Michigan issues no SR-22, and no fifty-state table can give you a Michigan filing period, because the state does not publish one. That much is widely half-known. What almost nobody says next is that Michigan does have a certified-proof regime — a whole chapter of the Michigan Vehicle Code called Proof of Financial Responsibility for the Future — and that the liability limits printed in it are the ones the legislature wrote in 1949 and never went back to change.
MCL 257.520(b)(2), the section that says what a policy certified as proof must cover, still reads:
"$20,000.00 because of bodily injury to or death of 1 person in any 1 accident and, subject to said limit for 1 person, $40,000.00 because of bodily injury to or death of 2 or more persons in any 1 accident, and $10,000.00 because of injury to or destruction of property of others in any 1 accident"
Meanwhile MCL 500.3009(1)(a), the live requirement for an ordinary Michigan policy after the 2019 no-fault reform, requires "not less than $250,000.00 because of bodily injury to or death of 1 person in any 1 accident." Twelve and a half times the number in the certified-proof chapter.
Both are current law. This page sets them side by side, explains the one sentence that stops the older figure being a loophole, and then covers what Michigan actually does to a driver who cannot pay a judgment. It publishes no premium and no average, because every dollar figure on this site is a statutory limit or a fee the agency itself publishes. If you arrived expecting a certificate to file, read what an SR-22 actually is first, then note that Michigan is on the list of states that do not use SR-22 at all.
How this page was read. Both legislature.mi.gov and michigan.gov answer this server with an "Access Denied" page rather than the content, so every source below was read through an Internet Archive snapshot of that same URL, and each link goes to the snapshot rather than the live page. The snapshot dates are given with each source. That is a weaker reading than a live one and it is labelled as such rather than presented as current.
Michigan's liability floors, in one table
Nowhere does Michigan publish these two sets of numbers together, which is exactly why the confusion survives. Here they are.
| Requirement |
Amount |
Statute |
Reading |
| Certified proof, bodily injury, 1 person |
$20,000 |
MCL 257.520(b)(2) |
Act 300 of 1949, still the printed text |
| Certified proof, bodily injury, 2 or more |
$40,000 |
MCL 257.520(b)(2) |
unchanged since 1949 |
| Certified proof, property damage |
$10,000 |
MCL 257.520(b)(2) |
unchanged since 1949 |
| Ordinary policy, bodily injury, 1 person, before 2 July 2020 |
$20,000 |
MCL 500.3009(1)(a) |
pre-reform figure |
| Ordinary policy, bodily injury, 1 person, after 1 July 2020 |
$250,000 |
MCL 500.3009(1)(a) |
2019 reform |
| Ordinary policy, bodily injury, 2 or more, after 1 July 2020 |
$500,000 |
MCL 500.3009(1)(b) |
2019 reform |
| Lowest bodily-injury limits electable in writing |
$50,000 / $100,000 |
MCL 500.3009(5) |
requires a form issued by the director |
| Ordinary policy, property damage |
$10,000 |
MCL 500.3009(1)(c) |
no before/after split in the text |
| PIP medical, lowest tier |
$50,000 |
MCL 500.3107c(1)(a) |
available only to Medicaid enrollees |
| PIP medical, middle tiers |
$250,000 / $500,000 |
MCL 500.3107c(1)(b)–(c) |
open election |
| PIP medical, top tier |
No limit |
MCL 500.3107c(1)(d) |
open election |
| PIP medical where no valid selection was made |
No limit |
MCL 500.3107c(4) |
applies by default |
Sources: MCL 257.520 read via its 9 January 2026 Internet Archive snapshot; MCL 500.3009 via its 16 August 2025 snapshot; MCL 500.3107c via its 14 November 2025 snapshot. All consulted 2 September 2026.
Four observations that are ours, not the legislature's, and that you can check against the rows above.
The 2019 reform moved one floor and left the other where it was. Bodily-injury cover for an ordinary policy went from $20,000 to $250,000 per person. The identical $20,000 in the certified-proof chapter was not touched. Anyone who reads Chapter V on its own — and it is the chapter a search for Michigan "proof of financial responsibility" lands on — will understate Michigan's real floor by an order of magnitude.
