Friendswood & League City SR-22 Guide

Friendswood and League City both cross into Harris County, so neither city name settles where your petition belongs. If Galveston County is the answer, the County Clerk publishes the packet, three offices take the filing, and the hearing date is set by the clock you file against.

Two things decide whether this article applies to you, and neither of them is your mailing address.

Friendswood is in two counties. So is League City. The City of Friendswood says so plainly, and the Census records that assign places to counties list both cities under Galveston and Harris. A house on one side of Clear Creek and a house on the other can owe their petitions to different courthouses, and no amount of certainty about the postal city changes it.

If Galveston County does turn out to be the answer, the local route is unusually well documented — the County Clerk publishes a packet, three offices take the filing, and the hearing date is set by a clock rather than by a coordinator’s calendar. Our statewide occupational driver license guide covers the process itself. This page covers what Galveston County adds.

First, settle which county you are actually in

Use the county named on your suspension notice, your residence record, where the incident happened, and the court on your case paperwork — in that order, and not the ZIP code.

Two Galveston County-specific wrinkles:

Friendswood straddles the Galveston–Harris line. Its northern reaches sit in Harris County while the city centre sits in Galveston County.
League City does the same thing on a smaller scale. Most of the city is Galveston County, and a slice north of Clear Creek falls in Harris.

There is also a rule that overrides geography entirely: where a suspension followed automatically from a conviction, Texas law sends the petition to the court that convicted you, wherever that court sits. If the answer is Harris County, our Harris County checklist is the one you want.

Call DPS before you pay a filing fee

Galveston County’s own FAQ is blunt about why this matters. Asked why an applicant has to call DPS first, it answers: “To see if you are eligible. They have the final say.” The County Clerk packet says the same thing more formally, recommending you contact DPS about eligibility and reinstatement fees before beginning.

The reason is financial. The packet states that “A filing fee will not be refunded due to the denial of a Petition for an Occupational Driver’s License.” A petition filed by somebody who was never eligible is money gone.

So start at the DPS License Eligibility system and find out what is actually attached to your record. Some drivers discover they can complete an ordinary reinstatement and skip the court entirely. And if anything you read mentions surcharges, ignore it — Texas repealed the Driver Responsibility Program on 1 September 2019.

Which Galveston County office takes the petition

The County Clerk, not the District Clerk. This is worth stating because people assume otherwise: the District Clerk’s office publishes nothing about occupational licenses. The County Clerk publishes the petition and procedures packet, and it is downloadable from the county’s court forms — you do not have to collect it in person, whatever an older page may say.

Three offices accept the filing. The current packet names the Justice Center in Galveston, the Records and Elections Centre in Texas City, and the League City branch on Calder Road. For a Friendswood or League City reader that last one is the whole point — the filing counter is local even though the county seat is not.

A justice court runs a separate route. Justice of the Peace Precinct 1 publishes its own occupational-license instructions and application, with its own fee and its own payment rules. The justice court that actually sits in League City, Precinct 3, publishes no occupational license form at all. So “a court in League City” and “the League City filing counter” are not the same thing.

The fee is where the county contradicts itself. The current County Clerk packet says the filing fee is $350.00, with $12.00 due after the hearing for a certified copy of the order, payable by cash, money order or card. The county’s online FAQ still shows $257 — a figure that traces to a superseded version of the same packet, still sitting on the county’s server. Precinct 1 publishes $54.00 for its route, payable by money order or cashier’s check only.

Three published numbers, one county, all of them official. There is no “Galveston County occupational license fee” to quote you. Ask the office that will take your petition, and ask on the day you file.

The hearing date is set by the clock

This is the most useful thing Galveston County publishes, and almost nobody else does it this way. The County Clerk packet sets the hearing mechanically:

file before 3:00 PM, and the hearing is the following second business day at 9:00 AM;
file after 3:00 PM, and it is the following third business day at 9:00 AM;
holidays are excluded.

You should expect to attend. Asked whether an applicant has to appear before the judge, the county’s answer is yes — a judge has to sign an order granting the application, and a signed order is what the rest of the process runs on.

What to have in the folder

Subject to whatever the office you file with tells you:

the petition and proposed order from the packet your court accepts;
an SR-22 — the packet requires proof either when you file or at the hearing, and the Precinct 1 route requires it before the case is set at all;
a certified Type AR driving record — the certified abstract of your complete record, $20 from DPS, and the only record type that includes suspensions;
your DPS suspension and eligibility documents;
proof of essential need — work, school, or essential household duties, with the hours and areas you are asking for;
proof of interlock installation where your case requires one; and
the certified-copy fee for afterwards.

The SR-22 itself: owner or non-owner

The certificate is the one item on that list that no clerk can produce, and it is worth being precise about what it is. An SR-22 is not a category of driver and not a separate kind of insurance — you will see it described that way, including in places you would expect to be careful. It is a Financial Responsibility Insurance Certificate: a form your insurer transmits to Texas DPS confirming that a qualifying liability policy is in force, at Texas’s minimum limits of $30,000 for injury to one person, $60,000 per crash, and $25,000 for property damage. Your insurance card does not do the same job.

