American Driving License

ADTR

Hi all,

I have an American drivers license. My insurance company, Allianz, put it down on the policy as a provisional Irish license. So, my question is does this mean I can just take the driver test or do I still have to do the theory test?

Anybody got any idea or been in a similar position?

Thanks!

PCPhoto

My understanding of the situation..... (im not 100% if this it true or not)

if your licence is a full driving licence then it should be transferred to a full irish licence (assuming you are living here now) ....

if you goto the local car tax office - they should transfer your licence and your insurance company should reduce your premium.

Alanstrainor

You are allowed to drive on your American license for one year in the republic. After that you need to start from scratch and sit your theory test, provided you haven't had a provisional in the last 5 years. After completing this you can apply for a learner permit. Provided this is your first provisional/learner permit you will then need to wait a minimum of 6 months before being able to sit the test. You are however able to apply for the test at any time, so it may be possible to arrange for a test to occur on or around the date you've held your permit for 6 months.

Alanstrainor

PCPhoto wrote: »

My understanding of the situation..... (im not 100% if this it true or not)

if your licence is a full driving licence then it should be transferred to a full irish licence (assuming you are living here now) ....

if you goto the local car tax office - they should transfer your licence and your insurance company should reduce your premium.

An American license cannot be transferred to a full Irish license unfortunately.

**Timbuk2**

This might be irrelevant or obvious to you, but it's worth noting in case you don't know.

When you do you're test, if you do it in an automatic then you will only be allowed drive automatic cars with your new full Irish licence. If you do it in a manual, you can drive both automatics and manuals.

Permabear

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brian076

Alanstrainor wrote: »

You are allowed to drive on your American license for one year in the republic. After that you need to start from scratch and sit your theory test, provided you haven't had a provisional in the last 5 years. After completing this you can apply for a learner permit. Provided this is your first provisional/learner permit you will then need to wait a minimum of 6 months before being able to sit the test. You are however able to apply for the test at any time, so it may be possible to arrange for a test to occur on or around the date you've held your permit for 6 months.

+1
If you drive for a year on the American Licence, then sit the theory test and obtain a Learner permit, you are subject to the same restrictions as any other learner, ie you must be accompanied by a fully qualified driver, so you'd be better off applying for your LP now, so that you have a chance of passing your test before your US Licence expires.

I'm not aware of any restrictions regarding the holding of a US Licence & Irish LP at the same time.

Permabear

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brian076

donegalfella wrote: »

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That's what I thought, so it would definitely make sense for the OP to try and get his full licence while the American licence is still in force. The last thing anyone wants is to be driving around on your own for a year, and then have to rely on someone with a full licence to accompany you while waiting for your test date.

Alanstrainor

donegalfella wrote: »

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I think the question is, if you hold a full US license, which entitles you to drive in Ireland for a year, and you hold an Irish learner permit, what happens then? Which would take precedence?

pounder770

My wife arrived here 3 years ago with a full US licence...did theory test immediately,and applied for her test...all while legally using her US license for year 1. I would advise the OP to do theory test( compulsory) and get learners permit asap,as once the year runs out,the ground gets shaky.

The status of "resident" i.e. holding a residents permit,renders the US licence invalid in theory,however we could not clarify this as a fact,even with local Gardai.

Hope this helps.

Permabear

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Alanstrainor

donegalfella wrote: »

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Cool. Yeah i was thinking as much, it makes sense. It must be very difficult, if not impossible to enforce though.

Permabear

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pounder770

Just to clarify....my wife(we're only recently married) lived here initially on the most basic residence permit....she couldn't work/go to college...it was no more than a permit to stay here longer than 90 days,as a temporary resident..it was here the grey area existed,as she was entitled to a PPS number,therefore allowing her get a provisional license,but wasn't in posession of a #4 stamp on her passport,which grants full resident status.

esharknz

It definitely applied to me in my second year of a green card here (stamp 1).
It can be a bit of a grey area as noone could give me a straight answer as to whether I could drive in the first year of my two year green card as I was here previously on a working holiday visa and had left Ireland once this had completed.

However, I'd strongly advise getting the driving test sorted as soon as you can just so it's done, seeing as though I couldn't get a straight answer.

How long does your wife have on her stamp 3? Are you Irish or an EU national? I'm now married to an Irishman and have a stamp 4.....

dermots

I have a similar query to this question.

I have an American license and found out no matter what the situation is you must get an Irish license after 1 year of residence in the country. I passed the theory test and now I'll be on a provisional license for 6 months before I can take a test for the full drivers license. I don't quite understand why they won't let someone who has held a license for 14+ years just take the full drivers test without waiting 6 months. I'm trying to see if there is a way around it, but no luck yet.

Once you have a license, you will then have to deal with getting insurance. Once again, it doesn't matter if you have 14+ years driving experience without an accident from the USA, you'll be given the same rate as an 18 year old taking to the road for the first time. Very annoying.

