Epitaxially laterally overgrown (ELO)-GaN substrates with dislocation-free regions can be prepared with a relatively small thickness using atmospheric pressure metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). In order to determine the effect of ELO-GaN layer on the reliability of blue-violet laser diodes (BV-LDs), we fabricated BV-LDs on the lateral-growth region of the ELO-GaN layer. The thickness of the ELO-GaN layer was maintained at 5 mum to inhibit wafer bending, so the total thickness of the BV-LDs was approximately 7 mum. The lifetime of the BV-LDs with a constant output power of 20 mW under CW operation at 25 degreesC was more than 500h. This lifetime is several times that of our conventional BV-LDs on sapphire substrates. The ELO-GaN layer was very effective in raising the lifetime of BV-LDs.