Facebook In contact with. Travels. Training. Internet professions. Self development
Site search

Where to go in case of loss of a driver’s license. What to do if you lose your driver’s license

The loss of a driver’s license, alas, belongs to the category of fairly common everyday situations. The most unpleasant moment associated with this is the inability to drive a car. When driving, the driver must have them with him. Therefore, the instruction on how to restore rights in case of loss in 2017 will be useful to many.

The first step, which becomes mandatory when they discovered the lack of rights, is to try to find them. If they are found, this will save you from many unpleasant troubles and expenses of both time and money. Sometimes it is possible to find documents if they fell into the hands of a person who saw the ad posted by the owner. But since it so happened that the search for a result did not give, there is no other way out to do the restoration.

So, there is a loss of a driver’s license (WU), and you need to understand what to do in 2017 in order to again get the opportunity to drive a car without the risk of liability for driving without a license.

The situation is slightly different if the disappearance of the document was the result of a clear criminal assault. Usually this happens if the goal of the offender was money and valuables in your wallet, purse, bag, car interior, and he just grabbed the right, so to speak, along the way.

The algorithm of what to do if a driver’s license was stolen will be different than when they simply disappeared. In this situation, you will have to report the incident to the police and report all the details known to you. You need to contact the department, in the area of \u200b\u200bresponsibility of which you found that you were robbed. Well, then replenish the set of papers for reinstating the VU with the copy of the decision on initiating a criminal case or refusing to institute it, issued to you. The last option will be required, since you first informed the police about the theft, and then for some reason decided to pick up the statement.

The most difficult situation: lost documents on the car and driver's license. The difficulty here is that the law prohibits driving a car if you are not carrying both rights and a data sheet. And if during a check by the traffic police officers of your car it turns out that you neglected this requirement of the law, new problems will not be long in coming. So, you have to, without delaying the matter, take care of what to do if you lose your driver’s license and registration certificate for the car: in 2017, each of these documents will have to be restored according to a separate procedure.

General outline of your actions

We will not touch upon the issue of restoring the vehicle data sheet as part of this article, since the problem is quite extensive and deserves to be considered separately. We pay attention to the design of the replacement of rights lost as a result of absent-mindedness or criminal assault.

The procedure for restoring a driver’s license in case of loss is simple:

  1. Prepare a set of documents (we will discuss this in more detail below).
  2. Take them to the MREO traffic police.

The result of all this should be getting a duplicate of the WU, and with it you will be able to drive again.

This is the most general instruction on how to restore a driver’s license in case of loss, 2017 did not introduce any fundamental adjustments in comparison with the practice of recent years. This procedure takes some time, during which you will have to move not at the wheel, but exclusively on foot and by public transport. The prospect, of course, is far from the most pleasant, but there is nothing to be done: these are the requirements of the law. And the prospect of being held liable for its violation can only aggravate an already bleak situation.

And you will contribute to its speedy resolution as soon as possible, being aware of what to do in case you lose your driver’s license and how to restore them in 2017.

The main thing is not to panic, and to reconcile with the troubles arising from such a conflict; treat them as inevitable evil and far from the biggest trouble of those that lie in wait for each of us in our life's journey. After all, there are problems and much more serious ones, but in most cases all of them have one or another solution. So it makes sense to concentrate on how to achieve this very solution with minimal additional losses. Therefore, we will consider how to restore a driver's license in 2017 if you lost it.

Where to get rights instead of lost

Registration of permits for drivers in Russia is in charge of the MREO traffic police. Its functions under the law include the execution of these documents instead of lost, stolen, rendered unusable, to be replaced with a new surname, etc. The situation when the document is lost outside the area where you are registered, we will consider below separately. But for now, we can briefly say: the decision on where to restore the driver’s license in case of loss is entitled to be made by its owner.

The conflict is more complicated when foreign rights are lost in Russia. The traffic police cannot help with their restoration. Therefore, you will have to either get in touch with the nearest consulate of the state of issue, if it provides a service for claiming a driver’s license, or visit the country where they are obtained and solve the problem through the competent authorities.

As for the Russian VU, the restoration of lost driver's license in case of loss or theft in 2017 is carried out in the traffic police.

Another story: a foreign document disappeared from a migrant who did not manage to exchange it for a Russian one, but had already received a temporary residence permit or residence permit. He has one more opportunity - to go through the whole procedure from scratch, including training at a Russian driving school.

In general, you now know where to go if you lose your driver’s license in relation to a specific situation.

