Daly City DMV: Hours, Services & Appointment Guide

1The Peninsula’s northern gateway office

Daly City is the northernmost city in San Mateo County, sharing a border with San Francisco, and its DMV office functions as the de facto DMV for a ring of smaller Peninsula towns that have no office of their own. That is the first thing to understand about 1500 Sullivan Avenue: it is not merely “the Daly City office.” It is the field office for Daly City residents, for Colma, Brisbane, and Pacifica residents to the south and west, and for South San Francisco residents who need anything a kiosk cannot do — because none of those places has a DMV field office page on dmv.ca.gov at all, as verified on October 29, 2026 (section 4 gives the full phantom-office table, with the HTTP evidence). If you searched for a “Colma DMV” or a “South San Francisco DMV” and landed here, you are in the right place: the Town of Colma itself directs its residents to this very address, 1500 Sullivan Avenue, Daly City.

Second, the scope correction that saves readers a wasted trip in the other direction: this is a full field office, not a kiosk, not a partner, and not a limited-service site. Its official services list runs to nine categories — licensing, testing, title transfers, registration, plates/permits/placards, replacements, records, miscellaneous original documents, and self-service terminals — and that breadth matters because readers often assume a smaller suburban office is a limited one. On the official listing, it is not. If your task needs a counter, an examiner, or a REAL ID, this office does it. If your task is a registration renewal or a record copy, the kiosk inside this office — or the Safeway kiosks in South San Francisco and San Francisco — may do it faster, and section 6 draws that line sharply.

Third, the kiosk finding, stated three ways because all three signals agree on the official page: the Daly City page carries the “Kiosk Available” badge, it carries the callout “This office has a self-serve kiosk to avoid waiting in line,” and its services list includes “Self Service Terminals.” That is a triple-confirmed YES, not an inference from a nearby card. It puts Daly City in the kiosk-office group with San Francisco (Fell Street) and both Oakland offices — and it makes the San Mateo contrast in section 4 the most decision-relevant comparison on this page, because San Mateo’s own page shows no kiosk signal at all. Finally, a note on what this page is and is not. This is an independent guide, not the DMV. We cannot book for you, we cannot see live slot availability, and we never charge for booking — booking on dmv.ca.gov is free, and any site charging a booking fee is not the DMV. Every office fact below was re-read on the official dmv.ca.gov pages on October 29, 2026. Where a fact could not be verified on an official source, this page says so instead of printing a guess: no street-by-street drive-test route, no motorcycle-testing claim, no commercial-testing claim, no parking description, no wait-time minutes, and no review numbers appear anywhere below. Daly City is also a useful case study in why you should distrust thin directory content: one thin site claims Thursday–Friday hours until 6:00 PM and Saturday hours of 11:00 AM–3:00 PM for this office, and both claims are false against the live official page, which says Thursday–Friday 8–5 and Saturday–Sunday closed. A cached search-index copy even shows a stale “Monday closed” line for Daly City; the live page on October 29, 2026 shows Monday open 8–5 in both weeks of its calendar. The live page governs, and this page follows it.

2Hours, services & what this office offers

The weekly pattern is the standard California field-office pattern, confirmed on the office’s own dmv.ca.gov page, which prints a two-week calendar (October 25 – November 7, 2026) showing the same pattern in both weeks — the strongest form of this verification, because it is not a single-day snapshot. The page’s schema opening-hours field agrees with the calendar and with the standing weekly pattern, all three saying the same thing:

The Wednesday quirk is the detail that catches the most people: every other weekday opens at 8:00 AM, but Wednesday opens at 9:00 AM. Do not show up at 8:00 on a Wednesday expecting the early-bird advantage — you will wait outside for an hour. Weekends are closed, full stop, and this page states that explicitly rather than leaving the weekend blank, because a blank weekend reads as “unknown” and an explicit “closed” answers the single most-asked weekend question about this office. No California DMV field office lists Saturday hours, so be skeptical of any directory that claims a Saturday opening for Daly City — and do not let a partner’s Saturday hours or a kiosk’s weekend hours be misread as a field-office Saturday opening. The two Safeway kiosks in section 6 are open on weekends; the field office is not, and confusing the two is exactly how a Saturday trip gets wasted. State holidays can change hours too, so confirm on the official office page the day before you go — see our California DMV holidays guide for the general holiday pattern, and remember that holiday closures override the regular pattern above. One more timing note that applies statewide: knowledge (written) tests are generally not offered after 4:30 PM, so do not arrive at the last hour of the day and expect to test. “Open until 5” does not mean “tested until 5.”

