Three form numbers circulate in the same search results, and they don’t mean the same thing. One is the general certificate nearly every state uses. One is a California-only second form. One exists in two states, neither of which is a state we write in, and it’s the one that causes the most unnecessary worry.
If you already know you need a filing and want it placed, that’s the job of our SR-22 insurance page. The full statutory detail for each state lives on its own page: Oregon, Arizona, California, Colorado and Nevada.
The one thing all three have in common
None of them is insurance. Each one is a certificate that your insurance company files with a state agency to say a liability policy meeting a stated minimum is in force for you. The Colorado DMV puts it as plainly as any state does: the SR-22 form is not an insurance policy. You buy the policy. The company attaches the certificate and files it.
That matters for a practical reason. You can’t buy any of these forms on their own, and you can’t get one from the state. Colorado’s DR 2316 says SR-22s are available only from your insurance company. Arizona’s ADOT says your insurance company sends it straight to the department. So if a website offers to sell you a certificate with no policy behind it, it’s selling you a policy or selling you nothing.
SR-22: the general form
The SR-22 is the certificate of financial responsibility used across most states, including all five we write in. Its purpose is ongoing proof. The state wants confirmation that you carry at least the required liability coverage, and the certificate provides it, along with a promise from your company to report if the policy ends.
What triggers one varies by state. Oregon DMV lists an uninsured crash, owning a vehicle involved in an uninsured crash, convictions for driving uninsured, DUII or certain traffic crimes, and applying for a hardship permit. Arizona lists DUI-related suspensions and revocations, implied consent suspensions, insurance-law suspensions, unpaid judgments and the special ignition interlock restricted license. Nevada adds a trigger that has nothing to do with your driving. A registered vehicle that went uninsured for 91 days or longer, or any third lapse within five years, will do it.
The SR-22 also comes in types, and the type is the second place people file the wrong thing. An owner filing covers vehicles you own. An operator or non-owner filing covers you when you drive vehicles you don’t own. Oregon also lets a vehicle owner file on behalf of an employee or an immediate family member. Picking wrong hurts in both directions. A non-owner filing doesn’t cover a car you own, and an owner filing can end with the car when you sell it. Our page on non-owner car insurance covers what those policies do and don’t reach.
What the SR-22 proves is the floor. Oregon’s minimum liability is 25/50/20, with personal injury protection of $15,000 per person and uninsured motorist coverage of 25/50 also part of the state minimum. Arizona’s is 25/50/15 for policies issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2020. Colorado’s is 25/50/15. Nevada’s is 25/50/20 under NRS 485.185. California’s is 30/60/15 under Vehicle Code 16430 since January 1, 2025. In each case the certificate says the floor is in place and nothing more. Our guide to auto liability limits explains what each of those three numbers actually pays.
SR 1P: California’s second certificate
California doesn’t use the SR-22 by itself. The DMV calls the filing a California Insurance Proof Certificate and writes it as SR 22 / SR 1P, and the two aren’t interchangeable.
The DMV’s SR 104 information sheet draws the line. The SR 22 certifies a motor vehicle liability policy. It can be written as an owner’s policy on vehicles registered to you, an operator’s policy on vehicles you don’t own, or broad coverage on both. The SR 22 is accepted for every financial responsibility action.
The SR 1P certifies an automobile liability policy, or a liability policy for a vehicle with fewer than four wheels. The DMV accepts it for only certain actions, which the SR 104 lists as a collision without insurance, a negligent operator action, a minor’s license application and a nonresident minor’s certificate.
The DMV letter tells your insurance company which certificate to file, and filing the narrower one where the broader one is required won’t clear the action. The SR 104 also says a policy copy or an application doesn’t count. It has to be the certificate.
California adds one more rule that catches drivers with cars still in their name. Vehicle Code 16431(b) requires the certificate to cover every vehicle registered to you before reinstatement, for licenses suspended or revoked under a listed set of sections including the DUI sections. A non-owner filing on its own won’t satisfy a DUI reinstatement if a vehicle is still registered to you.