Property damage is the figure nothing has moved. $10,000 in MCL 257.520(b)(2) from 1949, and $10,000 in MCL 500.3009(1)(c) today, with none of the before-and-after wording the legislature attached to the two bodily-injury paragraphs. Michigan raised its injury floors twelve and a half fold and left the property floor exactly where it started.
The cheapest tier of Michigan cover is closed to most drivers by statute, not by price. MCL 500.3107c(1)(a) allows the $50,000 PIP level only where "The applicant or named insured is enrolled in Medicaid" and the spouse and resident relatives have qualified coverage of their own. So the lowest number in the reform is not an option you can shop for. Any page that tells you Michigan drivers can pick $50,000 PIP to save money is describing a door most readers cannot open.
Doing nothing buys the most expensive tier. Under MCL 500.3107c(4), where no effective selection has been made and the premium-paid presumption does not apply, "subsection (1)(d) applies to the policy" — the unlimited level. Michigan's default is its top tier. That is the single most consequential piece of paperwork in a Michigan policy, and it is a form, not a price.
The obvious question is whether a driver ordered to certify proof in Michigan can hand over a $20,000 policy. The answer is in MCL 257.522(a), a section with the deliberately flat title Automobile insurance policies unaffected by chapter:
"This chapter shall not be held to apply to or affect policies of automobile insurance against liability which may now or hereafter be required by any other law of this state, and such policies, if they contain an agreement or are endorsed to conform with the requirements of this chapter, may be certified as proof of financial responsibility under this chapter."
Read the two halves in order. Chapter V does not displace what any other Michigan law requires — so the insurance code's limits stand on their own. And an ordinary Michigan policy, endorsed to conform, is what gets certified. The certified-proof chapter supplies the procedure; the insurance code supplies the amount. The 1949 numbers are a floor beneath a floor, and the higher one governs.
That is the answer to the question this page exists to settle, and it is worth being precise about because the mistake runs in both directions. A Michigan driver does not get to certify a 20/40/10 policy. Nor does the survival of Chapter V mean Michigan quietly has an SR-22 after all: the chapter has no filing period, no form number and no consumer-facing name, and the Secretary of State does not administer it as one. If you are comparing states because you are moving with an existing filing, that distinction is the one that matters — Michigan has a mechanism but not a product, and there is nothing for your old state's certificate to become here.
The restricted licence is tied to vehicles, not to a period
What Michigan actually issues to a driver in financial-responsibility trouble is narrower than an SR-22 and hangs on money owed rather than on a violation category. The Secretary of State's FAQ on financial-responsibility restricted licences, read via its 15 March 2026 snapshot, sets out how a driver gets there:
"If someone is driving a vehicle without insurance and is at-fault in an accident, the injured party may file a suit against the uninsured motorist in court for damages. The court may award a judgment for damages to the injured party against the uninsured motorist. If the uninsured motorist cannot pay the judgment, their driver's license is suspended until the judgment is paid in full."
The way back is a specific licence: "This is a license that limits the holder to driving only the vehicles stated on the license." To get it you file "a partial-payment agreement and proof of financial-responsibility insurance" with the Department of State's Driver Record Activity Unit, 7064 Crowner Drive, Lansing, Michigan 48918-0001 — telephone 517-636-6406, fax 517-636-7515.
Two structural consequences follow, and they are the reason Michigan cannot be slotted into a duration table. The obligation ends on an event, not on a date: the suspension runs until the judgment is paid in full. And the licence attaches to named vehicles, so changing car restarts the process. The SOS is blunt about the gap that opens while it does: "Until a new driver license is issued, you are not licensed to drive the new vehicle." Everywhere else, how long a filing lasts is a number of years. Here the question to put to the Secretary of State is not when it expires but exactly what has to be satisfied to end it, and who confirms that it has.
There is also a route for the case that looks hopeless — where the person you owe will not co-operate. The SOS answers it directly: "The suspended driver may request a hearing at the court where judgment was rendered. The judge may enter an Order Regarding Installment Payments." A certified or attested true copy of that order then goes to the same Driver Record Activity Unit. An unwilling creditor does not, on its own, lock you out of the restricted licence.