How to get a duplicate

A key feature of the procedure for restoring a previously issued certificate is that upon completion you will receive a document with the clause “duplicate” in your hands. The delivery of the duplicate is provided for by the requirements of the law, which regulates the replacement of a driver’s license due to the loss in 2017.

Sometimes a duplicate is mistakenly called a copy. However, this is fundamentally wrong. The duplicate differs in that it completely replaces your lost rights, since further use of them by you has become impossible for objective reasons. Suppose you have a copy of your driver’s license. Only here with her you drive a car do not have the right. Duplicate is another matter. He gives such a right right from the moment of issue.

The fact of using this term is connected with purely formal reasons.

From the point of view of the law, you have not received another WU. This is indicated by the very difference in the procedure for processing the document - because to obtain it, you do not need to hand over the theory and driving again on the site and in the city.


Therefore, regarding the problem of registering a new VU instead of the missing one, it is most accurate to talk about how to make a duplicate of a driver’s license in return for the lost one.

Package of documents

The law provides an exhaustive list of papers presented in a situation where the missing rights must be restored. Some of them are served only if they are. But the majority are mandatory, which means that without them the traffic police simply do not have the right to accept your application and will be forced to refuse.

Here's what you need to restore your driver’s license in case of loss:

  • your internal passport;
  • application for registration of a duplicate of VU;
  • driver’s medical certificate and its copy;
  • driver test card, if any: in practice, not every Russian driving school issues it, and when exchanging for Russian rights issued abroad, there is no question of it at all;
  • an explanation of the circumstances of the loss of the certificate or a paper about your contacting the police about theft;
  • two matte photos 3 by 4 cm.

This list contains complete information on what documents are needed when losing a driver’s license.

As soon as a complete set of necessary certificates and certificates has been compiled, they must accept it from you. So, it remains only to wait for a decision on your application, which is very likely to be positive. And after a while you will receive a duplicate of a driver’s license, after which you can return from public transport to a personal one.

You already know what documents are needed to obtain a driver’s license in case of loss, and their preparation should not cause you any serious difficulties.

The ability to restore rights without documents

As you can see, the preparation of most of the documents required is not difficult. If there is no valid medical certificate in hand, the driver’s medical board, of course, will have to go through again. But this cannot be called a big problem.

As for photographs, it is often unnecessary to spend time on them: many traffic police departments are equipped with a photo booth for these purposes.

Most often, drivers are wondering if it is possible to restore rights not at the place of registration. They have something to please: the law allows this option. The only thing the applicant should be ready for in this case is that the wait for the finished duplicate can be delayed in comparison with its registration at the place of residence, since more time will be required for verification. So the decision is best made depending on the individual situation.

If you constantly live in one locality, and are registered in another, or have lost your rights very far from home (which is quite possible at Russian distances), but want to return home by car and are ready to wait as long as you need, feel free to go to the traffic police unit, which is more convenient for you .

The situation with whether it is possible to restore a driver’s license without a passport is much more complicated. Information about your residence permit contained in a civil passport is required by the traffic police, as they must be sure:

  • you really are the one you impersonate;
  • you had rights;
  • you are not forbidden to drive a car, and you are not trying to trick this prohibition by deceit.


To clarify the last two points, they need to know where you are registered, and be completely confident in the veracity of this information.

If you lost your passport along with your rights (and this also unfortunately happens), the only way out is to restore it first and then deal with your driver’s license.

Since the foreign passport does not contain information on the registration of a citizen, the answer to the question of whether it is possible to restore the rights for a foreign passport will be unambiguously negative for Russians.

But if a foreigner who lives in the country temporarily or permanently needs to restore Russian rights, he will have to present his passport with a notarized translation, and in addition to it, depending on his status in the country, a temporary residence permit (however, a note about him and affixed to the passport) or residence permit with a stamp on registration.

How much does WU restoration cost

If you want to restore your driver’s license after loss, you will need to pay a state fee. Its size is standard for all occasions. It is equal to 800 rubles. Whether the rights are obtained primarily instead of the expired old ones, in the order of a simplified exchange for foreign ones, or if a duplicate VU is made out in case of loss or theft, it does not matter.

To this amount, you can also add the costs of photographs, a medical board, if necessary, copying documents, etc.

How long the duplicate will be valid

What should be said right away - the duplicate has a shorter validity period than the original driver’s document. The term "duplicate" just indicates that it is tied to the original and is equivalent to it in absolutely everything, including the date from which it becomes invalid. And this is important to understand for everyone who, in the event of a loss of a driver’s license, is interested in how long a new one is issued. That is, if you were to change the VU that was missing, say, after three years, then the duplicate would also be valid for three years.

