Within 30 days of becoming a resident
1. Driver license
Get a Florida driver license in person at a driver license office or a county tax collector. Some offices take walk-ins. Some are appointment only.
Florida treats you as a resident when you start work here, put your children in a Florida public school, register to vote, file for homestead, or live here more than six months in a row.
Bring originals
- Proof of identity. For a U.S. citizen that can be a birth certificate, a valid U.S. passport or passport card, a Consular Report of Birth Abroad, or a Certificate of Naturalization. An out-of-state license does not count as that proof.
- Proof of your Social Security number. A Social Security card, a printed W-2, a pay stub, an SSA-1099, or a 1099.
- Two different proofs of your Florida home address. Examples the state lists include a deed, a mortgage, a lease, a utility bill from the last 60 days, a Florida voter card, or a Florida vehicle registration.
- Every name-change paper from your birth name to the name you use now, if your name changed.
At the counter
Everyone takes a vision test. With a valid out-of-state license you may be eligible to skip the written test and the road test.
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| First Florida Class E license | $48.00 |
| Tax collector service fee, at most offices | $6.25 |
| Florida ID card, if you need one instead | $25.00 |
The pages read for this guide do not say whether you turn in your old license. Ask at the counter.
Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, new residents and fees. The same 30 days is in Florida Statutes section 322.031 for a nonresident who takes a job or puts children in public school.
Before you title or register the car
2. Car insurance
Florida insurance has to come from an agent licensed to sell it in Florida. Bring proof of that policy when you register the car.
| Required coverage | At least |
|---|---|
| Personal injury protection | $10,000 |
| Property damage liability | $10,000 |
That minimum is for a vehicle with four or more wheels. A lender or a lease can ask for more.
FLHSMV, insurance and new residents.
10 days after you establish residency, on the new-resident page
3. Title, registration, and plates
Title and register the car, boat, or mobile home at a tax collector or motor vehicle service center. Do the license and the insurance first. The office uses them as proof.
Bring
- The original out-of-state title.
- Proof of identity for every owner.
- Proof of Florida insurance.
- Form HSMV 82040, the title application. Every owner signs it.
- Form HSMV 82042, the VIN and odometer check. Someone has to look at the VIN on the car. That person can be a law enforcement officer, a military police officer, a licensed Florida dealer, or a tax collector employee or FLHSMV compliance examiner.
If a bank in another state holds the title, ask that bank in writing to send the title to Florida. You still register the car. If the bank will not release the title, a letter on the bank’s letterhead is what the service center asks to see.
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Initial registration, the first time this vehicle is registered in Florida | $225.00 |
| Electronic title, new vehicle | $77.25 |
| Electronic title, used vehicle | $85.25 |
| Paper title, if you want one printed | $2.50 |
| Base registration tax for a car, by weight | $14.50 to $32.50 |
Other registration fees are added to the weight tax. The fee page is the full list.
Plate choices
Standard
You pick a county-name plate where that county offers one, “Sunshine State,” or “In God We Trust.”
Specialty
The FLHSMV website says Florida offers over 100 specialty plates. Each one supports a cause, a school, or a group, and each one has an extra yearly fee. A procedure from the same agency, RS-22 revised October 2026, lists 76 and shows yearly fees of $15, $20, $22, $23, and $25. Use the plate list to browse.
Personalized
An extra $15 a year. Up to 7 characters on a center-design plate, plus a space or a hyphen. Up to 5 characters on a left-design plate. Most plates can be personalized, including specialty plates. A “yes” on the word check is not final until the plate is ordered. Order in person with form HSMV 83043. The agency’s RS-27 procedure says the plate takes about 45 days to make.
A boat
A motorized boat on Florida public waters is titled and registered at the tax collector. A boat registered in another state is honored for up to 90 days in a row. The new-resident 10-day rule names boats too.
See the fee page Specialty plates Check a plate word
Two FLHSMV pages do not use the same number of days. The new-resident page says title and register within 10 days. The renew-registration page says 30 days. Section 320.38 says 10 days after you take a job here or enroll children in a Florida public school, if the vehicle will be driven on Florida roads.
