Vehicle registration

Personalized licence plates

Personalized licence plates are a fun, creative way to express yourself. Find out how to get your own personalized plate and what guidelines and criteria you need to follow.

What types of vehicles can have personalized plates?

The following vehicle types can apply for personalized licence plates:

Regular passenger vehicles
Motorcycles
Vans and light trucks
Motor homes

Personalized plates can't be used on vehicles that require a special type of plate, including trailers, antique or collector vehicles, tractors and industrial vehicles.

Character combinations and slogans

Personalized licence plates:

must have 2-6 letters or letters and numbers (e.g. "HELLO", "ME2")
can include blank spaces or hyphens between letters/numbers (e.g. "JOE 87", "FREE-1")
can be a maximum of 7 total characters if it includes a space or hyphen (e.g. "SUNNY-1"). Note: personalized motorcycle plates can be a maximum of 6 total characters if it includes a space or hyphen
must be appropriate (if ICBC receives a complaint or a plate is later determined to be obscene or objectionable, the plate may be recalled)

For more details on criteria and guidelines, please review the terms and conditions below. If your slogan does not meet the criteria and guidelines, it will be rejected.

How much do personalized plates cost?

There is a one-time application fee of $100 and, if approved, an annual fee of $40 to maintain the rights to the slogan and the use of the plates.

The annual fee ensures that you maintain exclusive rights to the plate. If a personalized plate remains inactive for more than one year after the expiry date, the right to the slogan will be lost.

How do I apply for a personalized plate?

To apply for a personalized licence plate, you must be the registered owner of the vehicle, and all other registered owners must also sign the application. If you lease the vehicle, your name must be on the registration. (Note: the lessor does not need to sign the application.)

If you require a replacement for your current personalized number plates, your original plates must be surrendered before the application will be accepted.

Steps to apply

1. Design your personal message or slogan. Please thoroughly review the criteria and guidelines before submitting your application. If your slogan is objectionable (e.g. discriminatory, sexually suggestive, abusive, or derogatory in any language) or does not otherwise meet the criteria and guidelines, it will be rejected.

2. Submit your completed application form and fee (cheque or money order made out to ICBC). They can be brought to your Autoplan broker or mailed to ICBC at:

ICBC - PNP
136 - 151 West Esplanade
North Vancouver, BC V7M3H9

3. ICBC will confirm that your slogan meets the criteria and guidelines.

Approval and pick-up
If approved, your plates will be sent to your broker and you will be notified by mail when they are ready for pickup. It can take 10-12 weeks for you to get your plates.
Rejected slogans
If your slogan is not approved, you will be notified by letter and your application fee will be returned.

More information

If you have questions about personalized licence plates, you can call 604-661-2267 (Lower Mainland) or 1-888-788-0797 (toll-free in Canada and the U.S.) or email [email protected].

Terms and conditions

Selecting your combination of characters

Acceptable character combinations

Slogans with two to six letters and numbers, such as “ME", “YOU", “BYEE", “HELLO", “HOWDOO", “YOU2", “8FREE"
Letters and numbers may be separated by blank space or hyphen, such as "ME 1", "8-FREE"
Slogans can have a maximum of seven total characters including spaces and hyphens, such as "HELLO 1", “U-4-ME"
- Note: motorcycle personalized plates can have no more than six characters including spaces or hyphens (i.e. six characters and no space or hyphen, five characters with one space or hyphen, etc.)
Any other acceptable combination of letters and numbers, such as “2-BOBBY", "ME 4 U"

Unacceptable character combinations

Less than two or more than six characters, such as “A", “JASMINE", “NICHOLAS"
Characters in combinations that could cause misidentification, such as "i" being possibly misidentified as "1", or 0 = O, 8 = B, 5 = S, 2 = Z
Characters in a combination that would resemble an existing plate that would create identification issues. For example, if “TIGERS" is already issued, “TIGER5" would be denied because the "S" and "5" could be easily misidentified.
Symbols other than hyphens. For example, “@", “?", “/", “&", “.", “+", etc.
Slogans that contain only numbers, such as "962 221", "1426" or "645-354".
Any character combinations that conflict with formatted sequences of characters currently in use or that ICBC plans to use, such as ABC-123", “123-ABC", “1204-FT", “GT-1234"
Any single letter as a suffix, preceded by more than three numbers, such as “4352 A", “54635-W"
Any single letter as a prefix, followed by more than three numbers, such as “A-4321", “B-56543"
The prefixes “CL", “VA", “VE", “GR", “MC", “MB", “MD", “PG", and “BC" followed by any numbers

Selecting your slogan

Choose an appropriate personalized slogan. Requests will be declined if it is determined in the opinion of ICBC to be objectionable in any language, including text-messaging abbreviations. If ICBC receives a complaint about a slogan or a plate that has been issued and it is later determined to be obscene or objectionable, in the opinion of ICBC, the plate may be recalled. Note that licence plates are the property of ICBC.

Slogans may be deemed objectionable under the following criteria:

Human rights discrimination: slogans which express or imply disrespect of race, religion, place of origin, ancestry, colour, gender identity or expression, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, family status, physical or mental disability, or political belief.
Sexually suggestive: inappropriate connotations.
Abusive, obscene, or derogatory language: offensive slang in any language.
Driving risks: references to speed, speeding, other risky driving behaviour or anything contrary to road safety.
Drugs/alcohol related: terms describing alcohol or other legal or illegal drugs, including brand names and slang; reference to the use sale, effects, and/or consumption of drugs, alcohol, controlled substances, or paraphernalia used in the consumption thereof.
Violence/criminal activity/bullying: words associated with weapons or threats; connotations about violence, illegal activity or bullying.
Intellectual property (such as trademarks): infringement of intellectual property rights such as trademarks, except if the applicant provides written approval of the trademark owner.
Religion, politics, public figures, dignitaries and law enforcement official: religious, political, law enforcement connotations or falsely suggesting association with an institution such as law enforcement, a church, or government.

References to non-profit advocacy, trade or similar entities may be acceptable, subject to all of the criteria above

Recalls

If ICBC receives a complaint about a slogan or a plate that has been issued and it is later determined to be obscene or objectionable, in the opinion of ICBC, the plate may be recalled. Note that licence plates are the property of ICBC.

Refunds

There shall be no refund of a personalized number plate fee once the application (initial, replacement or renewal) has been received and approved; with the exception, a refund may be granted where a selection previously approved and issued is subsequently determined to be unacceptable and has been recalled.

Retention

If a personalized plate remains inactive for more than one year after the expiry date, the right to the slogan will be lost and the current owner will be required to re-apply with the initial $100 application fee.

Replacements

If your personalized licence plate is damaged, there is an $18 fee for temporary plates while your personalized plates are remade.

If a plate is lost or stolen, notify the police, then take the police case number, your insurance documents and, if applicable, your remaining plate to your Autoplan broker. The record of the missing plate needs to be removed from the police database before it can be reissued.

A declaration must be completed for missing front plate only, no police case number is required.

Vehicle registration

Personalized licence plates

What types of vehicles can have personalized plates?

Character combinations and slogans

How much do personalized plates cost?