When I bought my 2007 Chevy HHR 4.5 years ago it had Arkansas plates on it since I bought it from a US Marine Staff Sargent who was retiring and going back home. He had a pickup and his wife had just bought a Honda sedan. So I went to a company in Chula Vista that does the license/registration/title stuff and they charge $20 to do it for me. I had the car smog checked by him first and proved it was a 50 state car and I wanted my F350's handicap plates used. Here comes the silly part, the whole office was staffed by women that looked like super models (as my neighbor told me) and the one who helped me was something......she said she always went to the same man at our DMV and he helped her immediately! She didn't even get one of those stupid alpha-numeric tags you get. I think it was the very low cut blouse she wore that helped?!
Enough of the silly stuff: I checked the information on both of these CA DMV websites before I even went to the office to get the registration taken care of and made sure all applicable info was there and had the needed signatures:
CA Info
https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/pubs/brochures/fast_facts/ffvr29
CA How To
https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/pubs/brochures/howto/htvr9
Note on the second website it mentions the vin can be checked at a DMV, but not all of them.