After you move to a new address inside Florida, change the address on the license and on the registration within 30 days. That can be done in the MyDMV Portal or in person.
FLHSMV new residents, fees, plates and registration, personalized plates, vessels, and name and address changes. The $225 fee is also in section 320.072.
29 days before the election you want to vote in
4. Register to vote
You can register online, or at the driver license office on the same visit as the license. You can also register at a tax collector, a public library, or your county Supervisor of Elections.
- Online, have your Florida driver license or Florida ID number and the date it was issued, plus the last 4 digits of your Social Security number.
- If you do not have a Florida license or ID yet, Florida Statutes section 97.053 still lets you register with the last 4 digits of your Social Security number.
Online registration stays open until 11:59 p.m. Eastern on the deadline day. Broward’s Supervisor of Elections prints that cutoff.
Florida primaries are closed. You vote only in your own party’s primary. A party change has to be on file at least 29 days before that primary.
After you move inside Florida, update the address with your county Supervisor of Elections. Online, by phone, or in writing.
Section 97.055 (the 29-day book closing), section 97.053 (what the application needs), and section 101.021 (closed primary). The Division of Elections page on dos.fl.gov did not open when this page was written. The statewide registration site is the one linked above.
Before you move in
5. Power company
You do not pick the electric company. The address does. Florida has three kinds, and the Public Service Commission maps all of them. The commission says the maps are approximate. Call the utility and confirm the address.
- Investor-owned: Florida Power & Light, including the Northwest Division; Duke Energy Florida; Tampa Electric; and Florida Public Utilities.
- City utilities: 34 of them. Jacksonville’s is JEA. Orlando’s is the Orlando Utilities Commission. Gainesville Regional Utilities and the City of Tallahassee are city utilities too.
- Rural cooperatives: 17 of them, including Clay Electric, Withlacoochee River Electric, Sumter Electric, Lee County Electric, and Peace River Electric.
FPL
The start-service form asks for the service address, the start date, an email, and an ID. The ID can be a Social Security number, a license, or a tax ID, and FPL marks it optional. If FPL asks for a deposit, the deposit page says it is two months of expected use, refunded with interest.
Tampa Electric
A deposit of about twice the average monthly bill may be required. It can be waived after a credit review, with 24 months of good payment history, or with a guarantor.
Florida Public Utilities
An online form asks for your contact details and the service address.
Duke Energy Florida
Duke’s pages answered “access denied” when this guide was written, so no Duke deposit or start-service detail is copied here. Start at duke-energy.com and read their own page.
Open the utility map Start FPL Tampa Electric deposits
Florida Public Service Commission electric map. FPL service order and residential deposits. Tampa Electric deposit options. Florida Public Utilities start, stop, or transfer.
Before your first toll road
6. SunPass
SunPass is the state’s prepaid toll account. It is run through Florida’s Turnpike. Without a transponder, Toll-By-Plate photographs the plate and mails a bill to the owner.
| Transponder | Price |
|---|---|
| SunPass Mini. A sticker. It stays on that windshield. | $4.99 + tax |
| SunPass PRO. It can move between cars and works on a motorcycle. | $14.95 + tax |
Buy one at a store the Turnpike names (Publix, CVS Pharmacy, and Walgreens), at a SunPass walk-in center, by phone at 1-888-865-5352, or online. A transponder from a store is activated online or in the app. The SunPass user manual says you enter the plate number and put at least $10 on the account to open it. That same manual adds a $2.50 administrative charge on each Toll-By-Plate invoice.
The current Turnpike interoperability page says the Mini and the PRO work in Florida, Georgia, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Texas, and the PRO also works wherever E-ZPass is accepted. A SunPass user manual from March 2022 lists fewer states. The Turnpike page is the newer one.
Florida’s Turnpike, SunPass and interoperability.
Own the home and live in it by January 1. File by March 1.
7. Homestead exemption
This is a property-tax exemption on the home you own and use as your permanent home. File Form DR-501 with your county property appraiser. Many counties take it online.
