Getting Your Teen an Alaska Instruction Permit

Before you apply: is now the right time?

DMV's first license page sorts drivers by age: an instruction permit from 14 to 16, a provisional license from 16 to 18, and a full license at 18 or older. Applying soon after the 14th birthday gives your teen up to two years of practice before the provisional stage.

Permits are not only for teens. Any new driver, whatever their age, can pay $15 for one to practice before a road test, and the supervision rules are the same for a 40 year old as for a 14 year old.

Before you apply: the document folder

DMV wants one item from each category. The primary document establishes name, birth date and lawful presence; for teens that is usually a certified U.S. birth certificate, though a U.S. passport or passport card also works.

The address document must show where you physically live, so a post office box will not do. Paystubs, bank statements, utility bills, a tribal ID or school records are all candidates. In communities without street addresses, a utility bill with a service address works, as does a notarized letter from a State Trooper, a city official or a Village Public Safety Officer.

• Form D1
• Form 433, signed before a notary or DMV staff
• Something proving you are the parent or guardian
• Your teen's primary identity document
• A residential address document
• A Social Security number matching federal records
• $15

Before you apply: who can give consent

Most permits are signed by a natural parent. DMV also accepts several others: a court appointed guardian with the court papers; a married spouse 18 or older holding a certified marriage certificate; certain staff of the Office of Children's Services; a temporary custodian holding a notarized power of attorney during the parents' absence from the state; and, when no parent or guardian is alive, a responsible adult who takes on financial responsibility.

Step parents, foster parents and probation or corrections officers cannot sign directly. They can consent, according to DMV's provisional license page, by presenting a notarized Form PG-701. That document is good for one year at most unless a parent is on active military duty.

On test day: the knowledge and vision tests

The written test draws on the Alaska Driver Manual and covers road signs, traffic laws and safe driving. DMV lets your teen practice online and then sit the real test online too, a big help when the nearest office is hours away.

Off the road system, DMV publishes knowledge test proctors community by community: school districts, city clerks, regional corporation offices and Village Public Safety Officers among them. Phone the proctor first to learn their testing schedule and what to bring.

After the permit is issued: the rules for every drive

Your teen may never drive alone on an Alaska permit, at any hour. The front passenger seat must hold someone licensed, at least 21, who has driven that type of vehicle for a year or more.

Tickets cost time. A provisional license requires six months with no traffic conviction, so a ticket on the permit delays the next stage.

A worked example: your teen gets the permit in May at 14 and is ticketed in the following February. The six clean months now run from February, which is still well before the 16th birthday, but a ticket in the last few months before 16 would push the provisional license past the birthday.

If plans change: renewing, replacing or cancelling

The permit runs two years and can be renewed once, for $5 as of October 2026. Lost it before a road test? Visit DMV in person with plenty of time to spare, since an online replacement takes about a week to arrive as an emailed temporary.

You can withdraw consent before your teen turns 18 using Form 424, signed by whoever gave consent and either notarized or witnessed by DMV staff. DMV then cancels the permit until your teen is 18 or someone gives consent again.

If your teen wants a moped or motorcycle

Small motorized cycles have their own license in Alaska. The M2 license covers mopeds and motor driven cycles under 50cc, is open only to 14 and 15 year olds, and doubles as a learner's permit for the full M1 class.

A minor's motorcycle permit needs both parents or guardians to consent on Form 433M, and either one can withdraw consent later. Motorcycle road tests are not offered in winter, so plan around the season.