Two to four weeks, and the sentence in capital letters
This is the most practically useful thing the Secretary of State prints about Michigan filings, and no comparison page carries it. On how the certificate reaches the state:
"The subject applies for the financial-responsibility insurance at an insurance agent of their choosing. The application is sent to the home office of the issuing company, and the home office supplies the state with the necessary certificates of insurance. This process may take between two and four weeks to complete. AN APPLICATION FOR INSURANCE IS NOT ACCEPTABLE."
Three things in that passage change what you should do this week rather than next month.
The lead time is two to four weeks, and it is the insurer's home office that generates the certificate, not the agent you spoke to. Buying the policy is not the milestone; the certificate arriving in Lansing is.
The capitalised sentence is there because people try it. Proof of application — a binder, a receipt, a confirmation email — does not satisfy the requirement, and turning up with one costs you the whole waiting period again.
And the filing is a certificate, which is why the SOS phrases the driver's part as supplying nothing: "Your insurance company will supply the State of Michigan with a copy of the new insurance certificate." As in every other state, the document travels insurer-to-agency. What differs in Michigan is only that it has no snappy name.
Owner's, operator's, and the sentence that makes the difference criminal
Michigan recognises two shapes of financial-responsibility cover, and the choice between them has a statutory consequence that the consumer page does not spell out. The SOS describes the options:
"There are two types of acceptable insurance: (1) Owner's, which insures any vehicle registered in the name of the responsible party; and (2) Operator's, which insures the responsible party in any vehicle not registered in the subject's name. The subject may carry either or both, whatever meets the subject's needs."
That reads like a convenience. MCL 257.520(b)(3) is where it stops being one:
"When a certificate is filed showing that a policy or policies have been issued covering all motor vehicles owned by the insured but not insuring such person when operating any motor vehicle not owned by him, it shall be unlawful for such person to operate any motor vehicle not owned by him or not covered by such certificate."
So a Michigan driver who has certified an owner's policy only, and who then borrows a friend's car, is not merely uninsured for that trip — the statute makes the driving itself unlawful. That is the same structural gap a non-owner filing closes in SR-22 states, and here it is the operator's policy that does the closing. "Either or both, whatever meets the subject's needs" is accurate, but the needs assessment has a criminal provision behind it.
What a Michigan traffic stop actually asks for
The requirement a police officer tests is not Chapter V at all. MCL 257.328(1), read via its 12 September 2025 snapshot, requires the owner or operator to produce "evidence that the motor vehicle is insured under chapter 31 of the insurance code of 1956, 1956 PA 218, MCL 500.3101 to 500.3179," and provides that failing to produce it, or failing to have the insurance at all, means the driver "is responsible for a civil infraction."
Subsection (2) sets out what the document does:
"A certificate of insurance, in paper or electronic form and issued by an insurance company, that certifies that the security that meets the requirements of sections 3101 and 3102 of the insurance code of 1956, 1956 PA 218, MCL 500.3101 and 500.3102, is in force is prima facie evidence that insurance is in force for the motor vehicle described in the certificate of insurance until the expiration date shown on the certificate."
Two details worth carrying. The certificate is good as evidence only "until the expiration date shown on the certificate," so an expired card in the glovebox proves nothing. And the same section limits what an officer may do with your phone: where a driver shows an electronic certificate, "the police officer shall only view the electronic copy of the certificate of insurance and shall not manipulate the electronic device to view any other information," and the driver "is not presumed to have consented to a search of the electronic device."
What a price question can honestly be answered with here
This page names no cheapest insurer and prints no premium. What it can tell you is where the money in a Michigan policy is actually decided, and in this state that is unusually clear: it is decided by two forms, not by a company.
The first is the PIP selection under MCL 500.3107c(1). The gap between the $250,000 tier and no limit is the largest single lever in a Michigan quote, and it is a coverage choice, not a discount. Quote every insurer at the same tier or you are comparing different products; then ask the same insurer to reprice at a different tier, which is the comparison that tells you what the tier costs.
The second is the bodily-injury election under MCL 500.3009(5), which permits limits down to "$50,000.00 under subsection (1)(a) and $100,000.00 under subsection (1)(b)" — but only on "a form issued by the director." Nothing about that is automatic, and MCL 500.3009(6) requires an insurer at new business or renewal to provide the options available, "a price for each option available under this section," and the form. That obligation is worth invoking by name: you are entitled to be shown a price per option, which is a better basis for a decision than any published average.
