Out of province students can keep their home licence plates but others have to convert to B.C. plates within 30 days.

(CARLI BERRY / iNFOnews.ca)

While there has been much talk about foreign licence plates sneaking into B.C. during COVID-19, it's also exposed a number of resident British Columbians taking advantage of cheaper interest rates outside of ICBC.

According to the B.C. Motor Vehicle Act, anyone bringing a vehicle into B.C. has 30 days to register it in B.C., unless they are full-time students or posted here on military duty.

READ MORE: 'GO HOME!': UBCO student explains disclaimer on truck with Washington licence plate

Under ordinary circumstances, visitors could tour the province for six months before being required to change their plates. That still applies to Canadian residents who are allowed to travel freely to B.C. But, U.S. residents are only allowed into B.C. on essential business so there should not be any U.S. tourists coming into B.C. at this time.

There is a provision for U.S. residents to drive through B.C. to Alaska but strict new rules were put in place recently to make sure they did that as quickly as possible.

READ MORE: Americans bound for Alaska have strict new rules to follow

ICBC did issue an exemption on some deadlines for out of province people to change their driver's licenses. Those rules do not apply to the actual vehicles they drive so those license plates need to be converted within 30 days of someone driving into to B.C.

While those breaking the laws by not using a 'hang tag' which should explain their Alaskan destination can be fined $1,000 under the Quarantine Act, those not changing over their insurance in time are subject to a penalty of only $109.

– This article was corrected at 10:15 a.m. on Aug. 6, 2020 to reflect the fact that the exemption was granted to out of province visitors. The original article was based on information provided by ICBC that did not include the exemption. No one at ICBC could be contacted for clarification by the time this article was corrected.

– This article was corrected again at 5:00 p.m. on Aug. 6, 2020 after ICBC clarified that the exemptions for out of province visitors only applied to their driver licenses, not their license plates.

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