The Woodlands SR-22 & Occupational License

Montgomery County publishes three different occupational-license routes at two different filing fees, and its proposed order decides your restrictions before a judge ever signs it. Read the order first — an interlock condition changes what else the court can impose.

The Woodlands is about forty-eight miles from this agency’s front door, and that distance changes nothing about an SR-22 — the certificate is transmitted to Texas DPS electronically. What it does change is which courthouse a suspended driver has to deal with, and Montgomery County runs that part differently from its neighbors.

The county publishes three separate occupational-license routes at two different filing fees. It also publishes the proposed order a judge would sign, which is more useful than it sounds: the restrictions you will live under for the next year are printed on a form you can read before you ever file. Our statewide occupational driver license guide covers the process end to end. This page covers what Montgomery County adds to it.

Check eligibility before you file anything

Start at the DPS License Eligibility system, not at a courthouse. It shows the enforcement actions, compliance items and fees actually attached to your record, and some drivers find they can complete an ordinary reinstatement without a court at all.

Three things to separate while you are there:

An Administrative License Revocation — the suspension that follows refusing or failing a breath or blood test — is a different enforcement action from a conviction, and one case can produce both, each with its own fee.
An SR-22 satisfies an insurance-proof item. It does not, by itself, restore your authority to drive.
If anything you are reading mentions surcharges, it is out of date. Texas repealed the Driver Responsibility Program on 1 September 2019.

Confirm the county — “Spring” is a mailing address, not a jurisdiction

Two local facts are worth having straight before you choose a courthouse.

The Woodlands sits across a county line. Most of it is in Montgomery County, and part of the same census place falls in Harris County. A “Spring, TX” address proves nothing on its own — the Spring postal city covers ZIP codes in both counties, with 77373 sitting in Harris and 77386 in Montgomery. The census-defined community of Spring itself is in Harris County; it is the mailing address that spans the two.

So use the county named on your suspension notice, your residence record, where the incident happened, and the court on your case paperwork. If the answer is Harris, our Harris County checklist is the one to read.

The rule underneath is Transportation Code §521.2421, and the county’s own petitioner guidelines restate it: you may file a verified petition with the clerk of a justice, county or district court with jurisdiction covering the county where you reside or where the incident occurred, or with the court that ordered the suspension. Where a suspension followed automatically from a conviction, the statute narrows that to the convicting court only.

Montgomery County publishes three routes, not one

This is the part that rewards ten minutes of reading before you drive anywhere.

The county court route. Montgomery County runs a standalone occupational-licenses office with an associate judge and a court coordinator. Its page says the court requires its listed items “completed in full, signed, and filed with the Clerk of Court before the Court will set the case for a hearing” — and that a hearing is not always the endpoint, because applicants “setting an occupational license matter on the submission docket may visit the County Clerk’s Office to obtain a certified copy of the Order.” The proposed order itself has checkboxes for a hearing held and a hearing not held, with essential need determined from the petition.

The justice court route. Justice of the Peace Precinct 4 says a petitioner files the petition with the court and that “After the form is completed and required documents are provided and verified, a court date will be set.” There, a date is set as a matter of course.

The district court route. The 435th District Court publishes an instruction that will catch anyone working from a generic packet: “The Judge prepares her own orders. It is not necessary to file a prepared order with your petition.” It also says it typically takes about a week to get on a docket when the petition is complete.

The fees differ with the route. The County Clerk’s civil fee sheet lists $350 for an occupational driver’s license case; the justice court prints $54 on its own petition form. Neither is “the Montgomery County fee” — each belongs to its court.

Worth knowing either way: Transportation Code §521.2422 lets a petitioner file a statement of inability to afford payment of court costs instead of the fee, and §521.2423 requires the court to make both forms available at no cost.

Use the county’s forms — and check you have the right one

The county links a petition, a proposed order, petitioner guidelines, an ignition-interlock removal order, and an extension form. That is a genuinely useful local document set.

One caution specific to this county. A statewide TexasLawHelp petition also sits on Montgomery County’s public file server without being linked from any county page, so a search engine can hand you a form that looks county-hosted and is not the county’s. Neither the county petition nor the proposed order prints a revision date on its face, either. Confirm with the court that you are filing the version it currently accepts, and do not treat any PDF as authoritative because of the domain it was served from.

Moon Insurance does not complete, interpret or customize a petition. Form questions belong with the clerk, TexasLawHelp, or a Texas attorney.

