Florida is one of only two states that uses the FR-44 alongside the ordinary SR-22. Every page about it repeats the same three-year figure. Almost none of them mention that Florida publishes that three years twice, measured from two different events, in two documents the state produced itself.
The statute counts from reinstatement. The agency's own procedures manual counts from the original suspension. Those are not the same day, they are usually months apart, and nobody has to guess which is which — both sentences are quoted below, with the address of each source. This page is built around that discrepancy, because it is the single fact most likely to change what you do next.
Nothing here is a premium. Every dollar figure below is either a statutory liability limit or a fee Florida charges and publishes. If the certificate itself is still unclear, what an SR-22 actually is explains why it is a filing your insurer transmits rather than a kind of policy you buy.
Two Florida sources, two different start dates
Here is the statute. Fla. Stat. § 324.023, read in the 2026 codified text, sets the higher limits and then closes with the exemption that defines the end of the obligation:
"Such higher limits must be carried for a minimum period of 3 years. If the owner or operator has not been convicted of driving under the influence or a felony traffic offense for a period of 3 years from the date of reinstatement of driving privileges for a violation of s. 316.193, the owner or operator shall be exempt from this section."
Read that carefully: the three-year measurement in the statute runs from the date of reinstatement of driving privileges.
Now here is the agency. FLHSMV's Procedures Manual for Implementation of the Florida Motor Vehicle No-Fault Law, the document the department gives insurers to tell them how to file, says this under "SR22/FR44 Reporting Procedures":
"SR22/FR44s must be maintained continuously for 3 years from the original suspension date of the FR case."
That is a different anchor. The original suspension date comes first; reinstatement comes later, after the citations are resolved and the fees are paid. Run the same three years from each and you get two end dates, with the manual's falling earlier.
Both are official Florida sources and neither is a misprint, so this page does not pick one or split the difference. What it does is tell you what to ask for. When you contact FLHSMV, do not ask when your FR-44 ends — ask for two specific dates on your record: the original suspension date of the FR case and the date driving privileges were reinstated. Those two dates are what the two sources measure from, and only your own record holds them. Where each state starts counting sets Florida beside the states that name a single unambiguous event.
The manual adds one practical note in the same passage that saves an unnecessary filing: "The renewal of an SR22/FR44 does not need to be reported unless there is a change in the policy number or there is a lapse in coverage and an SR26/FR46 was reported." A clean renewal on the same policy number is not a new filing event.
The sentence that decides whether you need an FR-44 at all
The widespread claim is that a Florida DUI conviction after 1 October 2007 means an FR-44. The procedures manual is narrower than that, and the extra condition matters:
"The 44 transactions are used for the insurance company to report an FR44 certificate of liability coverage (BIL limits of 100/300/50). The FR44s are reported if a customer had a DUI conviction after October 1, 2007, but did not have the required BIL/PDL coverage of 100/300/50 at the time of the offense."
The trigger is the conviction plus the absence of 100/300/50 coverage on the offence date. A driver who already carried those limits when the offence occurred is in a different position from one who carried Florida's ordinary minimums, and the manual says so in the sentence that instructs insurers what to transmit. That is worth checking on your declarations page before you assume anything, and it is the first question to put to FLHSMV.
Two more lines from the same manual, both of which cut work rather than add it:
- "You do not need to report an SR22 and an FR44 for the same person. An FR44 will cover both limits needed." If someone has told you that you owe both certificates, that sentence is the answer.
- "FR44s must be filed within 15 working days of issuance." That deadline binds the insurer, not you — a point returned to below.
If your case is a DUI, SR-22 after a DUI covers the pattern across states; the difference between the two Florida certificates is set out in SR-22 vs FR-44.
What Florida requires, sanction by sanction
Florida does not run one financial-responsibility requirement. It runs nine numbered sanctions, each with its own coverage level, and the FR-44 is one row in that scheme. The table below is built by cross-reading FLHSMV's Quick Reference Guide for Verification Requests against the statutory limits in Fla. Stat. § 324.021. FLHSMV publishes the codes and the limits in separate lists and never sets them beside the trigger and the certificate; that combination is ours.
