The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles is ending its nondomiciled commercial driver’s license program, a move that will downgrade about 3,000 outstanding licenses held by nonpermanent legal residents to standard driver’s licenses and leave new CDLs available only to U.S. citizens and permanent residents.
The bureau announced the change amid a federal crackdown on immigrant truck drivers. Ohio had already downgraded roughly 2,000 of its 5,000 nondomiciled CDLs earlier this year to comply with a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rule barring asylum seekers, asylees, refugees and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients from holding them, according to the BMV.
Affected drivers will receive letters from the BMV, and each downgrade takes effect 30 days after the date of the letter. Drivers may request a hearing to dispute a downgrade. The bureau has not issued or renewed any nondomiciled CDLs since September 2025, when the federal administration first issued an interim rule; a final version took effect March 16 after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined to stay it.
Before the federal changes, nonpermanent residents could qualify with an unexpired federal employment authorization document or an unexpired foreign passport with a completed arrival and departure form. Commercial licenses are required to drive tractor-trailers and other large commercial, heavy or hazardous vehicles.
Lynn Tramonte, executive director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, criticized the decision in a statement, calling it an effort to punish immigrants at the expense of workers, consumers and taxpayers, and noting that only people legally authorized to live in the United States have ever qualified for Ohio licenses. Cincinnati immigration attorney Nazly Mamedova, whose office previously appealed downgrades for foreign-born drivers, said her office does not plan to appeal this round or challenge it in court.
The debate over foreign-born truck drivers intensified in Ohio this year, including after a fatal Interstate 71 crash in Delaware County in April and a crash in southern Ohio that killed a 21-year-old. State Representative Michelle Teska of Warren County has pushed legislation on English proficiency and improperly licensed drivers, and Ohio took part over the summer in a federal enforcement effort focused on unqualified foreign semi-truck drivers.
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