Photo by Kaboompics on Pexels
Moving & Settling InThe deadlines that start the day you move in, and the ones nobody tells you about.
Save this checklist
Save all 13 places to MyCheck
Check them off as you visit.
Chicago runs on deadlines that start the day you move in, and none of them send you a reminder. Illinois gives you 90 days to trade your out-of-state driver's licence, but only 30 for the plates — and the city gives you 30 for the vehicle sticker, after which the ticket starts at $200 and can be written again every day until you comply.
This list is ordered by how soon each thing bites, not by how important it feels. The three vehicle deadlines come first, then the parking rules that catch new arrivals in their first winter, then the free cards and accounts worth having.
Every step links to the agency that sets the rule rather than to a summary of it, because these change. Checked against the official pages on 19 September 2026. If you are reading this much later, follow the link — the deadline is the thing to trust, not the date on this page.
New residents have 30 days from establishing residency to apply for an Illinois title and registration, if the vehicle is properly registered elsewhere. This is the tightest of the vehicle deadlines and the one people miss, because the licence gets all the attention.
Required within 30 days of your residency date if you keep a car in the city. Miss it and the City Clerk adds a $60 late fee plus prorated back charges, and the ticket starts at $200 — reissuable every day until the vehicle complies. Your move-in date sets the term, not the date you buy.
Bought as an add-on to the city sticker, $35 a year, prorated. Your zone number is printed on the sticker and must match the signs on your street. Check the signs before you assume you need it — many blocks are unzoned.
You may drive on a valid out-of-state licence for 90 days. After that, a Secretary of State facility: surrender the old licence, vision screening, written exam, and a road test in some cases. Book ahead — walk-in waits are long.
From 1 December to 1 April, 3am to 7am, parking is banned on 107 miles of arterial streets — regardless of whether it has snowed. Signs are posted year-round, which is exactly why they stop being visible by November. Towing starts at $150, plus a $60 ticket and $25 a day storage.
Enjoying this list?
Save the entire Chicago checklist to MyCheck so you don't lose it.
A different rule on another 500 miles of main streets: once two inches are on the ground it can be enforced at any hour, on any date, including outside the December-to-April window. Cars get ticketed or relocated so ploughs can pass.
One card for CTA buses and trains and for Pace. Buy it at any train station or a pharmacy counter, register it online so a lost card's balance can be recovered, and add a pass rather than pay-as-you-go if you commute daily.
ComEd is the electricity utility for Chicago; there is no choice of wires provider, though you can pick a supplier. Start the account for your move-in date rather than after it — backdating is harder than scheduling.
Peoples Gas serves the city. Worth doing before your first cold night: many Chicago apartments have gas heat, and a transfer that has not gone through is a cold weekend.
4 places left.
Keep this checklist in MyCheck and track which ones you've visited.
Forwards your post for a year and quietly updates a lot of other records. Do it before you need it — a licence or a sticker posted to your old address is a wasted fee.
Chicago runs its own election board, separate from the rest of Illinois. Registration follows your address, so a move within the city still needs updating or your polling place will be wrong.
Free with a valid photo ID showing a Chicago address. Beyond books it is the cheapest way into museum passes, databases and study space — and it is the first thing you can get that proves you live here.
Chicago's own municipal ID, valid as government-issued photo ID for city purposes including buying a city sticker. Useful if you are between a surrendered out-of-state licence and an Illinois one, or have no state ID at all.
Start this checklist
Keep your 13 ticks
Ticks here live in this browser. Save the list to MyCheck and they follow you.
Ten things the Chicago rental ordinance entitles a tenant to, with the deadlines that bind the landlord and the penalties when they are missed.
Eight Chicago cafés and roasters, ordered from the Loop outward so the list can be walked in sections.
Ten Chicago restaurants, from Lou Malnati's and Portillo's to Alinea and Manny's Deli.
Ten well-known Chicago landmarks and museums for a first visit, ordered so they can be done on foot and by train.
USCIS case updates, checklists and reminders in one free account, on the web, iPhone and Android.
