How to fill out Oregon 735-268

The form for everything that happens to a plate without the ownership changing. A seller reaches for it in exactly one situation and it is a common one: you have taken the plates off the car you are selling and you want to put them on the next one, which Oregon calls a plate transfer and charges $30 for. The same sheet renews a registration, replaces a lost plate, replaces stickers and changes a plate design, and it opens by ruling out the thing people most often try to use it for — it cannot change or correct a name on the title, and it cannot change ownership.

Written against 735-268 (4-26), issued under ORS 803.200, 803.350, 803.360 and 803.375. Revised April 2026. This is a registration form, not a title form — if ownership is changing, the document you want is the 735-226, and this one will be returned.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 735-268 from the oregon.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   You fill this in

   Line 1 — VIN and Oregon Title #

   Identify the vehicle that is about to receive the plates, not the vehicle they were taken off.

   Watch out: This trips people constantly. The form is an application about the receiving vehicle; the donor vehicle is named further down, in Remarks.

2. 2
   You fill this in

   Line 2 — Present Oregon Plate #

   Whatever plate is on the receiving vehicle now, with its year, make and style.

   Watch out: If the receiving vehicle has no plate at all, this box is empty and the transaction is a registration as well as a transfer — which means registration requirements and fees on top of the $30.

3. 3
   You fill this in

   Line 3 — special plates and motor power

   The plate type being applied for written on the line, and one of nine motor power boxes.

   Watch out: A custom or group plate transfers like any other, but if the group plate carries restrictions, the person who qualifies for it has to be a registered owner of the vehicle it is moving to.

4. 4
   You fill this in

   Line 4 — owner or lessee

   Full legal name last, first, middle, with the Oregon customer number and date of birth.

   Watch out: The customer number is what makes the transfer work. Registration only follows the plates where at least one owner's customer ID number is the same on both vehicles.

5. 5
   You fill this in

   Lines 5 and 6 — addresses and counties

   Residence address, mailing address if different, and a county named for each.

   Watch out: Only the address for the owner listed on line 4 gets changed on DMV records. Additional owners change theirs on DMV2U.

6. 6
   You fill this in

   Line 9 — vehicle address

   Where the vehicle is primarily housed or dispatched from, if that is not the residence.

   Watch out: This is what decides whether a county registration fee applies, and Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas all charge one. A car garaged somewhere other than home belongs on this line.

7. 7
   You fill this in

   Line 11 — insurance company (not agent) and policy #

   Two boxes under the certification of financial responsibility.

   Watch out: The insurer, not the agency that sold you the policy. It is the commonest hold on an otherwise complete registration application.

8. 8
   You fill this in

   Line 14 — plate type, and one plate or two

   The passenger plate menu with a one-or-two pair beside it.

   Watch out: Two plates go on almost everything. Mopeds, motorcycles, trailers, campers, antique and special interest vehicles get one, for the back.

9. 9
   You fill this in

   Remarks

   The free block at the foot of the front. On a plate transfer it carries the year, make and VIN of the vehicle the plates were taken off.

   Watch out: Without it DMV cannot see which registration record is being closed, and the transfer stalls while somebody writes to ask.

10. 10
    You fill this in

    Line 12 — signature of owner as shown above

    One signature, dated, with a telephone number, and a second line for a joint owner.

    Watch out: The certification above it is narrower than the title version but no softer: knowingly making a false statement on an application for registration is a Class A misdemeanour under ORS 803.375.

What gets this one rejected

• •Using it to correct a name or change ownership. The form says so in a line of its own near the top: this application cannot be used to change or correct the name(s) shown on the title or to change ownership.
• •A plate transfer where neither owner is common to both vehicles. Registration only follows the plates where at least one owner is the same on both records, matched by customer number.
• •A one-and-the-same statement offered to make the names match. The handbook rejects it for this purpose in terms: a one and the same statement is not acceptable for registration to transfer with plates.
• •A plate transfer onto a different class of vehicle. Plates move to a similar vehicle — motor home plates to another motor home — and not across types.
• •Plates that are not of current issue, not legible, or missing one of a required pair. All three are on the handbook's list of conditions for a transfer.
• •An expired registration with a plate transfer, without the registration requirements and fees that go with renewing it.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •Transferring plates to your own next vehicle costs $30. And the registration period goes with them. The handbook's wording is that when at least one owner is the same for both vehicles there is no option to start over with new registration — the registration period always transfers with the plates.
• •Transferring them to somebody else's vehicle destroys the registration. The handbook is blunt about it: when registration plates are transferred from one vehicle to another not owned by the same person, the remaining registration on the plates ceases for both vehicles. Both then start a new registration period and meet every registration requirement afresh.
• •Leaving the plates on the car you sold costs nothing at all. The registration stays with the vehicle and runs to its expiry in the buyer's hands. The reason to take them off is not money, it is that a plate registered to you is a plate photographed as you.
• •Taking them off costs your buyer. If the plates on an Oregon titled vehicle are removed from the vehicle before it is sold or at the time of sale, full registration fees must be paid for new plates. Add a $26 two-plate fee and a $35 light-vehicle trip permit for the drive home.

Every line here was read off 735-268 (4-26) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Oregon Department of Transportation, Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division pages. This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ, theirs governs.

Back to all Oregon seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Oregon involves.