Does anyone know of any insurance companies that will give a non-brand new driver rate to someone who has moved over from the USA?

Permabear

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dermots

"If you are not from any of the above countries, (for example, if you are from Canada, the United States or New Zealand), and you hold a national driving licence or an international driving permit from your own country, you may drive in Ireland for the duration of your temporary visit (up to 12 months)"

Temporary visit is a very vague term, hence the confusion. I don't know what the officially make you resident in Ireland?

I'm fairly sure my American license of recognized in America.

It just does not make sense to me that you can come from the continent (drive on the other side of the road) and get a license transferred without a test, but if you come from USA or Australia you cannot. I think you should just have to pass a test either way, but you shouldn't have to wait a mandatory 6 months to do so if you already know how to drive a car. I don't understand what the 6 months wait will do for you?

ztoical

dermots wrote: »

"If you are not from any of the above countries, (for example, if you are from Canada, the United States or New Zealand), and you hold a national driving licence or an international driving permit from your own country, you may drive in Ireland for the duration of your temporary visit (up to 12 months)"

Temporary visit is a very vague term, hence the confusion. I don't know what the officially make you resident in Ireland?

I'm fairly sure my American license of recognized in America.

It just does not make sense to me that you can come from the continent (drive on the other side of the road) and get a license transferred without a test, but if you come from USA or Australia you cannot. I think you should just have to pass a test either way, but you shouldn't have to wait a mandatory 6 months to do so if you already know how to drive a car. I don't understand what the 6 months wait will do for you?

Europe is a different matter as EU membership covers most countries and means not needing to exchange license and [hopefully] in the next few years we'll all have standard EU licenses arcross the board [ie no more folded bit of paper but proper plastic cards that fit in your wallet woohoo]

With US the issue is that there isn't an 'american drivers license' Each state issues their own licenses and as such each state must make it's own arrangments for reciprocal license exchange with other countries. France for example as reciprocal license exchange with only 14 states while Germany has an exchange with most but a few states it exempts from only the practical side of the german driving test but still requires they sit the written part.

Canada does have an exchange with all 50 states so you could exchange for a Canadian then exchange for a UK and you could exchange a UK for an Irish but not much point as it's EU.

Permabear

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ztoical

donegalfella wrote: »

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As I mentioned above it depends on which state license you hold and you might have to sit the written part of the test. France has a direct exchange program with 14 states.

Richie15

dermots wrote: »

Once again, it doesn't matter if you have 14+ years driving experience without an accident from the USA, you'll be given the same rate as an 18 year old taking to the road for the first time.

That's not true. The two largest factors in determining insurance prices are age and gender, then experience. A 30 year-old (I'm assuming you're 30?) who's just starting out, even ignoring the previous experience abroad, would generally have much cheaper insurance than an 18 year-old who's held a full licence for over a year (and a learner permit for at least 6 months before that). There's a huge drop at 25, and another big drop at 30. And it keeps going down until about 60 or 70.

Case Study:
My sister in her late 20s. She has a 2.0 litre jeep, loads of claims and two points.
I'm 20, I've been looking at cars around the 1.2 mark, I've one settled claim for own damage and two points due to expire within the life of the policy.
We live in the same area, both cars are (or would be, if I could afford the feckin' thing!) parked in locked gardens.
Just because she's a girl and a few years older, her insurance is less than a third of what mine would be.

donkey balls

a few years ago while i was a transport manager i had lads working for our company from the former eastern bloc countries,under the rules at the time any person that was resident and working in ireland for more than one year had to change their licence to an irish one.

this envolved handing over there full licence to the motor tax office with a application form, the motor tax office would get in contact with the applicants home country to verify that the licence was legit.
once they got the go ahead from the applicants home country a licence was issued.

the countries that we have reciprocal rights with are ZA,KR,SG and all european countries.

ztoical

donkey balls wrote: »

a few years ago while i was a transport manager i had lads working for our company from the former eastern bloc countries,under the rules at the time any person that was resident and working in ireland for more than one year had to change their licence to an irish one.

this envolved handing over there full licence to the motor tax office with a application form, the motor tax office would get in contact with the applicants home country to verify that the licence was legit.
once they got the go ahead from the applicants home country a licence was issued.

the countries that we have reciprocal rights with are ZA,KR,SG and all european countries.

Pretty sure we covered license exchanges for the EU already and we don't have a license exchange with all european countries it's EU countries which is now not needed thanks to the common EU-driver's-licence scheme and an EEA member states (Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland). We have arrangements with the following countries outside of this Australia, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Japan, Jersey, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland. All other countries would have to sit an Irish driving test to get a license.

Ireland does not have any reciprocal license exchange with any of the states in the US which is what the thread is about.