DPS requires the certificate to be maintained for two years from the date of your most recent conviction, or from the date a judgment was rendered against you — not from the day you buy the policy.

If a vehicle is registered to you, it is an owner’s filing and the certificate has to cover every vehicle in your name. If you own none, it is a non-owner filing, and whether that structure fits your household is the question to settle first. Tell the agent about a household or employer vehicle you drive regularly; the court’s permission to drive does not extend anybody else’s coverage.

Moon Insurance handles the policy and the carrier’s transmission. We do not complete petitions, choose your filing office, or interpret an order.

When the county’s monitoring program applies

Galveston County’s community supervision department runs an occupational driver license monitoring program, and it is narrower than its existence suggests. It supervises people the courts refer to it who have been granted an occupational license and ordered to install an ignition interlock device as a condition of it — and it expressly excludes anyone whose occupational license was ordered as a condition of bond in a pending criminal case.

So it is not a program every applicant enters, and reading about it is not a reason to expect supervision. Follow your signed order and the instructions your court gives you.

After the order: what still goes to Texas DPS

A signed order is authority to drive under conditions, not the license itself.

DPS says the order “may be used as a driver license for 45 days from the date of the judge’s signature” while the request is processed, with exceptions for drivers who have never held a Texas license or whose license expired more than two years ago. Read your own order for when it takes effect — other Texas sources describe the 45 days as running from that date, and alcohol- or drug-related cases can carry a delayed effective date.

To finish, DPS needs a certified copy of the petition and the order, the SR-22, the occupational license fee, and every reinstatement fee owed, and asks you to allow 21 business days. Reinstatement fees are paid online or by mail; DPS says driver license offices “are only equipped to handle DL and ID issuance and renewal transactions.”

Moon transmits the certificate the same business day once qualifying coverage is bound — our clock, not the state’s. How long an SR-22 filing takes in Texas keeps the two apart.

Twelve miles from Friendswood, twenty from League City

Moon Insurance has one office, at 360 FM 1959 in Houston. There is no Friendswood branch and no League City branch, and an article about Galveston County procedure does not create one.

The distance does not touch the filing, which is electronic. What being close does mean is that a Friendswood, League City, Dickinson or Kemah address, and the paperwork that comes with one, is ordinary work here rather than an exception. The Friendswood and League City pages cover the rest of what we place in the county — including the wind and flood questions that the same county line also decides.

When the packet’s checklist says SR-22, the SR-22 filing page is where that part gets handled.

Common questions

Can I file for an occupational license in League City?

The County Clerk's current petition packet names its League City branch on Calder Road as one of three offices that accept the filing, alongside Galveston and Texas City. The League City justice court publishes no occupational-license form of its own. Call the branch before you drive over — the county's published material is not consistent everywhere, and a wasted trip is the least expensive way this goes wrong.

Does every Friendswood resident file in Galveston County?

No. Friendswood is in two counties — the city says so itself, and the Census place-by-county records list Friendswood in both Galveston and Harris. League City is in both as well. On top of that, if your suspension followed automatically from a conviction, the statute sends the petition to the convicting court wherever that is.

Is the Galveston County filing fee $257 or $350?

The county's current County Clerk packet says $350.00, plus $12.00 after the hearing for a certified copy of the order, and says a fee is not refunded if the petition is denied. An older figure of $257 still appears in the county's online FAQ and traces to a superseded packet. A justice court in the county publishes a different route at $54.00 entirely. Confirm the amount with the office that will take your petition before you go.

Does Galveston County require an SR-22 before the judge signs the order?

The County Clerk packet says you are required to obtain SR-22 coverage and to provide proof either when you file the petition or at the hearing. A justice court packet in the county goes further and says proof must be shown before the case is set. Either way the certificate comes from your insurer, not from a clerk.

Will I automatically be placed in ODL monitoring?

No. The county's community supervision department runs a monitoring program for people the courts refer to it who have been ordered to install an ignition interlock as a condition of the occupational license, and it excludes people whose occupational license was ordered as a condition of bond in a pending criminal case. Follow your signed order and what the court tells you.

Is Moon Insurance in Friendswood or League City?

Neither. There is one office, at 360 FM 1959 in Houston — about twelve miles from Friendswood and twenty from League City. The certificate goes to Texas DPS electronically, so the insurance side never needs an office visit.

Sources: Galveston County Clerk — occupational driver's license FAQ; Galveston County Clerk — court forms, including the occupational-license petition; Galveston County Clerk — offices and hours; Galveston County CSCD — occupational driver license monitoring; Galveston County Justice of the Peace, Precinct 1 — forms; Texas DPS — Occupational Driver License; Texas DPS — SR-22 FAQ; US Census Bureau — 2020 places by county, Texas. Verified 10 August 2026.

General information about Texas filing rules, not legal advice and not a quote. Requirements change; confirm your own through the Texas DPS License Eligibility system before acting. Published 10 August 2026.