Driving documents in Russia are not issued indefinitely. The national certificate of both the old and the new type is valid for 10 years from the date of receipt, for an international university this period does not exceed three years.

If you lose your rights, you no longer need a medical certificate: Video

The lack of driving license can deliver a lot of trouble to any driver. As a result of the loss of a driver’s license, he simply will not be able to drive, so in such a situation, the question of how to restore a document is especially acute. The recovery process itself is not difficult, but requires a lot of free time.

Every person who has lost an ID wants to restore it as soon as possible, and in this situation, in no case should panic. Our article provides detailed tips and tricks, thanks to which you can find out what to do in case of loss and where to go.

Where to start

Losing the right to drive a car always takes by surprise any driver who does not find the document in the usual place of storage. First of all, you should carefully inspect the interior of your vehicle, search the glove compartment and other places where the certificate could lie. It is recommended not to rush, to reproduce the events of the previous day and remember where you put the card.

In case of loss of the right to drive a car, you can put an ad in the media, sometimes this method helps to find the document. If the rights are stolen, you must contact the police by writing a statement.

Often the original certificate is in the most unexpected place after receiving a duplicate. To avoid unpleasant recovery procedures and unforeseen expenses, it is best to spend time on additional searches. If the driver could not find the document and recorded the fact of loss, he needs to submit an application to the traffic police as soon as possible. Each motorist is obliged to restore the document.

Where to go in case of loss

When it comes to how to restore a lost driver’s license, you should take care of the timely submission of an application to the inspection, which is located at the address of residence or registration. It is not possible to restore the document in all traffic police departments; this process will depend on the specific situation. If the motorist is registered in one region, but has lost his license in another city, he should return home, since he can only restore the document there.

The driver may have temporary registration in the city where he is staying, in this case he will receive new rights there without any problems. If the certificate was lost at the address of permanent residence, you can get a duplicate in one of the traffic police offices in this region. Unfortunately, often the loss of identity requires additional procedures that take a lot of time, such as retaking exams.

What documents are needed for recovery

All motorists who are interested in the question of whether it is possible to restore a driver’s license must provide a full list of documents to the traffic police. During the first call you will be given a form that you need to fill out. The inspector must familiarize each driver with a complete list of documents that are required to obtain a duplicate. This list includes:

  1. A completed form for issuing a second document.
  2. Examination card to confirm successful exams. If available, the driver will not need to take a second time test for the right to drive a car.
  3. Passport of the Russian Federation.
  4. Medical certificate of the appropriate type.
  5. An explanation of the motorist with a detailed statement of the reasons for the loss of driver’s rights.
  6. A photograph taken on matte-type paper.
  7. Form confirming payment of the fee.

The presence of an incomplete package of documents

Often motorists are interested in how to restore a driver’s license in case of loss of basic documentation. There are cases when other documents disappear along with rights, for example, if all of them were stored in one purse. In this situation, the issuance of new rights will be significantly more complicated, since preliminary restoration of not only the driver’s card may be required.

Rights cannot be restored without a Russian passport, since it cannot be replaced by anything else, including a passport or military ID. The Russian passport confirms the identity of the citizen and is included in the list of required documents. If we are talking about a citizen of a foreign country, he can present a confirmation of temporary registration or a registration certificate as a replacement for a passport of the Russian Federation.

Rights replacement cost

image from thenounproject.co

Recovery of a lost document is paid, the cost of the procedure is governed by paragraph 43 of Part 1 of Art. 333.33, part of the Tax Code. First, the motorist will need to pay a state fee for obtaining a temporary certificate, the amount of which is 800 rubles. Then follows the payment of a fee for a permanent document, its amount will be 3000 rubles. as updated on July 1, 2017

If you pay for it on the website of the State Service, you can get a discount of 30% of the total amount. In the absence of problems with the documents of the motorist, the traffic police can give him a duplicate of the lost rights directly on the day of treatment. In this case, the driver will not need a temporary permit, and accordingly he will not pay a fee for it.

How to get a temporary permit

If you want to find out how to recover your lost driver’s license, you should know that each driver can get a temporary permit to drive a car. Such a document is issued after payment of the fee and is marked with a special marking "Certificate of Verification", as well as the seal and signature of the employee. The field for the series and number also indicates that such rights are temporary.

