Sometimes, you just want to let the good times roll.
If you want to keep your vehicle for more than a year, in most cases you’ll need to renew its registration.
When can I renew
You can renew your Montana registration up to 180 days before your current registration's expiration date. The Renew button appears on your vehicle's details page during that window.
visitor.us will send you a reminder email about 45 days before your current registration expires.
If your registration has already expired, you can still renew through the same flow - the window doesn't close, and there's no penalty for ordering after the expiration date. See our Registration Renewal FAQ for more on lapsed registrations and other common questions.
How to order your renewal
Within the Vehicles tab of autos.visitor.us, click the View button next to your vehicle:
You will be brought to your vehicle's details screen. Click the Renew button to renew your vehicle's registration:
You'll be guided through a short order flow that lets you confirm fees, choose any optional upgrades (such as permanent registration if your vehicle is eligible), and review the total before paying.
What it costs
The base Montana registration renewal fee is $495. The following additional fees may apply depending on your vehicle:
Potential additional fees
Recent model year vehicle for vehicles 4 years and newer, excluding motorcycles and trailers: $295
Fully electric vehicle: $295
Hybrid vehicle: $195
High Value Vehicle: 1% of the vehicle's MSRP (applies to passenger vehicles with MSRP ≥ $150,000 and motorhomes with MSRP ≥ $350,000, as long as the vehicle is ten years old or newer) - see Potential Additional Fees for details.
Permanent registration upgrade (optional, for vehicles 11 years old or older): $490 - your vehicle's registration never needs to be renewed as long as you own the vehicle.
International shipping: $95 per international shipment of your renewal documents (US shipping is included in the base fee).
What happens after you order
After you place your renewal order, visitor.us submits it to the Montana Motor Vehicle Division. We typically receive your new registration document and decal within about a week of your order.
When we receive your renewal items, we scan and upload an image of the registration document and decal to your visitor.us dashboard, and we email you a notification with a prompt to provide a shipping address.
Shipping your renewal to you
Once you provide a shipping address, we send your new registration document and decal via FedEx (US destinations) or DHL (international destinations). For US destinations, we typically ship via FedEx 2-Day; international destinations are subject to the $95 international shipping fee noted above.
If you'd prefer to pick up your renewal at a FedEx location rather than have it mailed, that option is available at the address-entry step - supported for FedEx locations in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
You can expect to receive your items about four business days after submitting your desired address (for destinations inside the United States).
International shipments can take three to five business days to reach Europe and Australia, and as long as ten to 14 business days to reach Central and South America.
visitor.us is not responsible for delayed, undeliverable, or lost shipments
Many factors outside of visitor.us' control may cause a shipment to be delayed, lost, or undeliverable.
Factors include invalid address entry by you, and operational and weather-related delays experienced by the shipper.
Once we send a shipment, you are responsible for collecting it and, if necessary, you are responsible for contacting the shipper to arrange final delivery.
Customers whose shipments are returned to visitor.us will be charged a $100 fee for shipment reprocessing.
Replacing your old registration document and decal
When your renewal arrives, replace both items immediately:
Keep the new registration document in your vehicle's glove box. You can throw your old registration document away.
Place the new decal on your vehicle's rear license plate, over the old decal, so that only the new decal is visible (it's ok if a little bit of the old decal is showing).
Registration period
Your vehicle's registration period is not impacted by the timing of your renewal. For example, if your vehicle was originally registered in January, its registration will always expire on January 31 — whether you renew in November, December, or January.