Va. takes lead on driver’s licenses

Check out the new licenses

Whether your Virginia's driver's license is valid is becoming a black-and-white issue.

Starting this spring, Virginia will become the first state in the nation to issue licenses made from tamper-resistant polycarbonates containing laser-engraved black-and-white photos of the permit holder.

"They'll be harder for the bad guys to counterfeit," explained Melanie Stokes with the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, and the "gray-scale" photo "doesn't distract the viewer from essential facial features."

Driver's licenses are America's most common government-issued identification documents. Making them tougher to falsify is a key tool in fighting crime and terrorism, officials say.

The photo will appear in two places on the card, including in a clear window visible from both sides of the new license.

Since the photographs are engraved by laser, they will be almost impossible to alter or switch, the DMV said, but they cannot be made in color, which requires laminations. "It's not layers and layers of plastic like our current driver's licenses," Stokes said.

According to DMV Commissioner D.B. Smit, Virginia's will be the first U.S. driver's license with the two-sided photo window and only the third such license globally.

Raised lettering and ultraviolet features also will help protect the card's security. Its polycarbonate material has high impact and temperature resistance, and good optical properties.

Bar codes on the back of the license will contain the same information -- such as name, identification number and birth date -- displayed on the front, DMV said.

The new cards will have different layouts and colored heading lettering depending on the holder's age and type of document.

Virginia will produce the new licenses and identification cards in one location, and mail them out in three working days.

Based at a secure facility in Danville, central card production and distribution will reduce the chance for identity fraud. The 15 workers there will undergo high-security background checks, Stokes said.

"With the central issuance," Stokes said, "that's going to eliminate the appeal for someone who's trying to get one illegally" on the spot at one of DMV's 74 offices.

Making the cards will cost $6.5 million a year, she said. The contractor is Canadian Bank Note Co. Ltd., of Ottawa, Ontario. DMV said all the card workers at the Danville center are Virginians.

Virginia handled about 2.2 million driver's license transactions in 2008, the department said. The state has 5.3 million licensed drivers.

Existing licenses and identification cards will still be valid until their normal expiration date.

On a staggered schedule between March and July, DMV's offices will close for two days for equipment installation and training, and then re-open to begin issuing the secure cards. Licenses issued after July will be in the new format.

Virginia will issue the first cards March 24 at the Tappahannock DMV office. The licenses will cost $32 and be valid for eight years.

The new licenses will help Virginia comply with proposed national standards for driver's licenses and identification cards, Stokes said.