How to fill out West Virginia DMV-44-A-TR

The form that moves your plate onto your next car - the natural sequel to a West Virginia sale, where keeping the plate is the statutory duty and wasting its remaining registration is optional. The sheet is a FROM and TO pair: the current vehicle description on the left, the transfer vehicle on the right, insurance proof beneath, and the two rules its important-information box insists on - both vehicles must be titled and registered in the same owner(s) name(s), and the fee is $10.50 by check or money order, never cash.

Written against DMV-44-A-TR (Rev 09/2021), issued under W. Va. Code 17A-4-1 and 17A-10-10. Do this promptly or the plate becomes a liability instead of an asset: an idle plate from a sold car sits in the insurance verification sweep wearing your name, and the Division's own instruction for a dropped policy is that the plate is supposed to be returned. Transfer it, surrender it, or account for it with the lost-plate statement - the one thing a West Virginia plate cannot safely do is nothing.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank DMV-44-A-TR from the webapps.transportation.wv.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our DMV-44-A-TR guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   You fill this in

   The plate number

   The plate coming off the sold car, exactly as stamped.

   Watch out: Physically take it off before the buyer drives away - the transfer moves the number, but only you can move the tin.

2. 2
   You fill this in

   FROM - the current vehicle

   Make, year, weight, title number, body style and VIN of the car you sold, with your name as its title lists it.

   Watch out: Yes, the sold car's details - the Division matches this column against the record the plate hangs on today.

3. 3
   You fill this in

   TO - the receiving vehicle

   The same identifiers for your other car, titled in the same name.

   Watch out: Same name means same name. A car titled jointly with your spouse is not in the same name as one titled alone, and this is the rejection the counter sees most.

4. 4
   You fill this in

   Insurance and address

   Insurer, agent, policy and NAIC number for the receiving car; the address row only if yours changed.

   Watch out: The NAIC number is on your insurance card. It is how the verification system finds your policy without a phone call.

5. 5
   You fill this in

   Fee and envelope

   The $10.50 check or money order, the registration card copy both sides, and the Charleston box.

   Watch out: The registration card copy is on the DMV-1-TR's checklist for transfers too - the two forms enforce the same packet from opposite ends.

What gets this one rejected

• •Different names on the two titles. The rule is printed in the box: both vehicles must be titled and registered in the same owner(s) name(s) - a plate cannot follow a car to your spouse, your buyer or your LLC.
• •An incomplete vehicle column. The form's own warning is that an incomplete application will be returned - six identifiers each side, all of them.
• •Cash in the envelope. Do not mail cash is the first instruction; the $10.50 goes as a check or money order.
• •No insurance details for the receiving car. The proof-of-insurance block is a condition, and the reminder beside it is that driving without insurance is against the law.
• •Transferring a plate you already reported lost. The lost or stolen plate has its own statement form, and a duplicate is a different transaction with a different fee.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •The sixty-day window is statutory. 17A-4-1 lets you run the plate on another vehicle you own for up to sixty days once you have applied for the transfer - the form is what opens that window, not the sale.
• •Class matters. The statute moves a plate to another vehicle of the same class, with the fee difference payable where the new vehicle's fee is higher - a car plate does not casually become a truck plate.
• •Renewal can ride along. Where the old registration expires within sixty days, the Division's registration page suggests transferring and renewing in one transaction - one envelope, both fees, no gap.

Every line here was read off DMV-44-A-TR (Rev 09/2021) itself — the PDF is here — and off the West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles 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 West Virginia seller paperwork, or what selling a car in West Virginia involves.