Where I’m at in PA it’s a yearly inspection for body/mechanical, but not very thorough, they check tires, brakes and suspension, supposed to do a visual inspection of exhaust to make sure it has a cat and muffler and it exits past the passenger compartment. There’s a bunch of other stuff they are supposed to do like check and aim the headlights but a lot of shops don’t worry about that and some shops don’t even really check the exhaust because there’s a few straight piped vehicles running around. I’ve talked with a few shops and they said there’s not enough time or money to check everything, especially newer vehicles with plastic trim over everything and the inspection laws have gotten ridiculous. They have even added inspections to Classic plated vehicles and possibly Antique so there’s really not any benefit anymore to getting one of those.
Ohio where my GF is at, they do a VIN check when you register it if it’s not an Ohio vehicle and that’s the last time they see it, just send in for tags that are due on your birthday.