Do I need an International Driving Permit? At the time of planning a vacation or a short weekend trip outside your country, only experienced travelers are interested in this issue. However, anyone wishing to travel in their own or rented car should consider this issue more carefully, because the absence of this type of document in some countries not only prohibits driving, but also deprives them of the opportunity to perform certain legally significant actions.
There are currently two fundamental conventions on traffic rules in the world, the Vienna Convention and the Geneva Convention. In particular, in the countries – parties to the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic of 1968, including Ukraine, there is a mutual recognition of driver’s licenses.
In accordance with the requirements of paragraph 4 of Article 6 of the Vienna Convention, to which Ukraine acceded on 12 July 1974, for the mutual recognition of national drive license in the participating countries, they must contain the following information:
– surname, name of the document holder;
– date and place of birth of the person;
– address where the certificate holder resides;
– date and place of issuance of the certificate;
– expiration date of the certificate;
– authorized number of the authorized body that issued the certificate;
– ID of the certificate;
– signature and photo of the certificate holder;
– signature and / or stamp or seal of the authorized body that issued the certificate;
– the specified category (s) for vehicles to be driven by the holder of the license, indicating the date of issue and the expiry date for each of these categories.
In contrast, in order to exercise its right to drive a car, the Geneva Convention on Road Traffic of 1948, ratified by Canada, the United States, Japan and other participating countries, together with the national driver’s license, requires its international counterpart.
An important aspect is that as of 2021 in Ukraine there are 2 types of driver’s licenses: national and international. According to paragraph 30 of the Regulations on the procedure for issuing driver’s licenses and admission of citizens to drive vehicles in Ukraine, foreigners who arrived in Ukraine have the right to drive a car in Ukraine if they have international driver’s licenses.
So if you are still planning a trip for the weekend or for business purposes abroad, or even more, are going to go there in your own car or intend to rent a car in Kiev, Lviv or elsewhere, make sure that you have indeed, there are all the documents, because it may apply not only to the ability to drive your own car. For example, according to the provisions of the Vienna Convention, member countries need a national driver’s license to drive their own car, but you will not be able to rent a car and get insurance without IDP / IDL. In the countries of the Geneva Convention, where the situation is more complicated, in the absence of IDP / IDL you will not be able to drive your own car with a national driver’s license, but even more so to rent a car.
The advantages of obtaining an IDL include its ability to identify a person in more than 150 countries around the world, by translating the personal data of the certificate holder into the 12 most common languages in the world – which is clear to most local structures you visit. It should be noted that the international driver’s license in the absence or expiration of national, is not valid.
Certificate of international standard is available in both electronic and printed form. Order a certificate valid for 1, 2 or 3 years, for you can at the following link: https://internationaldriversassociation.com/
To obtain an international driver’s license, you need:
- Fill in information about yourself;
- Provide valid photocopies of both sides of your national driver’s license;
- Upload a photo – a copy of your own passport;
- Create a photo in the format of 3x4cm passport sample;
- Scan and upload your signature on a sheet of paper;
