The one way an Illinois plate legally leaves your hands and ends up on somebody else's car - and it is not a sale. The form releases a registration to another person, and it limits who that person can be to a list printed at the foot of the page.
Written against VSD 707 (VSD 707.2, March 2026), issued under 625 ILCS 5/3-821.
This form is not the answer to what do I do with the plates when I sell. That answer is: take them off, and either keep them for your next car on a VSD 190 or hand them back. Selling an active plate is unlawful in Illinois and costs you the plate.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank VSD 707 from the ilsos.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual VSD 707, rendered from the PDF the Illinois Secretary of State 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
The actual VSD 707, completed for a transfer to a daughter - which is on the list. The blank that catches people is the very first one, sitting inside a sentence rather than under a label: the transferee is my/our ______. Leave it empty and the form has not said the one thing it exists to say.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
The relationship, inside the sentence
I/We acknowledge that such transfers are allowed only to immediate family members. The transferee is my/our ______.
Watch out: Check the footnote against the answer before you write it. Son-in-law is in - the spouse of a child - but a grandparent is not, and neither is a nephew.
2
You fill this in
Plate Number and specialty category
The plate being released, and the specialty category if it has one.
Watch out: Copy it exactly as it reads on the plate, including any space. This is the record being moved.
3
You fill this in
The vehicle the plates are on now
Make, model and year on one row, then the vehicle identification number.
Watch out: The car you are selling, not the car the plates are going to. This block establishes what is being released.
4
The buyer fills this in
Person to whom the plates are to be transferred
Their name and a two-line address.
Watch out: Their address, not yours. The registration will follow the person.
5
You fill this in
Transferor column
Printed name, signature and date.
Watch out: If two names hold the registration, both release it - and VSD 393 statement 1 is what does that where this form has room for only one.
6
The buyer fills this in
Transferee column
Printed name, signature and date.
Watch out: They sign too, on the same sheet, under the same affirmation. A form signed by only one side has half a statement on it.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
The relationship blank
Inside the opening sentence: I/We acknowledge that such transfers are allowed only to immediate family members. The transferee is my/our ______.
Plate Number and Specialty Plates Category
Two boxes on one row; the second only if the plate is a specialty one.
Vehicle to which plates are currently registered
Make, model and year, then the VIN on the next line.
Person to whom the plates are to be transferred
Name and a two-line address.
Transferor and Transferee
Two columns, each with a printed name, a signature and a date. Six boxes in all.
What gets this one rejected
•A buyer. The footnote defines immediate family as the transferor's spouse, father, mother, children, brothers, sisters and grandchildren; the father, mother, brothers and sisters of the transferor's spouse; and the spouse of a child, brother or sister of the transferor. A purchaser is not on the list.
•Leaving the relationship blank empty. It sits inside the sentence rather than under a label and it is the first thing that gets missed.
•One signature. Both parties print, sign and date - and if the plate is registered in two names, everyone releasing an interest signs.
•A specialty plate without its category. There is a box for it and specialty plates carry eligibility rules the ordinary ones do not.
•Using it to move a plate between two vehicles you both own. That is a transfer on a VSD 190, not this.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•Read the footnote before the form. The asterisk at the foot is the operative part of this document. Everything above it assumes you already qualify, and the list is exact: grandchildren are in, grandparents are not; a spouse's siblings are in, a spouse's grandchildren are not.
•Under penalty of perjury. The line above the signatures reads that the undersigned hereby affirm that the information set forth above is correct. The relationship you wrote in the first blank is part of that affirmation.
Every line here was read off VSD 707 (VSD 707.2, March 2026) itself —
the PDF is here — and off the Illinois Secretary of State pages.
This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ,
theirs governs.
