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RALEIGH – Due to concern for the health and safety of its customers and staff during the coronavirus outbreak, the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles will consolidate in-person services to offices large enough to maintain social distancing as defined by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), effective Wednesday (March 18), until further notice.

The DMV will be closing about 60 offices, to include one in Ahoskie, that have the fewest examiner stations or have office setups that make it difficult to provide customers with the recommended space recommended by the CDC. Customers who have appointments at those offices are being contacted and will be given new appointments once those offices re-open. Affected employees will be re-assigned to help staff the more than 50 offices (see the same attachment) that are scheduled to remain open, or to assist at DMV customer service call centers.

Other Driver’s License offices in northeastern North Carolina to close temporarily are Edenton, Roanoke Rapids, Tarboro and Williamston.

Offices that will accept walk-in traffic by appointment include Elizabeth City, Rocky Mount and Washington.

The open offices will be transitioned to handle appointment-only visits and will limit the number of customers allowed inside at the same time, depending on the office size. They will also no longer conduct road tests except for commercial driver’s license and medical reassessments. All customers for the driver license offices will be asked to complete a wellness questionnaire provided by the state health officials to mitigate the potential spread of the virus in our driver license offices.

You can check on the status of your local office on the DMV website.

Customers who have appointments at the open offices can keep those appointments, except for driving tests, and will be given priority if they reschedule their appointments after offices re-open.

Appointments can be made by calling the DMV customer center at (919) 715-7000. People who can use the offices in Cary, West Raleigh, Clayton and Goldsboro can make online appointments. Other offices are being added to the online appointment system as quickly as possible.

“The safety of our customers and staff is our top priority,” said DMV Commissioner Torre Jessup. “So we are putting in place a number of measures to better protect everyone from the spread of the virus. As always, we encourage everyone to conduct their business online if possible. We are all in this together and everyone has an important role to play in the safety and well-being of the public.”

The DMV services that can be handled online include license and registration renewals, and ordering a duplicate license and registration card. Customers are encouraged to visit www.ncdot.gov/dmv to review a complete list of what services are available. There are fake DMV websites on the internet so please make sure that you are using a website that includes “.gov.”

Other steps being taken include:

Suspending the use of mobile offices;

Suspending road tests except for commercial driver’s license and in-office medical re-evaluations;

Postponing DMV Hearings for 30 days, with exceptions for insurance liability and safety responsibility hearings, which are conducted by phone; and

Salvage and special vehicle inspections conducted by appointment only.

All these steps being taken do not apply to DMV License Plate Agencies, as all but one of those is operated either by a contractor or local government. The status of those offices is available on the DMV website.

For information on how to conduct your critical DMV business or if you have additional questions, please visit www.ncdot.gov/dmv. First or official information regarding COVID-19, please visit ncdhhs.gov and governor.nc.gov.