According to the established rules, a temporary certificate is issued for 2 months, but this period may be shorter. Information is added to the document about which vehicles a motorist can drive. All permissions of this type are registered in a special registry of the traffic police. In addition to the information specified above, the permit must specify:

  • individual document number;
  • Name of motorist;
  • date and place of birth of the driver;
  • the number of the inspection department in which the permit was obtained;
  • date of issue of the provisional certificate.

In the presence of a court decision or sanctions of various nature, the validity of temporary rights to operate the machine may be extended several times. After receiving a permanent document, such permission is withdrawn from the driver even if it will still be valid at the time of issuing the duplicate.

Verification of information and issuance of rights

If you have the necessary list of documents and received a temporary certificate, you will need to wait until the verification of information about you. When the procedure is completed, the traffic police must provide the driver with a copy of the old document instead of the lost driver’s license. Please note that temporary rights may not be issued in every case.

When the package of documents filed for the purpose of replacing rights does not have enough papers, or for other reasons, the procedure for considering the application may be delayed. In such cases, temporary rights to use the car are always issued.

In the best case, no more than two hours will be allocated for checking the documents of a driver who has lost his license. This happens when the inspection staff is not too busy, so the motorist will receive new rights directly on the day of treatment. The document issued in return for the lost rights will contain the entry “Duplicate” in special marks.

The appearance of the new and old certificates is almost identical, both documents correspond to standard samples approved by the Government of the Russian Federation. The duplicate will contain all the necessary information about the driver, as well as special protection signs. Repeated driver's licenses are issued against receipt, and information about them is entered into the inspection base and the registry.

How long will new documents be issued?

Motorists who want to learn how to restore a driver’s license after a loss are also interested in the validity period of the duplicate received. It should be borne in mind that the period of validity of the new rights will be completely identical to the period indicated in the old certificate. If the deadline ends soon, you need to take care of extending the document, the standard duration of which is ten years.

Additional terms

Before applying for restoration of rights, you will need to pay all outstanding fines in the field of traffic police. If there are unpaid payments, the driver will not be able to get a duplicate in his hands. If the certificate expires in the coming months, the reason for the appeal can be indicated not the loss of the document, but the end of its term. It is best to start the replacement procedure at least 6 months before the deadline is over.

Starting from February 1, 2017, applying for a new certificate can be submitted not only to the traffic police department, but also to the multifunctional center (MFC). The procedure for obtaining rights there is the same as in the inspection.

To find out where to restore your driver’s license, motorists should first study all the necessary information. Preparation of a package of documents may also take some time. After thorough verification of their authenticity and compliance with the data about the motorist in the inspection base, they will be re-checked with additional criteria. The list of rules includes the following conditions:

  • the documents should not contain any corrections, pencil marks or erasures;
  • they must contain the necessary information, stamps, as well as signatures of the persons responsible for their issuance;
  • the package of documentation should be complete;
  • they must be valid and up to date at the time of receipt of the duplicate.

In what cases they can refuse to issue

Most often, if the circumstances are in favor of the owner of the car, the absence of debts and unpaid fines, as well as comments on the documents, the verification period will not exceed one business day. In this case, the driver will be able to obtain new rights instead of the lost certificate on the same day. But they may refuse to extradite him, citing the requirements of the law. The list of reasons for refusal includes:

  1. Deprivation of a driver’s rights due to traffic violations.
  2. Providing fake documents, the presence of errors and non-compliance with standards.
  3. Finding documents in the list of stolen or lost.
  4. Outstanding fines.

The issuance of a new certificate instead of the old one is a standard procedure that does not take much time when all the necessary rules are observed. It is best to study all the requirements in advance so as not to delay the receipt of the duplicate.

Loss of documents is a big problem, characterized by going to various authorities and other troubles. Next, we will consider how to restore rights in case of loss and how to save on state duty.

The first step is to make sure that the driver’s license is really missing and you won’t be able to find it. If you start the recovery and at some point find the rights, they will already be invalid.

You can do the following:

  • Submit an advertisement (to newspapers, social networks, etc.) about the loss of a driver’s license. For a better effect, offer a small reward to those who find it. You can also study the communities and forums of your locality, maybe someone found your rights and is looking for their owner. AT social network "Vkontakte" in the search bar, you can enter your name. If the person who found finds a post somewhere, he will most likely indicate your full name in his text and the search will return it at the beginning of the results. Try different options (first name + last name, only last name, first name + middle name).
  • If you admit that your rights could be stolen, you must first write a statement to the police. However, as practice shows, law enforcement agencies rarely find stolen documents. Nevertheless, there are chances, so it’s worth a try.

