With states across the country taking steps to crack down on non-domiciled CDLs, Ohio has recently downgraded roughly 1,200 licenses that didn’t meet current federal standards.
In May, the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles announced it would be contacting approximately 5,000 non-domiciled CDL holders to verify the status of their credentials under updated rules from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
At that time, the Bureau said that non-domiciled CDL holders in the state would receive one of two notices, depending on the type of documentation they originally used to obtain their CDL.
The first group consists of drivers whose original documentation complies with current FMCSA standards. Those drivers received a notice that their licenses would remain valid until their expiration dates, but their CDLs would not be renewed once they expired.
The second group comprises drivers whose original documents do not meet current federal guidelines. Those CDL holders received a notice that their licenses would be downgraded to a Class D license within 30 days of receiving the notice.
Nearly a month later, the Ohio BMV said it’s still in the process of completing a review of the nearly 5,000 non-domiciled CDLs issued by the state. However, a spokesperson for the Bureau has confirmed that approximately 1,200 of those CDLs have already been downgraded.
Drivers who receive a downgrade notice can request a hearing with the BMV to dispute the downgrade, and can provide additional documentation to prove their eligibility. Those documents include:
- An unexpired Employment Authorization Document issued by USCIS, valid on the most recent CDL/CLP issuance date
- An unexpired foreign passport with an unexpired USCIS I‑94 form, both of which must be valid on your most recent CDL/CLP issuance date
Officials said the Ohio BMV has not issued or renewed any non-domiciled CDLs since FMCSA put new standards in place in 2025, and that it does not intend to resume issuing non-domiciled CDLs in the future. LL
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