The office provides nine services, exactly as listed on dmv.ca.gov, in the order printed. Each category below is explained in one plain sentence, staying inside the official label — no invented sub-services, because the official page lists categories, not an enumeration of every transaction inside them:

Payment is the same statewide line printed on the office page: the DMV accepts cash, check, credit card, debit card, digital wallet, and money order at field offices. The statewide phone line for everything is 1-800-777-0133 (automated 24/7; live representatives Monday–Friday 8:00 AM–5:00 PM). Present it exactly that way — as the statewide line — never as “the Daly City office’s direct number,” because no office-specific number is published for Daly City, and the number does not appear on the Daly City office page itself. Any “direct Daly City DMV number” from a directory is unverified, and several directory-style pages imply a local number by printing 1-800-777-0133 against the office name. Do not fall for that framing. This page deliberately prints no fee dollar amounts for individual transactions: fee line items are gated until re-verified on dmv.ca.gov at build time, and the one figure that is safe to state is that booking itself is free.

Before you book, use the office page’s own “Complete It Now!” list — eight online services the Daly City page itself promotes: renew your vehicle registration; renew your driver’s license or ID card; driver’s license/ID card application; change your address; notice of transfer and release of liability; request a replacement driver’s license; special interest or personalized plates; and request your driver’s record. Every one of these that can be completed online should be tried online before an appointment is booked. The DMV’s own framing is that most services are available online with the DMV or with a DMV-authorized partner. That online-first triage is the page’s decision tree in miniature: (1) can it be done online? (2) is it a kiosk-eligible registration or record task? (3) is it a registration-only task and are you a AAA member or willing to pay a partner fee? (4) does it need a counter, an examiner, or a REAL ID? Then book Sullivan Avenue. (5) is Daly City booked out? Use San Francisco (Fell Street) first, then San Mateo or Oakland Coliseum, before giving up. One more scope rule before you book, because it saves more trips than any other paragraph on this page: routine services get no counter service at all. Simple registration renewals, eligible license and ID renewals, record copies, and replacement licenses are routed by the DMV to online, kiosk, mail, or phone options — the counter will not do them. If your task is a registration renewal or a record copy, the Safeway kiosk in South San Francisco (open 5:00 AM–1:00 AM daily) probably beats a weekday office visit. If it is a REAL ID, a first license, a drive test, or a title transfer, the kiosk cannot do it — book the office.

3Booking an appointment here

Booking happens only on the DMV’s official scheduler, and it is free. Here is the play for a Daly City visit:

1. Go to the official DMV appointment scheduler (“Schedule an Appointment” on dmv.ca.gov).
2. Choose your appointment type FIRST. This is the highest-value sentence in this section: a field-office visit and a behind-the-wheel drive test are handled as separate appointment types in the official scheduler, with separate queues. Booking the wrong type means rebooking. Pick “office visit” for licenses, ID, registration, and most counter services; pick “drive test” for the road test.
3. Search by ZIP (94015) or “Daly City” and pick the Sullivan Avenue office — not a partner address and not a kiosk address, neither of which takes appointments. Watch out for the Sullivan Avenue trap in section 7: a partner at 1080 Sullivan Avenue is on the same street as the field office at 1500 Sullivan Avenue, and it is still not the field office.
4. Pick a date and time. Morning slots move fastest. If Daly City shows nothing on your date, widen the same search to San Francisco (Fell Street) first — it offers the same nine services and the same on-site kiosk — then to San Mateo or Oakland Coliseum, before giving up. Offices serve all California residents regardless of home address, and cancellations open slots when you check back.
5. Enter your contact details and confirm. Save the confirmation — you will need it if anything changes.

