Standard Alaska plates stay bolted to the car when it is sold - the statute says the registration expires but the plates remain on the vehicle, and the Division adds that standard issue plates are non transferable. Personalized and specialty plates are the exception: those you take off at the handover, and the buyer gets a fresh set at no additional charge. This one-page form is what you sign when the personalized plate is not going with you either - when you are giving it up, or handing it to somebody else who wants it. Until it is signed, the plate stays locked to your name and nobody else can be issued it.
Written against Form 814 (Rev 01/2018), issued under 2 AAC 92.120, which governs personalized registration plates, their transfer and their surrender.
The trap here is timing rather than paperwork. The plate stops being attached to a currently registered vehicle on the day you sell the car, and the sixty-day clock in the regulation starts then - so a personalized plate taken off in August and kept for a vehicle you intend to buy in the spring can lapse back to the Division in the meantime. If you are keeping it, ask for the transfer at the same counter visit rather than later.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank Form 814 from the dmv.alaska.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our Form 814 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual Form 814, rendered from the PDF the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles, Department of Administration publishes and completed end to end: letterhead, every field, and the blocks at the foot.
Amber — you write it
Grey — not yours to fill
Numbered — explained below
Rendered from the Division's own PDF, releasing a vanity plate one character per cell. Amber is the whole of it - this is a form with no counter block and no notary, which makes it one of the few Alaska vehicle documents a seller can complete and post the same afternoon. The signature and date rules at the foot carry no fillable boxes and sit below every box that does, so they are shown as they print, for pen. The plate string, name, address and identification number are invented.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
The plate, character by character
One cell per character of the personalized plate you are releasing.
Watch out: Copy it from the plate itself rather than from the registration. Spacing and the difference between a zero and the letter O are what make a vanity plate unique.
2
You fill this in
Your name
First, middle and last name, as the plate is registered.
Watch out: If the plate was issued in a former name, sort that out before releasing it - the Division is matching a person to a plate, and there is no VIN here to help.
3
You fill this in
Mailing address
Street, city, state and zip.
Watch out: This is where any correspondence about the release goes, including anything the Division needs before it can reissue the plate to somebody else.
4
You fill this in
Driver licence or ID number
Your identification number, at the end of the address row.
Watch out: It is the only identifier on the form. Without it the Division has a name and an address and no certain way to tie either to the plate record.
5
You fill this in
How you want to hear back, then sign
The regular mail or e-mail tick, then the signature and date under the perjury certification.
Watch out: If you are handing the plate to a named person, give them the signed original - it is the document their own application depends on.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
The relinquishment sentence
The first line of the form, and the whole of its effect: I hereby relinquish any and all rights to the following personalized license plates.
Personalized License Plate Number
A comb of individual character cells. It is the plate itself that is being released, not a vehicle - there is no VIN anywhere on this form.
Owner first name, middle name, last name
Three boxes. The person who currently holds the plate.
Mailing Address, City, State, Zip Code
Where the Division writes to you about the release.
Driver License / ID #
Your identification, on the same row as the zip code.
E-mail address, and how you want to be notified
An email box, then a two-way tick: regular mail or e-mail.
The certification and signature
By signing below, I certify under the penalty of perjury, that everything on this application is true and correct - then a signature line and a date in a printed slash frame.
What is not on the form
No vehicle, no serial number, no buyer. This document releases a plate into the Division's hands or towards a named person's application; it is not a transfer instrument in itself.
What gets this one rejected
•Using it for a standard plate. There is no interest to release: an ordinary Alaska plate is not transferable and stays with the vehicle when it is sold.
•Signing it when you want to keep the plate for your next vehicle. That is the opposite transaction - a transfer request made in the affidavit section of the title application, with the plate number quoted, a copy of the last registration and the transfer fee.
•Releasing it and then leaving the plate in the garage. Once released it is no longer yours to bolt onto anything.
•A plate number written into the comb with the spacing guessed. Personalized plates are exact strings, and a cell out of place releases a plate that belongs to somebody else.
•Assuming the buyer of your car can simply use it. The person receiving the plate has to apply for it, and this signed release is the document that lets them.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•The plate follows you, not the car - and only this kind of plate. The Division's instruction to sellers is to remove personalized or specialty plates on sale, and the buyer is then issued a new set at no additional charge and can pick up the vehicle after transferring it into their name.
•Sixty days of inactivity and the state takes it back. 2 AAC 92.120(c) requires a personalized plate to be surrendered where the registration has been expired more than sixty days, or where the plate has not been assigned to a currently registered vehicle in the previous sixty days. Selling the car and storing the plate over the winter is exactly that situation.
•A transfer to another vehicle is a different request. A registrant may transfer a personalized plate to another vehicle registered in their own name after proper application to the department - which is a request on the application form, not this release.
•It is how somebody else gets your plate. The Division's own words on its plates page: to get a plate from someone, they must provide you with a signed release form to release it to you.
•No vehicle is named because none is involved. This form is about a string of characters the state issued to you. That is why it asks for your licence number and not for a VIN.