Read the proposed order before you ask a judge to sign it

Montgomery’s published order is the most locally useful document in this article, because it shows what can be imposed. Its numbered sections cover:

alcohol dependence counseling — not required, required, or waived on a showing of good cause;
an ignition interlock restriction;
testing for alcohol or controlled substances, with a frequency and a testing entity;
supervision, conducted by Montgomery County Adult Probation;
hours of operation, set out day by day;
areas of travel;
a travel log;
a flat statement that the petitioner may not operate a commercial motor vehicle; and
a time period running to the end of the suspension, revocation or cancellation.

Two conditions matter more than the list. The order says that a petitioner restricted to a vehicle with an interlock “is not subject to restrictions to any time of travel, reason for travel, or location of travel” — so the interlock branch replaces the hours-and-areas branch rather than stacking on top of it. And the county’s occupational-licenses page puts the same point bluntly about the log: it is either the interlock or the hours, not both with a logbook attached.

Do not assume every order carries every condition. Read the one in your case, and follow it exactly once it is signed.

The insurance and supporting documents

the SR-22 certificate — a Financial Responsibility Insurance Certificate your insurer transmits to DPS, certifying liability limits of $30,000 for injury to one person, $60,000 per crash and $25,000 for property damage;
a current certified Type AR driving record — the certified abstract of your complete record, $20 from DPS, and the only type that includes suspensions;
your DPS and court suspension records;
proof of essential need, with the hours and areas you are asking for;
proof of interlock installation where your case requires one;
the petition, and a proposed order if your court wants one; and
copies for yourself.

If a vehicle is registered to you, it is an owner’s filing, covering every vehicle in your name. If you own none, it is a non-owner filing, and whether that structure fits your household is the prior question. Disclose regular use of a household or employer vehicle either way — a court order permitting you to drive does not alter anyone else’s policy.

What still goes to Texas DPS

A signed order is not the license. 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.

Check your own order for when it takes effect. Other Texas sources describe the 45 days as running from the effective date rather than the signature date, and an order in an alcohol- or drug-related case can carry a delayed one — a real distinction, because driving before an order takes effect is not driving on an occupational license.

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 post; 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, which is a different clock from the state’s and from the court’s. How long an SR-22 filing takes in Texas puts the two side by side.

Forty-eight miles south, and none of it in the way

Moon Insurance has one office, at 360 FM 1959 in Houston. There is no branch in The Woodlands, Shenandoah, Oak Ridge North or Conroe, and this article does not imply one.

What the distance does not touch is the filing itself, which is electronic and handled by phone. If your address is on the Harris side of a Spring ZIP code, settle the county question first — the Spring page and the The Woodlands page cover the rest of what we do up the corridor.

When the court’s list says SR-22, the SR-22 filing page is where that part gets taken.

Common questions

Where does a Woodlands resident file an occupational-license petition?

It depends on the court, and Montgomery County publishes three separate routes: a County Court at Law route run through the county's occupational-licenses office, a Justice of the Peace precinct that sets a court date once documents are verified, and a district court whose judge drafts her own orders. The county's own guidelines follow the statute — you file where you reside, where the incident occurred, or with the court that ordered the suspension. Confirm which applies before you pay a filing fee.

Can I use a Montgomery County petition form I found online?

Ask the court first. The county links its own petition, proposed order and guidelines, and a statewide TexasLawHelp petition also sits on the county's file server without being linked from any county page. Neither the county petition nor the order prints a revision date, so the safe move is to confirm you are holding the version your court accepts.

Is there one Montgomery County filing fee?

No. The County Clerk's civil fee sheet lists $350 for an occupational driver's license case, and a justice court in the county publishes $54 on its own petition form. The amounts belong to different courts, so the figure that matters is the one quoted by the court that will take your petition.

Does an occupational license allow commercial driving?

No. Texas DPS says an occupational license cannot be issued for operating a commercial motor vehicle during a suspension, revocation, cancellation, disqualification or denial, and Montgomery County's proposed order states it flatly rather than as an option. If your income depends on a CDL, get legal advice before relying on any of this.

Does Moon Insurance have an office in The Woodlands?

No. There is one office, at 360 FM 1959 in Houston, about forty-eight miles south. The certificate is transmitted electronically, so distance does not affect the insurance filing — but it does mean we are not a Montgomery County branch, and we are not a law office anywhere.

Sources: Montgomery County — Occupational Licenses; Montgomery County — order granting an occupational driver's license; Montgomery County Clerk — civil case filing fees; Montgomery County Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4 — occupational driver's license; Montgomery County 435th District Court — occupational license; Texas DPS — Occupational Driver License; Texas Transportation Code, Chapter 521. 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.