Prefer the phone? Call the statewide line, 1-800-777-0133 (automated 24/7; live representatives Monday–Friday 8:00 AM–5:00 PM). The Daly City page also carries a same-day “Get in Line” check-in element — describe it honestly as a same-day option shown on the office page, not as a guaranteed walk-in route, and never as a promise of same-day availability or a blanket walk-in policy. Those are unverifiable topics, and they stay unverified here. If you are heading to the office without an appointment, check the official office page on the morning of your visit for the current same-day check-in option, and bring everything on our documents checklist so you do not burn a second trip. More on the whole booking process in our California DMV appointment guide. This page prints no wait-time minutes: the live wait display on dmv.ca.gov changes hourly, and any snapshot quoted here would go stale within the hour — check the live display on the morning of your visit instead. And the new-resident rule that belongs in every office guide, stated the right way round because the internet so often reverses it: for a new California resident, vehicle registration is due within 20 days and a California driver license within 10 days. License 10, registration 20 — never reversed.

4Nearby DMV offices: the Peninsula & Bay decision table

Every office below runs the same weekly pattern (Monday–Tuesday 8–5, Wednesday 9–5, Thursday–Friday 8–5, Saturday–Sunday closed) and the same six payment methods, and each was verified on its own dmv.ca.gov page on October 29, 2026 — never copied from another office’s nearby card. The hours sameness is itself a finding: a reader cannot pick between these offices on hours, so the comparison below turns on kiosk availability and geography instead. The decision is never an invented wait-time ranking and never a distance figure, because no distance between any two offices is asserted in the research for this page.

Three disambiguations save real trips. First, Oakland has two field offices, and merging them is the easiest error on this page: Coliseum (501 85th Ave) and Claremont Avenue (5300 Claremont Ave) both have on-site kiosks and nine services, and directory sites frequently collapse them. Always name which Oakland office you mean. Second, San Francisco has one verified field office in this research: Fell Street. Searches for other San Francisco office names — downtown, civic center, southeast — all return 404 on dmv.ca.gov, so this page does not invent a second San Francisco office. One directory page prints internally contradictory San Francisco hours (8–5 in its table, 9–6 in its prose); trust dmv.ca.gov only. Third, San Mateo is the exception that proves the table was built office by office: every other office in the table carries the kiosk triple signal (badge + callout + Self Service Terminals), and San Mateo carries none of them. Its services list runs through the same eight categories and then goes straight to Payments Accepted, with no Self Service Terminals entry and no kiosk callout in the header. Either San Mateo genuinely has no on-site self-service terminal, or its page omits one — either way, this page does not claim a San Mateo kiosk, and phrases the comparison as “San Mateo’s official listing does not show a self-service terminal, while Daly City’s does.”

Now the phantom-office table — the cities that look like offices but are not. Every URL in this table was checked on dmv.ca.gov on October 29, 2026, with Daly City, San Francisco, San Mateo, Oakland, Oakland Coliseum, and Redwood City run as controls in the same pass (all returned HTTP 200). A 404 on the canonical field-office slug is the evidence: dmv.ca.gov has no field-office page for that city, and no field office may be printed for it.

The directory warning applies across the table: third-party directories recycle addresses and hours without a verification date, and the only cure is checking dmv.ca.gov. If a directory gives you an office street address for any city in the phantom table, treat it as unverified directory data, not an official office. “Colma DMV,” “Pacifica DMV,” “Brisbane DMV,” and “South San Francisco DMV” are plausible searches with no official office behind them, and a page that says “there is no DMV field office in [town] — the nearest verified offices are X and Y” serves those searches honestly and earns the correction traffic that directory sites lose by inventing listings. One absence to state carefully, not absolutely, for completeness: Hayward and Fremont field-office pages both returned HTTP 200 in the same check, but their addresses, hours, and kiosk status were not extracted on their own pages in this run, so they are not added as rows here — a one-line “also live” note is not verification, and this page does not pretend otherwise.

