Question : Hono lulu’s Department of Customer Serv ices has stated they are working on allowing renewal of the Hawaii driver’s license online. When will this service be implemented ?
Answer : Next year. Here’s the full response from Harold Nedd, spokesperson for Honolulu’s Department of Customer Services :
“Early 2026 is the target date for Oahu residents to have the option to renew their Hawaii driver’s license online. That timeframe coincides with the anticipated completion date of a major upgrade to the aging statewide system for processing driver’s licenses and state identification cards. The well-timed new system will make in-person visits to the DMV unnecessary to renew a driver’s license. It simply made better sense to complete the upgrade to the system for issuing driver’s licenses before making the online option for the service available to residents.We also took comfort in language in the state law, which provides leeway for when the DMV could start offering the online service to renew a driver’s license. Furthermore, the ability to renew a driver’s license online is part of a comprehensive statewide effort that requires careful coordination of the City and County of Honolulu’s information technology resources.”
The law to which Nedd referred () says eligible drivers with a category 1, 2 or 3 Hawaii driver’s license may apply for a renewal of the license online. The law was approved in 2023, with an effective date of July 1, 2025, prompting other readers to ask whether they can renew their licenses online now. As Nedd explained, the answer is no.
To be clear, the law does not mention state IDs.
Nedd said Wednesday that the online renewal option planned to launch next year would be only for Hawaii driver’s licenses, not state IDs.
Q : Thank you for raising the issue about slow DMV title processing and I would like to give you an update. We are still waiting for our car title (since mid-April ) for a used vehicle purchased from a local dealership. We don’t even need new plates, just the title, but without it we cannot sell the vehicle. Neither the dealership nor the DMV can tell us anything. A visit to one of the DMV offices indicated that it had to go through the DMV “dealership side.” They informed you weeks ago they were putting extra assets on it. Please follow up.
A : The DMV was unable to clear the backlog in a month, as officials had estimated when we wrote about this problem in late May. Here’s the update from spokesperson Harold Nedd :
“The Department of Customer Services is continuing to take aggressive steps to help its Division of Motor Vehicles speed up new and used-car registrations from auto dealers in the City and County of Hono lulu. The current processing time for auto dealer vehicle registrations is about three and a half weeks. By comparison, that processing time was five weeks a month ago. As of July 1, an estimated 6, 100 transactions need to be processed. That figure represents about a 40 % increase from March 2025, when the average turnaround was eight days. The DMV’s standard for processing time is 10 days. Our immediate plan is to return back to our standard 10 business days within the next few weeks. We are actively working toward this goal by redirecting resources within the department to improve the turnaround time ; looking at technology to enhance our efficiency ; and streamlining procedures to better ensure our effectiveness in the future. We have prioritized improving the processing time for commercial motor vehicle registrations to help ensure that lives are not put on hold and auto dealers can continue to fully contribute to our local economy.”
Given that processing has improved from five weeks for applications submitted a month ago to 3-1 /2 weeks for those submitted now, we wondered whether your mid-April paperwork fell through the cracks. Nedd looked into it and said that your paperwork has been processed by the city and that you should follow up with your car dealer ; he didn’t know when it was processed.————Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 2-200, Honolulu, HI 96813 ; call 808-529-4773 ; or email.————