Source reader Tisha Lake was driving on St. Thomas recently and saw a Jeep with a Florida license plate, which prompted this question to the V.I. Answer Desk: “Isn’t that against the law? How was the vehicle released from the shipping company without getting a moving permit to get the vehicle registered under the VI?”
Tisha,
without knowing the individual driver’s circumstances it’s impossible to answer that definitively. But there is one circumstance that would allow it to be legal.
Jerris Thomas Browne, the director of the V.I. Bureau of Motor Vehicles, explained that a person on active military duty assigned to the territory is allowed to keep the license plate of his or her home state.
They are, however, required to register the vehicle with BMV, he said, and display a current sticker. And that is the only legitimate circumstance for a car in the territory not to display the U.S.V.I. license plate.
So, Tisha, next time you’re out and see that Jeep, check the windshield to see if there’s a sticker. If there is, then it’s a safe bet that the owner is on military duty here. If you see the driver, try throwing him or her a salute and see what the response is.
If the car does not have a valid window sticker, then yes, something is wrong with the vehicle’s registration.
