Starting Tuesday a program called Central Issuance will begin, where you can get your driver's license or ID card mailed to you. The DMV said this could save each person about 1-3 minutes at the DMV, therefore making wait times and lines shorter. You'll still have to appear at the DMV or AAA office to renew or apply for a license, and you'll walk out with a temporary paper card that will arrive in the mail.
Then in about a year, phase two of Central Issuance will start.
"Not right away but in the not too distant future we hope within the next year the second phase of the central issuance of the driver's license program will be called skip a trip, so right now a passenger license is good for six years and with skip a trip you can go online and renew your driver's license or ID card so you wouldn't have to come in and get a photo taken for actually up to twelve years," said Michael Bzdyra, DMV commissioner.
Connecticut is joining more than 25 states who already do this. The ID cards will be mailed from a secure facility and will arrive within 20 days after renewing or getting a new card. This new phase will also hopefully help to cut down on identity theft. The new design for licenses and ID's will include several new and upgraded security features to make them harder to counterfeit. The phase-in of the program will begin at the Willimantic branch office and AAA in Cromwell and continue during the next month at other DMV and AA offices.
AAA in the Hartford area will provide DMV services. Others in New Haven and Fairfield County no longer provide DMV services, according to Bzdyra.