Do the license, the car registration, and voter registration before you file. The Department of Revenue says the appraiser may ask for your Florida driver license or ID number, your Florida vehicle registration, your Florida voter information, and proof you gave up residency in the old state.
| What it does | Amount |
|---|---|
| Taken off the home’s taxable value | Up to $50,000 |
| First portion, off all property taxes, school taxes included | $25,000 |
| Second portion, only on value over $50,000, and only off non-school taxes. Adjusted for inflation. | $25,000 base |
Volusia County’s current table shows that second portion at up to $26,411 because of the inflation adjustment. Your county’s appraiser has the figure for your county.
After the first year, Save Our Homes caps the rise in assessed value. It can go up by 3 percent, or by the change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is less.
Portability applies when you leave an earlier Florida homestead. File Form DR-501T by March 1. A homestead in another state does not carry over.
Read the homestead brochure Find your property appraiser
Florida Department of Revenue, brochure PT-113 and Save Our Homes brochure PT-112.
Before you do business in Florida
8. Sunbiz, if you have a business
Sunbiz is the Florida Division of Corporations. You file online. A filing cannot be changed or refunded once it is submitted. Sunbiz’s own fee pages answered “access denied” when this guide was written, so the dollar amounts below are the ones printed in the Florida Statutes.
| Filing | Statute fee |
|---|---|
| New Florida LLC. $100 articles plus $25 to name a registered agent. | $125 |
| New Florida corporation. $35 articles plus $35 to name a registered agent. | $70 |
| Company formed in another state, registering here as a foreign LLC. $100 plus $25 for the agent. | $125 |
| Fictitious name, when the public name is not your legal name. | $50 |
| Annual report late fee, after May 1. | $400 |
What else the statutes require
- Every Florida LLC, and every foreign LLC registered here, needs a registered agent with a Florida street address.
- A foreign LLC also files a certificate of existence from its home state, dated no more than 90 days before the Florida filing.
- A fictitious name needs a notice published once in a newspaper in the county, before you register it. The registration lasts through December 31 of the fifth year.
- An annual report is due every year from January 1 through May 1. For an LLC the report fee in section 605.0213 is $50, plus an $88.75 supplemental fee in section 607.193. For a corporation the report fee in section 607.0122 is $61.25, plus the same supplemental fee. The $400 late fee is in section 607.193.
Department of Revenue
Register for sales tax if you sell taxable goods or services. The state rate is 6 percent. Counties can add a surtax. The Department of Revenue page is the one to use for the county rate. Register online or with Form DR-1.
Register for reemployment tax if you are an employer. One of the triggers the department prints: you pay $1,500 or more in wages in a calendar quarter, or you have an employee during 20 different weeks in a year.
Open Sunbiz File a new LLC Sales tax
Section 605.0213 (LLC fees), section 607.0122 (corporation fees), section 605.0902 (foreign LLC), section 865.09 (fictitious name), and section 607.193 (the supplemental fee and the $400 late fee). Annual report start: Sunbiz annual report. Reemployment tax: Florida Department of Revenue.
How to read this page
This Is Florida is not the State of Florida, your county, your utility, or SunPass. This page does not open an account, issue a license, or file a homestead. It puts the official steps in one place.
Fees change. A form number can be revised. Open the link in that section and read it before you pay or file.
Three places where official pages do not match each other:
- Title and registration: the new-resident page says 10 days. The renew-registration page says 30 days. Section 320.38 says 10 days when you take a job or enroll children in public school.
- Specialty plates: the website says “over 100.” Procedure RS-22 from the same agency lists 76.
- SunPass in other states: the current Turnpike page lists more states than the March 2022 SunPass manual.
Pages that would not open on November 3, 2026, and were left alone: Sunbiz’s own fee pages, Duke Energy’s site, the Division of Elections page on dos.fl.gov, and the Supervisor of Elections sites for Palm Beach, Marion, Lee, and Pinellas. Where a statute already prints the fee, the statute is what this page uses.
Compiled November 3, 2026. A correction belongs on the contact form. Put the step name and the official page you are looking at.