5Frequently asked questions

Daly City: the straight answers to the questions Peninsula residents actually ask — answered from official sources, verified October 29, 2026. No Reddit thread about the Daly City DMV surfaced in this run’s research, so no FAQ below is attributed to Reddit; the questions come from appointment-guide FAQs, directory-page FAQs, and the office-facts gaps searchers demonstrably hit (Saturday, phone, nearest office, kiosk, partner versus office).

The kiosk story: one on site, two at Safeway, three machines in total

Read this section as the correction to every guide that gets Daly City’s kiosk position wrong in either direction. Daly City is a kiosk office — but “kiosk” on this page means three different machines, and merging them is how readers waste trips. The on-site kiosk sits inside the field office and is available during office hours. The two Safeway kiosks are different machines in grocery stores, open far longer, including weekends when the office is closed. Count it carefully, the way this series counts everywhere: 1 on-site kiosk (inside the Daly City field office) + 2 nearby grocery kiosks (Safeway South San Francisco, Safeway San Francisco) = 3 kiosk locations in the cluster, of which 1 is in Daly City itself. Never write “3 kiosks in Daly City” — that is the counting error this series warns against, and it would be wrong here too.

What kiosks do, per dmv.ca.gov: they are “self-serve stations where you can complete certain registration services and request driver or vehicle records,” and “the range of services varies by kiosk location.” Registration renewals and planned non-operation filings are the classic kiosk wins: no appointment, no line, and you print your registration card and sticker on the spot. What kiosks cannot do: no appointments, no knowledge or drive tests, no REAL ID issuance, no new licenses. The decision rule is simple — if the task is a renewal or a record copy, use a kiosk; if the task involves you (license, permit, test, REAL ID), book the Sullivan Avenue office. More in our DMV kiosk guide. Kiosk hours follow the host grocery store’s hours in practice, so confirm on dmv.ca.gov before a late-night trip, and do not present 5:00 AM–1:00 AM as a DMV guarantee — it is store hours, not DMV hours. One flagged import, stated honestly so it is never mistaken for a Daly City-list item: the San Francisco page’s nearby list also shows a Pak ‘N Save kiosk in Emeryville (3889 San Pablo Ave., Emeryville, CA 94608, Mon–Sun 6:00 AM–12:00 AM). It appears on the San Francisco page’s list, not Daly City’s, and this page does not count it in the Daly City cluster. The same applies to any other kiosk found on a neighbouring office’s page: flag its true source page, or leave it out.

DMV partners near Daly City: registration help for an extra fee

DMV business partners are private businesses authorized by the DMV to handle certain registration services — not DMV offices, and not a substitute for one. The official wording is worth quoting: partners handle registration services “often with much shorter wait times (if any!)” and “additional fees may be applied by this partner.” Ask the price before handing over paperwork — the partner’s fee is on top of the DMV’s, and this page quotes no partner fee figure, because none was verified. Partners handle registration-type work only; they do not issue licenses, run tests, or process REAL ID. The Daly City page’s own nearby list carries seven partners — three with a Daly City address, four with a San Francisco or San Bruno address — and no partner on that list shows an anomalous “closed every day” pattern, so every row below carries its listed hours. (The build-time rule still applies: if the live list on a future check shows any all-closed partner, that row must be reduced to name, address, and phone plus a call-first caution, and must not carry the anomaly as if it were hours.)

Partners NOT on the Daly City page’s list, mentioned only to prevent import errors: partners from other offices’ nearby lists (for example, partners on the San Francisco or San Mateo pages) are not added to the Daly City partner table without a build-day re-check of the Daly City page. The pattern for partners everywhere is the same: partners = vehicle paperwork; the field office = everything involving you (licenses, permits, tests, REAL ID). Match your task to the right counter before you go, and never pay a partner a “booking fee” for an office appointment — booking on dmv.ca.gov is free.

