DMV to stay with appointment system

Published 3:43 pm Monday, May 17, 2021

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In line with Gov. Ralph Northam’s announcement to ease current COVID-19 restrictions, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) will open more windows in its customer service centers beginning June 1, creating 184,000 additional appointment opportunities across the commonwealth.

Customers can begin to schedule these new appointments this week. Additional windows will open in stages on June 1, June 15 and in July as DMV continues to hire and train new employees to expand appointment availability, adding to the more than 530,000 appointments Virginians already have scheduled over the next three months.

“Virginians have told us they appreciate the convenience and high quality service the appointment system affords,” Commissioner Richard D. Holcomb said. “The governor’s announcement today enables us to open more windows so customers can secure appointments sooner, but we are still taking great care to offer service that is safe for everyone.”

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Customer service centers and mobile operations teams continue to operate by appointment only for specific services which generally necessitate an in-person visit. Appointment opportunities are currently available for a 90-day period.

DMV is conducting more transactions across all service channels now than pre-pandemic. The vast majority of the 15 million transactions conducted since DMV started reopening customer service centers in May 2020 have been completed by service delivery methods other than at an office, such as online or by mail. Prior to the pandemic, DMV conducted an average of 309,000 transactions per week statewide across all service channels. Last week, the agency completed more than 365,000; of those, only about 73,000 were done in a customer service center.