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International Driving Licence for the USA?


nectarine
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Shortly to get a French licence but will be hiring a car in the States early next year (Florida) and now wondering if the USA will require an international driving licence, since the licence won't be written in English!

Has anybody hired in the US on a French licence?

Thanks for all replies.
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thanks. Separately I emailed the hire company who said that, as long as the licence was written in roman script, they didn't need an IDL. Although of course you could get some grumpy smalltown employee who says differently, but I'll pass on the international one. Thanks for your reply.
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Nectarine, as someone who travels to the USA several times a year II can tell you categorically that you do not need an international driving licence to rent a car in the USA.

Early last year a law was introduced in Florida to require an international driving licence intended for visitors whose licences were not in Roman script, but after an outcry the law was swiftly repealed!

In fact I would go as far as saying showing two driving licences in the USA to a rental car employee would more than likely just confuse, as they just want one licence number on the contract.
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With pedants hat on it's not an International Driving LICENCE, no such animal exists, it's proper name is International Driving PERMIT and in fact is nothing more than a multilingual translation of your actual licence.

By itself it's of significantly less use than a piece of second hand toilet paper and it's pretty inconceivable that any car hire operative would confuse it for a second licence however low their IQ !

As an aside an IDP must be applied for to the licencing authority which issued your actual driving licence so in the case of French resident UK licence holders that would be DVLA so I wonder, will they actually send one to somebody in France ?

Anybody up to putting it to the test, I have a French licence now otherwise I would try it myself

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[quote user="AnOther"]

As an aside an IDP must be applied for to the licencing authority which issued your actual driving licence so in the case of French resident UK licence holders that would be DVLA so I wonder, will they actually send one to somebody in France ?[/quote]

Wrong!

£5.50 from the Post Office, valid for 12 months.[:)]

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[quote user="AnOther"]Supposedly IDP's are available over the counter from SELECTED PO's and AA port travel shops only, the reason being that those establishments are authorised to interrogate DVLA records to establish entitlement.

[url]http://www.theaa.com/getaway/idp/motidp002.html[/url][/quote]

"Supposedly: According to what is generally assumed or believed (often used to indicate that the speaker doubts the truth of the statement)."

If you've no experience of obtaining an IDP, please be good enough to accept the experience of two on this forum who have gone through the process instead of trawling the internet looking for a get-out for your original claim.

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It was some years ago now but a work colleague was going to have his day in court for drink driving a few weeks before a holiday in Florida.  He went to an AA shop, got an international permit.  He was banned for a year of course but just used the international permit to hire a car in Florida, no questions asked.  It was a while back so things could have changed now.
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http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Foreign-Visitors-Driving.shtml

Personally, I never bothered when I visited the US. I think I put my licence number on the rental car agreement, but they never saw it. I did use my English licence, but it's still the old paper one. Still has my parents address on it even though they've been dead 15 years and the house long since sold.

This was in New Jersey, so I don't know what the laws are in other states.

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If you look at the new French EU standard driving licence there is very little in French, other than the words driving licence and the republic of France, as it is all numerical and Roman letter based with shadow pictures of the class of vehicles authorised.

No doubt to make it readable internationally without the need for any understanding of French!
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