Drive tests at Daly City: what to expect

Daly City’s drive-test story starts with the booking warning from section 3, because it is where the most rebooking happens: a behind-the-wheel test is handled as a separate appointment type from a general office visit. Book “drive test” for the road test, not a general visit. The office lists “Testing” among its official services, so tests happen here — but this page asserts no examiner route. No verified turn-by-turn route text exists for Daly City, and practice loops on third-party sites are someone’s guess, not the examiner’s plan. Do not buy a “guaranteed Daly City route” from anyone, and do not repeat any third-party “Daly City DMV test route” post as if it were official. What you can prepare for is the standard California examiner skill set, from the California Driver Handbook and our driving test appointment guide: left and right turns, stops at intersections, lane changes with mirror and blind-spot checks, straight-line reversing, curbside parking, traffic checks, and space management. The places test-takers most often lose points are residential segments — parked cars, cross-street traffic, pedestrians — not wide arterials, and the classic point-losers everywhere in California are missed mirror and blind-spot checks before lane changes, rolling stops, following too closely, speed mismatched to conditions (not just the posted limit), and pedestrian-awareness failures at crosswalks.

Test-day checklist (standard statewide): your instruction permit (or existing license); a licensed driver to accompany you; the test vehicle’s current registration and proof of insurance; and a car that passes the examiner’s pre-drive check — brakes (foot and parking), horn, turn signals front and back, brake lights, tires, unobstructed windshield, working doors and windows, a driver-side window that rolls down, seat belts, two mirrors, two plates with current registration, defroster, hazard lights, headlights, and wipers. The examiner will ask you to locate and demonstrate controls (window, wipers, signals, brake lights, horn, parking brake, defroster, hazards, headlights) and arm signals. After a failed test, a waiting period applies before retesting and attempts are limited — the scheduler shows when you can rebook, and this page prints no specific wait or attempt numbers without a Handbook citation. One scope note that matters for families: drive tests happen at the field office only — not at a kiosk, not at a partner, not online. And the motorcycle and commercial notes, stated once plainly: neither motorcycle skills-test availability nor commercial-license testing availability is itemized for this office on its official page, so check the scheduler for both.

Transit, parking & getting there

Honest framing first: the office sits on Sullivan Avenue in Daly City, and driving is how most visitors arrive — but this office has a genuine transit option that directories never explain properly, because they never tie it to the office at planner-check level. Daly City station (BART) exists in Daly City, and SamTrans and Muni serve the Daly City area. That is the extent of the firm transit claim on this page, and it is stated at planner-check level on purpose: ride BART to Daly City station, then check the BART and SamTrans trip planners for the current route to Sullivan Avenue on your travel day. No source checked for this page confirms which stop is closest to 1500 Sullivan Avenue, how far any stop is from the office door, or what the current timetable is, so this page prints no bus timetable, no frequency, no first/last-bus time, and no “get off at this stop, walk this many minutes” instruction for any bus line, and no BART frequency or last-train time. Millbrae has a BART/Caltrain station too, but no source in this run ties it to the Sullivan Avenue office by a specific route, so this page does not name it as “the station for the Daly City DMV” — Daly City station only, at planner-check level, and the rest is left to the planner.

On parking, this page makes no claim at all — deliberately. No official or credible source describes the Sullivan Avenue office’s lot, its capacity, its street parking, or its accessibility spaces, so this page does not assert “free parking,” a “large lot,” or any parking-difficulty claim. Do not import a parking description from another office’s directory page — a parking description found for the San Francisco office on a directory site was deliberately not imported here, because it is a different office from a non-official source. The only safe advice is generic: arrive early and allow time to park, and remember that an appointment moves you through far faster than the walk-in line regardless of lot conditions. If traffic is your concern, the Safeway kiosks are the real answer for anything they cover: the South San Francisco kiosk is open daily 5:00 AM–1:00 AM, and traffic-proof for kiosk-eligible tasks.

