Can i make an appointment at ncdmv

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Time-saving appointments for certain driver and vehicle services can be made through the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV). Keep reading for more information regarding the types of appointments you can make, how to make them, and what you should bring to your local DMV office visit.

Thanks to the internet you may also be able to accomplish what you need without ever having to leave home. Check out the online services conveniently provided by the state, and you might be able to avoid a trip to the NC DMV altogether.

Types of North Carolina DMV Appointments

The NC Division of Motor Vehicles allows you to schedule appointments ahead of time for:

• Road skills test for:
  • Standard (Class C) license.
  • Motorcycle license.
  • Commercial driver's license (CDL).
• North Carolina driver license:
• Renewal.
• Replacement.
• New NC identification card.

Online Registration Renewal

For a nominal fee, you can renew your registration online, with a 3rd party registration service. Renewing your registration has never been easier.

How to Make a NC DMV Appointment

With the exception of CDL road skills tests, you can make appointments for all the services listed above* by calling your local DMV office branch.

If you'd like to make an appointment for a CDL road exam, you'll need to contact one of the participating NC DMV commercial testing offices, found in the commercial driver manual.

* NOTE: Motorcycle road test appointments can only be scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday..

What to Bring to the NC DMV

When the day of your appointment arrives, make sure you're fully prepared with all the required materials for your DMV visit. Our guides outline exactly what you'll need to bring, for the following North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles appointments:

RALEIGH, N.C. — Need to get a driver’s license? A Real ID? Register your vehicle, or anything else DMV related? Prepare to wait.

With a backlog from the pandemic and nearly a third of its position’s vacant officials with the Department of Motor Vehicles acknowledge customers are experiencing extreme wait times.

In many cases appointments to obtain a new driver’s license or a Real ID, both of which must be done in-person, aren’t available until next year. This has left North Carolina residents frustrated and calling for a more expedient system.

Long-time Raleigh resident Steve Mayberry, 73, is well acquainted with the DMV and knows that waiting comes with the territory.

“There’s not a person who lives in the state that doesn’t have to deal with the DMV,” Mayberry said.

His tolerance was tested recently, though, when he went to get a Real ID. He tells WRAL Five on Your Side that he was turned away from the three sites that he tried to walk-in to. When he went to make an appointment, he claims he was told that the earliest available appointment in Raleigh was five months out. He said he was then told to try Rocky Mount.

“It’s like I have to choose between the cost of gas or paying my taxes,” Mayberry said.

Mayberry gave up on getting a Real ID, renewed his regular license online, and expressed his frustrations on the Nextdoor app.

“I wanted to publicize that it’s a problem,” Mayberry said.

WRAL 5 on Your Side sat down with DMV Commissioner Wayne Goodwin to talk about the wait times and showed Goodwin Mayberry’s complaint.

“I’m familiar with this post. It’s quite a popular post on the Nextdoor app,” Goodwin explained.

Goodwin will often respond to concerned customers directly on social media, by educating them about the DMV services they can complete online and sharing other ways folks can get things done faster.

“I take this very seriously,” Goodwin said.

Goodwin disputed Mayberry’s claim of a five month wait time for a Real ID appointment, and he’s correct. Five on Your Side found several available appointments for a Real ID within the next month or two but none in Raleigh for Mayberry.

Goodwin suggests looking for appointments slightly out of your city or county for more availability.

Tips to speed things up at the NC DMV

1. Consider an extended hours office-there are 35 in the state, which open at 7 a.m. and service walk-ins only until 8 a.m.
2. Early morning or after lunch time tend to have the shortest wait.
3. Visit the DMV’s website often to check for last minute cancellations.
4. Make an appointment as a failsafe and go to the walk in anyway. If you get the service just be sure to cancel the appointment.
5. Finally, if you do a walk-in you don’t have to wait inline you can check in using a QR code, go run errands and the DMV will alert you when they’re ready to see you. The DMV is working on getting buzzers for folks who don’t have smart phones.

Goodwin believes wait times will improve next year, as the DMV is able to hire more staff, specifically examiners.

“We are actively working with job fairs and other types of incentive options,” Goodwin said. “The entry salary has recently changed from $36,000 to $42,000 a year.”

In addition to adding more staff, the DMV is working on a website update that will show you wait times in real time. Officials explained that it will be very similar to what Great Clips has where you can search a city and see which locations have the shortest wait time, this is something that will not start until 2023.

And to put this all-in perspective, 2022 is not a record year for wait times. The DMV’s head of communications Marty Homan told WRAL 5 on Your Side that they track wait time data and 2018 and 2019 both surpassed 2022. During that time, the DMV blamed longer wait times on Real IDs. The initial deadline for Real IDs for commercial flights was October 2020 but was extended due to the pandemic.

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Related Topics

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• Credits

Keely Arthur, Reporter

Richard Adkins, Photographer

Pritchard Strong, Producer

Heather Leah, Web Editor

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