A. Whenever any person, after applying for or obtaining a driver's license or special identification card shall move from the address shown in the application or on the license or special identification card, he shall, within 30 days, notify the Department of his change of address. If the Department receives notification from the person or any court or law-enforcement agency that a person's residential address has changed to a non-Virginia address, unless the person (i) is on active duty with the armed forces of the United States, (ii) provides proof that he is a U.S. citizen and resides outside the United States because of his employment or the employment of a spouse or parent, or (iii) provides proof satisfactory to the Commissioner that he is a bona fide resident of Virginia, the Department shall (i) mail, by first-class mail, no later than three days after the notice of address change is received by the Department, notice to the person that his license and/or special identification card will be cancelled by the Department and (ii) cancel the driver's license and/or special identification card 30 days after notice of cancellation has been mailed.
B. The Department may contract with the United States Postal Service or an authorized agent to use the National Change of Address System for the purpose of obtaining current address information for a person whose name appears in customer records maintained by the Department. If the Department receives information from the National Change of Address System indicating that a person whose name appears in a Department record has submitted a permanent change of address to the Postal Service, the Department may then update its records with the mailing address obtained from the National Change of Address System.
C. There may be imposed upon anyone failing to notify the Department of his change of address as required by this section a fee of $5, which fee shall be used to defray the expenses incurred by the Department. Notwithstanding the foregoing provision of this subsection, no fee shall be imposed on any person whose address is obtained from the National Change of Address System.
D. The Department shall electronically transmit change of address information to the Department of State Police, in a format approved by the State Police, for comparison with information contained in the Virginia Criminal Information Network and National Crime Information Center Convicted Sexual Offender Registry Files, at the time of the change of address. Whenever it appears from the records of the State Police that a person has failed to comply with the duty to register, reregister, or verify his registration information pursuant to Chapter 9 (§ 9.1-900 et seq.) of Title 9.1, the State Police shall promptly investigate and, if there is probable cause to believe a violation has occurred, obtain a warrant or assist in obtaining an indictment charging a violation of § 18.2-472.1 in the jurisdiction in which the person last registered, reregistered, or verified his registration information or in the jurisdiction where the person made application for change of address.
E. For any summons issued for a violation of this section, the court may, in its discretion, dismiss the summons, where proof of compliance with this section is provided to the court on or before the court date.
1974, c. 347, § 46.1-368.1; 1989, c. 727; 1996, cc. 943, 994; 2002, cc. 767, 834; 2006, cc. 857, 914; 2010, cc. 25, 55; 2017, c. 670; 2020, c. 829.