One warning from the same section, because it is the trap that voids everything. Where a named person is excluded from liability cover, MCL 500.3009(2) requires this notice on the policy face and on the certificate: "Warning—when a named excluded person operates a vehicle all liability coverage is void—no one is insured." If a household member has been named out to bring a premium down, that is what has been bought.
What I could not verify
Anything on the live Michigan sites. Both legislature.mi.gov and michigan.gov return an Access Denied page to this server, so every source here is an Internet Archive snapshot of the same URL, dated between 12 September 2025 and 15 March 2026. Where the state has amended a section or rewritten a page since, this article is quoting the snapshot.
Whether MCL 500.3009's limits still read as quoted. The archived page carries the legislature's own banner: "THIS SECTION IS AMENDED EFFECTIVE OCTOBER 17, 2025: See 500.3009.amended". The snapshot read here predates that date, and the amended text could not be opened. The 250/500 figures are quoted from the version in force as captured; treat the amendment as unread.
The Driver Responsibility Fee repeal, and the reinstatement fee that remains. The fee was eliminated by 2018 legislation amending MCL 257.732a, and the Secretary of State charges a licence reinstatement fee — but no Internet Archive copy exists of MCL 257.732a or of the SOS's own reinstatement-fee page, and both live hosts refuse this server. Rather than print a repeal date and a dollar amount taken from secondary summaries, neither appears above. Ask the Secretary of State, or read those two pages from a browser that can reach them. For how other agencies publish theirs, our reinstatement fees by state page collects the ones that are readable.
Michigan's insurance-eligibility points rule. An earlier version of this page stated that more than six eligibility points from violations in the past three years can result in being declined cover. That rule sits in Michigan's Essential Insurance Act rather than in the sections read here, and the state consumer guide it came from could not be reopened. It is left out rather than repeated on the strength of an old reading.
Any published Michigan filing period. There is none to find, and that is a finding rather than a gap. The suspension runs until the judgment is paid in full.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Michigan require an SR-22?
No. Michigan issues no SR-22 and publishes no filing period. What it has instead is Chapter V of the Michigan Vehicle Code, Proof of Financial Responsibility for the Future, under which an ordinary policy is certified to the state — MCL 257.522(a) provides that such a policy, "if they contain an agreement or are endorsed to conform with the requirements of this chapter, may be certified as proof of financial responsibility under this chapter" — together with a financial-responsibility restricted licence for a driver whose licence is suspended over an unpaid judgment. Per the Secretary of State that licence "limits the holder to driving only the vehicles stated on the license," and the suspension runs until the judgment is paid in full rather than for a set number of years. Any fifty-state table giving Michigan three years has filled in a blank the state has not filled in.
Which liability limits actually apply in Michigan — the 20/40/10 in the vehicle code or the 250/500 in the insurance code?
The insurance code's. MCL 257.520(b)(2) still prints $20,000, $40,000 and $10,000 because that text dates from Act 300 of 1949 and the 2019 no-fault reform did not amend it, but MCL 500.3009(1)(a) has required "not less than $250,000.00 because of bodily injury to or death of 1 person in any 1 accident" since 2 July 2020, with $500,000 for two or more persons. MCL 257.522(a) is what reconciles them: Chapter V does not affect what other Michigan law requires, and it is an ordinary conforming policy that gets certified. Bodily-injury limits can be elected down to $50,000 and $100,000 under MCL 500.3009(5), but only on a form issued by the director. Property damage is $10,000 in both statutes and the reform left it there.
How long does it take to get a Michigan financial-responsibility certificate on file?
Between two and four weeks, and the state will not accept anything less than the finished certificate. The Secretary of State's own wording is that you apply through an agent, "the application is sent to the home office of the issuing company, and the home office supplies the state with the necessary certificates of insurance. This process may take between two and four weeks to complete. AN APPLICATION FOR INSURANCE IS NOT ACCEPTABLE." Buying the policy is not the milestone; the certificate reaching the Driver Record Activity Unit in Lansing is. The same applies if you change vehicle while holding a restricted licence — until the new certificate arrives and a new licence issues, "you are not licensed to drive the new vehicle."
