 and your physical plates in an envelope (the DMV specifically says no boxes) and send it to:³

NYS DMV
6 Empire State Plaza, Room B240
Albany, NY 12228

There is no fee. Do not include payment.² Use a mail service with tracking and delivery confirmation. The postmark date on your envelope is the official surrender date the DMV uses, not the day Albany receives the package.³ That same postmark date is what the DMV compares against your insurance cancellation date, so drop the envelope in the mail before your policy ends.

Why the Timing Matters

As long as a vehicle is registered in New York, you must carry liability insurance on it.¹ If your insurer reports a policy termination while the plates are still active, the DMV counts every day of that gap as a lapse. Civil penalties escalate with time:⁴

Days 1 through 30: $8 per day.
Days 31 through 60: $10 per day.
Days 61 through 90: $12 per day.

A full 90-day lapse totals $840. You can pay the penalty and clear the resulting registration suspension if the lapse is 90 days or fewer, but only once every 36 months.⁴ If the lapse runs past 90 days, the DMV suspends your driver license, and you lose the option to pay your way out; the suspension then runs until the lapse period ends.⁵

The safe sequence is: mail the plates first, confirm the postmark, then cancel the policy.

If Your Plates Are Lost, Stolen, or Destroyed

You cannot skip surrender just because you no longer have the physical plates, and this is the one situation where the process is not a mail-in with a PD-7. If both plates are missing (or the single plate on a vehicle that only gets one, such as a motorcycle), you handle it in person:⁶

For plates lost, stolen, or destroyed in New York, ask a New York State police agency to complete a Report of Lost, Stolen or Confiscated Motor Vehicle Items (form MV-78B). That form is only available from law enforcement.
For plates lost outside New York, get a report on the letterhead of a police agency in the state where it happened.

Bring the report to a local DMV office to surrender the registration. If a police agency refuses to give you a report, complete a Certification of Lost License, Permit, or Plates (form MV-1441.3), which is on the DMV website, including the date you requested the police report and the name of the agency that denied it.⁶

The FS-6T Receipt

After the DMV processes your plates, it mails you a plate surrender receipt on form FS-6T. Allow 21 days from the date you mailed the plates.³ The receipt goes to the address on file with your registration, so if you have moved, update your address with the DMV before surrendering.

The FS-6T is your proof that the vehicle is no longer actively registered. Keep it for several years. It is the document you show your insurance company to support cancellation without a reported lapse, and if any dispute over a gap ever comes up, the FS-6T and your postmarked mailing receipt are the two documents that resolve it.

Refunds and Transfer Credits

Depending on when you surrender, you may get part of your registration fee back. Most passenger vehicles carry two-year registrations, and the refund tracks how far in you are:⁷

Within 60 days of issuance: full registration fee refund, minus $1 processing. The sticker must be unused; peeling one off does not qualify.
During the first year: 50% of the registration fee, minus $1 processing.
During the second year: no refund.

One-year registrations, including motorcycles, snowmobiles, and trailers, are not eligible for any refund. Plate fees, title certificate fees, and taxes paid at registration are also non-refundable.⁷

If you qualify, the DMV mails the refund check with your FS-6T. You do not need to file a separate refund application in standard cases. If you are replacing one vehicle with another rather than leaving the road entirely, you can transfer the remaining registration time to the new vehicle’s original registration instead of taking cash back; the new registration then expires on the same date as the old one.⁷

1
New York Department of Motor Vehicles. Insurance Lapses
2
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. PD-7 Plate Surrender Application
3
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. Surrender (Return or Turn-in) Your Vehicle Plates and Registration
4
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. Pay an Insurance Lapse Civil Penalty
5
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. 15 CRR-NY 34.11 – Warning on Notice or Acknowledgment of Termination to Insured
6
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. Lost, Stolen or Destroyed Plates
7
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. Refunds and Transfer Credits for Surrendered Plates