A revoked Montana license stays revoked until the certificate arrives
Montana law calls this filing a certificate of insurance. When the department revokes your license, it stays revoked until you are otherwise eligible and file one. That rule sits in 61-6-131, MCA. The same section blocks a probationary license during a revocation unless the certificate is already on file.
Which offenses revoke? 61-5-205, MCA names six. Negligent homicide with a motor vehicle and any felony committed using a vehicle are two. Failing to stop and render aid after a crash that hurt or killed someone is another. The rest are lying under oath to the department, fleeing or eluding a peace officer, and negligent vehicular assault.
Most of these revocations last one year. A felony hit-and-run conviction sets a two-year revocation instead.
Three clean years, then you ask the department to waive it
The end point lives in 61-6-142, MCA. The department waives the filing any time after 3 years from the date proof was required. One condition applies: during the 3 years before your request, no conviction can appear that would require or permit a suspension or revocation.
So a new qualifying conviction pushes the finish line back. The filing also ends if you die, become permanently unable to drive, or surrender your license. Surrender is not a shortcut, though. Reapply within 3 years of the original requirement and the department refuses you until you meet Montana's insurance rules.
$100, or $200, paid to Records and Driver Control in Helena
The standard charge to restore a suspended or revoked license is $100 under 61-5-218, MCA. A court can tell the department you are indigent and have met your court obligations. The department must then waive that fee. Revocations under 61-5-205 also carry a $200 fee set by 61-2-107, MCA. Half of that money funds county drinking and driving prevention programs.
The MVD suspensions page lets you check your status, pay fees and upload reinstatement documents online. Paying by mail? Send a check or money order to the Motor Vehicle Division, Records and Driver Control Bureau, P.O. Box 201430, Helena MT 59620-1430. Add your license number, full name and date of birth.
What the certified policy must carry, and what happens if it lapses
Your certificate has to back a policy at Montana's floor: $25,000 for one person hurt, $50,000 for two or more, and $20,000 for property. Those limits come from 61-6-103, MCA. The Commissioner of Securities and Insurance adds that uninsured motorist coverage comes with the policy unless you sign a form declining it.
Once certified, the insurance cannot be canceled until at least 10 days after a cancellation notice is filed with the department, per 61-6-135, MCA. Registration is tied in too. A vehicle cannot stay registered to you unless proof covers that vehicle.
No car, an insurer back home, or no insurer at all
Without a vehicle, you can still file. 61-6-133, MCA drops the vehicle list when the policy goes to someone who owns no car. That is a non-owner policy.
Nonresidents can use a carrier from their home state under 61-6-134, MCA. That carrier must let the department accept legal papers for it and agree its policies meet Montana's terms.
Two routes skip insurance. A surety bond, cancelable only after 10 days' written notice, is one (61-6-137, MCA). The other is $55,000 in cash or securities deposited with the state treasurer (61-6-138, MCA).