Preparation of documents required for restoration

If you couldn’t find a driver’s license “in hot pursuit”, you will have to start the restoration procedure.

The first step is to prepare a list of necessary documents:

  1. Statement of loss. It is written according to the state model, it can be taken at any traffic police department.
  2. Passport.
  3. 3 photos in 3x4 format (preferably color). Today in almost all MREO there is a pavilion where you can take pictures. Nevertheless, it is better to play it safe and stock up on photos in advance. There are no objective restrictions on the “age” of photographs. But if they are done a long time ago, you may have problems when the traffic police inspector stops you with new rights.
  4. Driver card. She confirms that the person was trained in a driving school and passed the relevant exams. If the driver’s card is lost, it can be quickly restored in the driving school in which you were trained.
  5. Receipt of payment of duty for the manufacture of a new B / C. Starting July 1, 2017, the cost of this public service amounted to 2,000 rubles. Until that time, it was much less - 800 rubles. Requisites must be taken in the institution in which you are contacting. You can pay at any ATM of Sberbank, or on the website of “public services”.

Until February 16, 2016, with a loss of a driver’s license, a person had to undergo a medical commission again (and this is time and money costs - the average cost of an examination is 2500 rubles). However, now it is not necessary. Recall that the validity of a medical certificate for drivers is 10 years. It will only be necessary to get it again when B \\ Y is restored if it is received more than 10 years ago. You do not need to take any exams.

Getting duplicate

With the above package of documents, you must contact any branch of the traffic police. After reconciling, the traffic police will set the estimated date when the certificate will be ready. The deadlines can be delayed, so you can leave your phone number (or e-mail). When the document is ready, it will receive a notification.

The applicant may, at his discretion, choose 2 options for restoring his V \\ U:

  1. With the issuance of a temporary B \\ U.   After submitting the documents and paying the additional state duty, a person on the spot will be issued a temporary permit to drive the vehicle. This option is suitable for those who need to constantly be behind the wheel. Upon receipt of a temporary certificate, the recovery period is delayed, sometimes up to 2 months.
  2. Without issuing a temporary permit.   Since a temporary certificate is not required, the restoration procedure will take less time. If the traffic police department is not too busy, new rights can be issued within a few days.

After a certain amount of time, a person will be given a new V \\ U. It will be marked "Duplicate". For the rest, this document will not differ in any way from the lost rights. It will be performed according to the model established by the government of the Russian Federation in March 2011.

Traffic police officers do not have the right to refuse to restore V \\ U on their own initiative. The only situation in which their refusal will be legal is if the statement is not drawn up correctly. Therefore, in order not to lose time, before contacting the traffic police, carefully re-read your application.

Some legal nuances

We sorted out the list of necessary documents and the general procedure. In the end, we note several important government regulations regarding the restoration of the military base:

  • There is not a single legislative act that would regulate the timing of the restoration of V \\ U. In some cases, it may take a week, in others several months. It all depends on the workload of the traffic police department. However, such a situation inevitably contributes to the growth of corruption. For a fee, you may be offered a much faster recovery of your rights. If you encounter such a situation, contact the police immediately. Such actions of traffic police officers are illegal.
  • Russian law allows citizens to apply for a driver’s license renewal at any traffic police department in any region. It does not depend on permanent registration. In other words, if a person is on a business trip or on vacation, and there has lost his rights, he will not have to quickly return home to restore them. In this case, you can independently choose in which department to get the rights (for example, if a person plans to return home in a week, it is more convenient for him to get a B \\ U at the place of registration).
  • Citizens without a residence permit (permanent registration) will have to take exams. You will also have to pay for this procedure, and a payment receipt is attached to the application for restoration.
  • In many constituent entities of the Russian Federation, when visiting the traffic police department, the so-called electronic queue is provided. You can leave a statement on the official website of the car inspection, and they will tell you what day and what time to come. So you save yourself from exhausting sitting in lines. However, it is worth noting that not all the settlements of our country have made technical progress. Somewhere, in any case, you will have to face a "live" queue.
  • Until 2019, the portal "public services" provides a 30% discount on the payment of various state duties (including for the restoration of rights). Therefore, we recommend using it, in which case the cost will be 1400r (instead of 2000r).

On the video about restoring a driver’s license

There are times when a person has lost several of his documents at once. It is impossible to restore rights without a passport. In this case, a passport or military ID is not suitable. Therefore, you will have to restore your passport first.