| Sanction code |
What generates it |
Coverage FLHSMV requires |
Certificate |
Verification is |
| FR1 / FR100 |
Crash with injuries |
BIL/PIP/PDL 10/20/10 |
SR-22 |
VIN-specific (owner) |
| FR2 / FR200 |
Conviction for no proof of PIP/PDL |
PIP/PDL 10/10 |
SR-22 (PIP/PDL only) |
VIN-specific |
| FR4 / FR400 non-DUI |
Vehicular homicide, manslaughter, insurance fraud, felony using a vehicle, failure to render aid |
BIL/PIP/PDL 10/20/10 |
SR-22 |
Person-specific |
| FR4 / FR400 DUI |
DUI conviction under s. 316.193 |
BIL/PIP/PDL 100/300/50 |
FR-44 |
Person-specific |
| FR5 / FR500 |
Excessive points (12 in 12 months, 18 in 18, 24 in 36) |
BIL/PIP/PDL 10/20/10 |
SR-22 |
Person-specific |
| FR6 / FR600 |
Habitual Traffic Offender revocation |
BIL/PIP/PDL 10/20/10 |
SR-22 |
Person-specific |
| FR7 / FR700 |
Insurer files a PIP cancellation, no other policy found |
PIP/PDL 10/10 |
SR-22 (PIP/PDL only) |
VIN-specific |
| FR8 / FR800 |
Coverage not found at registration or renewal |
PIP/PDL 10/10 |
SR-22 (PIP/PDL only) |
VIN-specific |
| FR9 / FR900 |
Crash with property damage, no injuries |
PIP/PDL 10/10 |
SR-22 (PIP/PDL only) |
VIN-specific |
Sources: FLHSMV Quick Reference Guide for Verification Requests, 12 September 2020, and Fla. Stat. § 324.021, both read 2026-09-02.
Three observations that follow from the table and that neither source states.
The FR-44 is one row out of nine. Eight of Florida's nine financial-responsibility sanctions are satisfied at the ordinary minimums or at PIP/PDL alone. The 100/300/50 requirement attaches to exactly one trigger. If your suspension notice does not carry the DUI variant of the FR4 code, the doubled limits are not your requirement, and a broker quoting you at 100/300/50 is quoting the wrong product.
Four of the nine require no bodily injury coverage at all. FR2, FR7, FR8 and FR9 are listed by FLHSMV at PIP/PDL only. These are the lapse-and-registration sanctions, and they are the most common ones the department generates. A driver in that group who is shopping against bodily injury liability limits is shopping above the requirement.
Whether the sanction is person-specific or VIN-specific tells you whether a car is needed. FLHSMV writes that for the DUI and points sanctions the requests are "NOT VIN-specific, but person specific," while the PIP-side sanctions are tied to a vehicle. That distinction is the practical test for whether a non-owner SR-22 can satisfy your case: a person-specific sanction is about you, a VIN-specific one is about a vehicle you must have.
Three different proof periods live in the same chapter
Chapter 324 does not contain one clock. It contains at least three, and they are easy to confuse because each is described as a period during which proof must be maintained.
Three years for the DUI higher limits. § 324.023, quoted above.
Two years after an insurance-lapse reinstatement. Fla. Stat. § 324.0221(3) requires a person reinstating after a lapse to secure the described coverage and "present to the appropriate person proof that the coverage is in force on a form adopted by the department, and such proof shall be maintained for 2 years." Two, not three.
Three years where a judgment creditor consents. Fla. Stat. § 324.121(2)(a) allows a judgment debtor to keep a licence if the creditor consents in writing, "provided the judgment debtor furnished proof of financial responsibility as provided in s. 324.031, such proof to be maintained for 3 years."
And a fourth number that is not a proof period at all but gets mistaken for one: Fla. Stat. § 324.051(3) provides that a licence or registration suspended after a crash "shall remain suspended for a period of 3 years unless reinstated as otherwise provided in this chapter." That is the life of the suspension, not the life of a filing. Someone reading a three-year figure off a notice may well be reading this one. How long you need an SR-22 sets the state periods out together.
There is also a route out of a crash suspension that does not require waiting three years. Section 324.051(2)(a)5 exempts an owner or operator once "One year has elapsed since such owner or operator was suspended pursuant to subsection (3), the owner or operator has complied with one of the provisions of s. 324.031, and no bill of complaint of which the department has notice has been filed in a court of competent jurisdiction."
Worth noting too which methods of proof § 324.023 will accept. It directs the driver to "one of the methods established in s. 324.031(1) or (2)" — a liability policy or a certificate of deposit, which for the DUI case must be "at least $350,000". Fla. Stat. § 324.031 lists a third method, a certificate of self-insurance issued by the department under s. 324.171. The FR-44 section does not reference that third route, so the self-insurance option that satisfies Florida's ordinary requirement is not offered to the driver carrying the higher limits.
The deadlines that run against someone other than you
Most of chapter 324's clocks bind the insurer or the department. Knowing them tells you when silence has become a problem worth chasing.
- 10 days for the insurer to report a cancellation. § 324.0221(1)(a): each insurer "shall report the cancellation or nonrenewal thereof to the department within 10 days after the processing date or effective date of each cancellation or nonrenewal," and must report a newly issued policy within 10 days as well.
- 15 working days for the insurer to file the certificate. The procedures manual, quoted above.
- 14 days for you, 20 for the insurer, after a crash notice. Fla. Stat. § 324.091(1) gives the owner or operator 14 days to furnish evidence of liability insurance after the department's notice of crash, then requires that "The insurer shall respond to the department within 20 days after the notice whether or not such information is valid."
