Motor Vehicle Division reports Mobile ID growth, citizenship-marker rollout and plans for electronic titling

Lori Bakri, administrator of Montana’s Motor Vehicle Division, updated lawmakers on driver and vehicle services, saying the division’s Mobile ID enrollment topped about 23,352 and that the agency has issued roughly 30,377 credentials with a new citizenship marker. Bakri described the state credential as a new, highly secure card and said the Real ID rollout and citizenship-marker process require customers to provide additional documentation, including proof of authorized presence and residential address for Real ID.

Bakri outlined service improvements that have shortened title processing and fleet renewal timelines, including a 10‑day auto approval step for titles and electronic dealer-title processing that now handles about 86,000 dealer titles per month. She said an electronic salvage/title interface is near completion in partnership with other vendors and should cut salvage-title time from weeks to about five days once fully implemented.

On the citizenship marker, Bakri told lawmakers the marker is limited to U.S. citizens and that many cardholders will need to update records where earlier registrations predate current documentation requirements. She said the department is following legislative guidance on how the marker is placed and that adding the marker to the new credential required vendor coordination rather than major internal rework.

Bakri also previewed planned 2026 launches: an April target for EVTR (electronic vehicle title and registration) to allow dealers to submit title work to counties electronically, plus steps toward online private-party transfers and improved customer-service tracking for phone and email inquiries. She said MDT is exploring document‑reading technology to reduce manual data entry and improve accuracy.

Lawmakers asked about data security for proposed digital birth‑certificate kiosks and the department said it is studying other states’ approaches and intends to keep data on secured state servers with client-controlled QR transmissions. On Real ID versus the citizenship marker, Bakri reiterated that Real ID validates authorized presence and residential documentation while the citizenship marker denotes proof of U.S. citizenship and is only issued when full proof is recorded.

The committee did not take formal action on the MVD update. Bakri said staff will provide follow‑up details on salvage‑title procedures and VIN inspection interplay at the committee’s request.