The SR 1 is a different document entirely
Worth separating, because the numbers look alike. The SR 1 is California’s accident report. Cal. Veh. Code 16000 requires the driver in a collision to report it to the DMV within 10 days. That applies when the collision caused more than $1,000 in damage to any one person’s property, or any injury or death. Each driver files regardless of fault, and an insurance agent, attorney or other representative may file it.
The insurance section of that form is where a filing requirement is often born. The SR 1 warns that if it isn’t fully completed, it will be assumed you weren’t insured for the accident and your license will be suspended. A driver who was insured the whole time can end up in the suspension process by leaving the policy details blank.
FR-44: real, higher, and almost certainly not yours
The FR-44 is a separate certificate used after certain impaired-driving convictions, at higher liability limits than the SR-22 in the same state.
Florida requires an FR-44 for DUI convictions after October 1, 2007, with liability limits of 100/300/50 or a $350,000 combined single limit, kept for three years from reinstatement. Virginia requires one after certain alcohol and drug convictions, at limits double its SR-22 limits under Va. Code 46.2-472.
For most people reading this, the next part is the one that matters. GEICO’s own SR-22 page says the FR-44 applies only in Florida and Virginia. Kemper publishes that it files SR-22 and FR-44 forms where applicable, which is the company-side version of the same fact. Those are company statements, attributed as such. Neither Florida’s page nor Virginia’s says no other state uses one, so we attribute the word “only” to the company that published it rather than to a state.
Oregon, Arizona, California, Colorado and Nevada are not FR-44 states. If your notice came from one of those five, you’re not looking at an FR-44 requirement, and the higher Florida and Virginia limits aren’t your floor.
Higher limits are still worth buying. Oregon raises the floor after a DUII on its own terms. ORS 806.075 requires filings after a DUII conviction to show at least $50,000 for bodily injury to one person and $100,000 for two or more people in one accident, double the general bodily injury minimum. That’s an Oregon rule on an Oregon SR-22, not an FR-44.
Side by side
| SR-22 | SR 1P | FR-44 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | General certificate of financial responsibility | California Insurance Proof Certificate, narrower version | Certificate used after certain impaired-driving convictions |
| Where it applies | Oregon, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada and most other states | California only | Florida and Virginia, per those states’ pages and GEICO’s |
| What it certifies | A motor vehicle liability policy meeting the state minimum | An automobile liability policy, or one for a vehicle with fewer than four wheels | A liability policy at limits above that state’s SR-22 |
| Accepted for | Every California financial responsibility action, and the filing actions in the other four states | Only the actions the SR 104 lists | The impaired-driving actions in those two states |
| Who files it | Your insurance company | Your insurance company | Your insurance company |
How to tell which one you need, in three steps
Read the letter for a form number and a statute. The notice or order names the form, and often the section of law behind it. That citation is the single most useful thing in the envelope. In Oregon a cited statute tells you which filing period applies. In California it tells you whether the SR 22 or the SR 1P clears the action.
Match the filing type to your household, not just to you. Owner, operator or non-owner is a separate question from which form. Tell your advisor about every vehicle in the household and who owns each one. A filing also doesn’t change a company’s rules about who has to be listed on the policy, which our guide to excluded and household drivers covers.
Confirm with the agency that the filing cleared. The certificate reaching the state and the suspension clearing are two different events. Ask, rather than treating the absence of another letter as proof it worked.
If any of the underlying legal questions are live, an attorney is the right person for those. Statutory content here is information about the law, not legal advice.
Where an advisor fits
Vantage Point Risk is an independent agency. We can put a policy with Kemper, and we compare other companies, including National General and GEICO. Each company decides eligibility on its own underwriting, so nobody can promise in advance which one will take a given record, and we won’t.
What we can do is read your notice before anything gets bought, tell you which form and which filing type it calls for, and quote a policy that carries it. If the filing followed a DUI, see DUI car insurance. If your license is suspended right now, see insurance with a suspended license.
Questions to ask your advisor
- Which form number and statute does my notice actually name?
- Do I need an owner, operator or non-owner filing, given what’s in my driveway?
- In California, does my action take the SR 22 or the SR 1P?
- Are there vehicles still registered in my name that the certificate has to cover?
- Does this company file in my state, and how soon after I pay?
- How will I know the filing reached the state and cleared the action?
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