What to bring

Missing paperwork is the most expensive mistake at a busy office — it turns one visit into two, and in a one-office catchment a second trip hurts more. The rules are the same here as everywhere in California:

• Originals only. The DMV accepts original documents or certified copies — never photocopies.
• REAL ID visits: a first REAL ID needs an in-person visit with original documents. Check the DMV’s published REAL ID documents list before you go, and start the application online first for a confirmation code. REAL ID is issued at the field office, not at a kiosk and not by a partner. Details in our REAL ID appointment guide.
• Registration and title visits: your current registration card, the signed title or transfer paperwork, and smog documentation if applicable. Out-of-state vehicles need a VIN verification at the office.
• Partner visits: ask the fee first, and bring the registration paperwork the partner needs — partners handle registration-type work only, and AAA branches are member use only.
• Drive tests: the car’s valid registration and proof of insurance, your permit, and your licensed accompanying driver.

Run through our DMV documents checklist the night before — it is the difference between one trip and two. And the night-before check that costs nothing: confirm the office’s hours on its dmv.ca.gov page, especially on Wednesdays (9:00 AM opening) and around state holidays.

Timing that is actually verified

• Best: an appointment at any hour beats a walk-in at any hour. Within the week, the 8:00 AM opening is the calmest structural window — except on Wednesdays, when the office opens at 9:00 AM, not 8:00.
• Good: mid-afternoon on a weekday, after the lunch period clears — stated as general timing sense, not as a Daly City crowd measurement, because no Daly City crowd data was verified.
• Worst (structural, not measured): Mondays and Fridays, the first and last days of the month, and days right after a holiday are the standard DMV peak pattern everywhere — and this page labels that as the standard pattern, not as a Daly City measurement, because no Daly City wait-time data exists on the official page.
• Wednesday quirk: the office opens at 9:00 AM, not 8:00 — do not show up at 8:00 expecting the early-bird advantage. This is the single most repeated warning on this page, because it is the single most common avoidable mistake.
• When Daly City is full: check San Francisco (Fell Street) first (same nine services, same on-site kiosk), then San Mateo or Oakland Coliseum, in the same search — and check back for cancellations. If your task is a renewal or a record copy, the Safeway kiosk in South San Francisco (5:00 AM–1:00 AM daily) beats any office queue, including on weekends when the office is closed.

Sources used: dmv.ca.gov (Daly City field office page — address 1500 Sullivan Avenue, hours calendar October 25 – November 7, 2026, kiosk callout, 9 services, payments, nearby list — plus San Francisco, San Mateo, Oakland, Oakland Coliseum, and Redwood City field-office pages, all read October 29, 2026; official appointment scheduler; official kiosk description; REAL ID documents guidance), Town of Colma (colma.ca.gov) address corroboration, AAA Daly City branch page (hours conflict flagged, DMV listing used), and Daly City history summaries for city context only (incorporated 1911; San Mateo County’s northernmost city, bordering San Francisco, “Gateway to the Peninsula”; 2020 Census population 104,901, labelled as such). No fee dollar amounts, wait-time minutes, review numbers, parking descriptions, drive-test routes, motorcycle or commercial testing claims, bus timetables, stop-to-office walk claims, or distances appear on this page, because no official source verified them on build day. Hayward and Fremont are not named as alternatives with office details on this page, because their own pages were not extracted in this run. The 2020 Census figure is the newest population figure printed; no 2026 population estimate is given, because none was verified.

City context, kept short: Daly City, incorporated in 1911 and named for John Daly, grew after San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake and fire as a haven for refugees, and is now San Mateo County’s northernmost city — the “Gateway to the Peninsula” — with a 2020 Census population of 104,901. That history is why a single Sullivan Avenue office serves such a wide Peninsula catchment: the city sits at the county’s northern edge, against San Francisco, and the towns around it never built field offices of their own. The office’s catchment is a product of that geography, not of any DMV planning document, and this page states it that way.

Official office page: dmv.ca.gov/portal/field-office/daly-city/

Last verified against dmv.ca.gov: October 29, 2026