Under Iowa law, people with OWI 1st offense test failures over 0.10, or test refusals must get an ignition interlock (“blow & go”) device installed on any vehicles they wish to drive or own, if they want to get a work or school permit.
With a first offense, a driver is always eligible for their work or school permit prior to being eligible for a full reinstatement of their license.
For an OWI 2nd offense, the revocation period for a person’s full license is one year if they have a test failure, and two years if they have a test refusal. And if a person does not fall subject to the IDOT adminstrative revocations, a conviction for OWI 2nd offense would carry a 2 year revocation.
Under all the above 2-year scenarios, the person is eligible for a work or school permit after one year. Then if they get that work or school permit, they will be able to get their full license after the final year has elapsed.
However, a strange law requires that a person needs to get an ignition interlock device, even if they are eligible for their full license.
It works like this, If a person has their license revoked by the IDOT for a 2nd test failure, and their license is revoked for only one year, then ยง321J.17 of the Iowa Code requires that the driver installs the ignition interlock device, even though they are eligible for a full license.
To summarize, no matter how a person’s license is dealt with following an OWI 2nd offense, they will face license restrictions for a full two years in the State of Iowa.