Getting & Keeping a TLC License: Topic Guide

In short: Most NYC drivers need one TLC Driver License, which TLC says lets you drive a yellow taxi, green taxi, livery, black car and limousine. Commuter van and paratransit drivers get separate licenses. To apply you need to be at least 19, hold a New York chauffeur's license (class A, B, C or E), have no more than 5 DMV points in 15 months, owe nothing to the DMV or TLC, and finish every step within 90 days. The license lasts three years, and renewing has its own course and deadlines.

The application steps

TLC's license page lists the requirements: medical certification, a drug test, a DMV-certified defensive driving course (unless you finished one in the past three years), the three-day new-driver course, Passenger Assistance and WAV training, the TLC exam, fingerprints and photo, a 10-minute sex trafficking awareness video, and paying any parking and traffic tickets. From October 1, 2025, out-of-state applicants must also get a NYS DMV Client ID and upload the receipt to TLC UP.

TLC publishes a live tracker of new applications. This is what incomplete applications were still missing on one day:

The exam and the medical form were the items most often still outstanding. If your 90 days are running, those are worth scheduling first.

Which license do you need?

See our pages for Uber and Lyft drivers, commuter van drivers and paratransit drivers. If you are still unsure, every TLC license type explained compares them side by side, and the which-license tool asks a few questions.

Renewing without a gap

Your license expires three years after it was issued, and a renewed license runs three years from the old expiration date (80-06). Under 80-04, renewal applicants must complete the TLC License Renewal Course within the 90 days before they apply, along with the Passenger Assistance and WAV training. The timing rules in 80-06(d):

• File at least 30 days before the expiration date, or TLC may not finish in time.
• After expiration you cannot drive until TLC approves the renewal.
• You can still file up to 180 days late with a $25 late fee; after 180 days the license cannot be renewed.
• If you won't be available for drug testing in the 90 days before expiration, you can ask once per term to move your expiration date earlier.

Guides in this topic

• Getting licensed: from zero to your first trip, how to get a TLC license, the drug test, driver education courses, defensive driving, WAV training.
• Common questions: criminal record, out-of-state license, why applications get denied.
• Keeping it: renewal, driving while renewal is pending, what you must report to TLC, DMV points and your license.
• Getting it back: reinstatement and revocation.

Driving without a valid TLC license is a summons of its own: see 80-11(a)(1) and 80-11(c)(1). Points and suspensions are covered in the safety and fines hubs.