The only DVS vehicle form that spends most of its first page asking you not to use it. Expedited title service costs $20 on top of the ordinary taxes and fees, it is posted to St Paul rather than handed across a counter, and DVS reserves it for extra-ordinary circumstances such as the vehicle is leaving the state or the country. It is worth knowing about anyway, because a seller with a buyer waiting on a title is exactly the person who goes looking for it.
Written against Expedited title request (Rev 11/2017), issued under Minnesota Statutes 168.326.
This form carries no PS number and its footer is dated 2017, which makes it easy to mistake for something withdrawn. It is current, and DVS links it from its own vehicle forms index - but read the department's fee page rather than relying on any figure from a form of that age.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank Expedited title request from the assets.dps.mn.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual Expedited title request, rendered from the PDF the Minnesota Driver and Vehicle Services 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 whole request as DVS publishes it. Three short blocks and one very deep box - because the explanation is the only part of the form the department actually weighs, and a thin one is what gets the request declined and the fee returned.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Owner name and address
Owner 1 last, first, middle, a second owner if the title names one, then street address, city, state and zip code.
Watch out: This is the owner as the title spells them. The expedited title is posted back to this address, which is the whole point of the exercise.
2
You fill this in
Vehicle identification number
The seventeen characters, in the box on the vehicle row.
Watch out: Copy it off the certificate. A posted request that fails on a mistyped identification number costs a fortnight, which is more than the service was going to save.
3
You fill this in
Minnesota plate number
The plate on the vehicle now, in the box beside the identification number, where there is one.
Watch out: In Minnesota the plate stays with the car, so a vehicle already registered here has one. A vehicle coming in from another state may not, and the box can be left empty.
4
You fill this in
The detailed explanation
The deep box, and the only part of the form the department weighs.
Watch out: Name the circumstance, the date it turns on and why a deputy registrar cannot solve it. The form warns that the explanation has to be detailed enough to decide the request on, and a one-line answer is a declined one.
5
You fill this in
Write the second cheque
Not a field on the form - an instruction printed above it. One cheque for the taxes and fees, a separate one for the expedited service.
Watch out: Combining them gets the whole envelope returned unprocessed. It is the single most avoidable failure in the Minnesota set.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Motor vehicle owner name and address
Owner 1 last, first, middle, an optional Owner 2, then street address, city, state and zip code.
Motor vehicle information
Vehicle identification number and, if there is one, the Minnesota plate number.
A detailed explanation for the need for expedited services
A very deep free-text box, and the whole substance of the form. The instruction beside it warns that your explanation must be detailed enough to determine if the expedited services request can be fulfilled.
The two-cheque instruction
Not a field but the rule the form turns on: send this form, a fully completed application to title, a cheque for all required taxes and fees, and a separate cheque of $20 for the expedited services.
The refusal clause
A request for expedited services may not be honored if it is apparent that the request cannot or should not be granted - in which case the application is processed normally and the fee is returned.
What gets this one rejected
•One cheque instead of two. The form says applications without correct taxes and fees and a separate expedited services check cannot be accepted and will be returned unprocessed to the sender.
•A reason that is really an inconvenience. Extra-ordinary circumstances is the standard the form sets, and it gives its own examples - the vehicle is leaving the state or the country.
•Using it for a driver's licence. The form opens by saying it is for expedited motor vehicle title services only and not for any driver license or identification card services.
•Sending it instead of the application. It travels with a fully completed PS2000, not in place of one.
•Ignoring the advice. DVS says in terms that it strongly encourages you to avoid paying the extra fee and see a deputy registrar instead, and that is not boilerplate - a deputy registrar can often print what you need the same day.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•It is a postal service, not a counter one. Everything about this form assumes an envelope to St Paul: two cheques, a posted application, and a decision made without you there.
•The department may simply decline. The refusal clause is unusual and explicit. The transaction is still processed, at ordinary speed, and the $20 comes back.
•Ask at a counter first. A deputy registrar office can print a duplicate title in most cases while you wait, which is faster than anything this form can do.
Every line here was read off Expedited title request (Rev 11/2017) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Minnesota Driver and Vehicle Services pages.
This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ,
theirs governs.