- 30 days for the insurer to answer a verification request. The Quick Reference Guide: "Insurance companies have 30 days to reply. If the Department receives no response, the customer is sent a suspension notice."
- 30 days before a crash suspension issues. § 324.051(2)(a) has the department suspend thirty days after receipt of notice of an accident, subject to the exemptions listed there.
The verification guide also prints the warning that explains most of the confused phone calls FLHSMV must receive: "Any reporting transaction by the insurance company such as initiation, reinstatement, adding a vehicle, etc. does not automatically close the customer's suspension." Your insurer transmitting the filing is not the same event as your suspension clearing. Confirm the clearance with the department, not with the agent.
Two more figures Florida publishes, both fees rather than premiums. Section 324.0221(3) sets "a nonrefundable reinstatement fee of $150 for the first reinstatement. The reinstatement fee is $250 for the second reinstatement and $500 for each subsequent reinstatement during the 3 years following the first reinstatement," and provides that where licence and registration are both suspended under that section "only one reinstatement fee must be paid to reinstate the license and the registration." The escalation resets: if there is no second reinstatement within three years of the first, the fee returns to $150.
And this page still names no filing fee, for a reason FLHSMV itself supplies. Asked in the procedures manual whether insurers may charge a fee for these certificates, the department answers: "We do not regulate fees collected for insurance policies or service fees." The filing charge is not a state figure, so there is no state figure to quote. Ask your own insurer for it as a line separate from the premium.
What I could not verify
Which of the two start dates FLHSMV applies in practice. The statute says reinstatement, the procedures manual says original suspension date. Nothing published resolves which one the department's system actually uses to close an FR-44. Ask FLHSMV for both dates on your record and for the date it holds as the end of the requirement.
Whether Florida requires the policy to be non-cancellable. This is widely asserted about the FR-44, and it does not appear in anything read for this page. A search of the full extracted text of the FLHSMV procedures manual for "non-cancellable" and its variants returns nothing, and § 324.023 does not use the word. What the sources do establish is a cancellation-reporting machinery — the SR-26 and FR-46 transactions, and the 10-day report under § 324.0221 — which is a different mechanism from a policy that cannot be cancelled. Until an official source is found saying otherwise, the claim is left out rather than repeated.
A consolidated FLHSMV reinstatement fee schedule. The figures above are the statutory ones in § 324.0221(3). FLHSMV presents fee information across several service pages and no single consolidated schedule was located that could be cited to an exact page; where a departmental figure differs from the statutory one, the department's is the one you will be charged.
Your own sanction code. The table above says what each code requires. Which code sits on your record is held by FLHSMV, and it is the fact that determines your form, your limits and whether a non-owner policy can work at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
When do Florida's three years actually start?
Florida publishes two answers and this page shows both rather than averaging them. Fla. Stat. § 324.023 measures from reinstatement: the exemption applies where there has been no qualifying conviction "for a period of 3 years from the date of reinstatement of driving privileges." FLHSMV's procedures manual instructs insurers that "SR22/FR44s must be maintained continuously for 3 years from the original suspension date of the FR case." The suspension date comes first, so the manual's period ends earlier. Ask FLHSMV for both dates on your record rather than accepting a single figure from anyone.
Does every Florida DUI conviction mean an FR-44?
Not according to the sentence FLHSMV gives insurers. The procedures manual says FR-44s are reported where a customer "had a DUI conviction after October 1, 2007, but did not have the required BIL/PDL coverage of 100/300/50 at the time of the offense." The trigger combines the conviction with the absence of those limits on the offence date. Check the declarations page in force when the offence happened, and confirm your sanction code with FLHSMV: only the DUI variant of the FR4 code carries 100/300/50, while the other eight sanction types sit at 10/20/10 or at PIP/PDL alone.
What does Florida charge, and what is the filing fee?
The reinstatement fees are statutory and published: § 324.0221(3) sets $150 for the first reinstatement, $250 for the second and $500 for each subsequent one during the three years following the first, with only one fee payable where licence and registration were both suspended, and a reset to $150 if three years pass without a second reinstatement. The certificate filing fee is a different thing, and no figure for it appears here because FLHSMV states in its own manual that "We do not regulate fees collected for insurance policies or service fees." It is set by your insurer; ask for it as a separate number from the premium.
What does an SR-22 or FR-44 cost in Florida, and which part of it can I check?
No figure appears on this page, and no average built from other drivers would be a price for your record. What is worth doing instead is making the quotes comparable. Confirm your sanction code with FLHSMV first, because a quote at 100/300/50 and a quote at 10/20/10 are not the same product and eight of the nine Florida sanctions do not need the higher limits. Then take three quotes on identical limits, say which sanction triggered the filing, and ask for the premium and the insurer's filing charge as two separate numbers. Remember that the insurer has 15 working days to transmit the certificate, and that its transmission does not by itself clear the suspension.
