What is an International Driving Permit?

An International Driving Permit (IDP) is a document that translates your national driver's licence into several languages, in a layout defined by the UN road-traffic conventions of 1949 and 1968. Its job is narrow: it lets a police officer or rental agent abroad read a licence written in a language or alphabet they don't know. It is not a licence in its own right.

What is inside one

Every IDP carries the same core information, repeated in each of its languages: your full name, date and place of birth, a photograph, the number and issuing country of your national licence, and the vehicle categories you are licensed for. It also shows its own date of issue and how long it is valid. Because the layout is standardised, an officer who reads none of your languages can still find each field.

The vehicle categories

• A — motorcycles
• B — cars and light vans (up to 3,500 kg, no more than eight passenger seats)
• C — goods vehicles over 3,500 kg
• D — buses and coaches (more than eight passenger seats)
• E — combinations with a heavy trailer

An IDP can only show the categories your national licence already covers. It never adds a category: if your licence covers cars, so does your IDP, and nothing more.

Geneva 1949 or Vienna 1968 — and why it matters

Two treaties define the IDP: the 1949 Geneva Convention and the 1968 Vienna Convention on road traffic. Countries sign one, both or neither, and that decides which format they recognise. Of the 154 countries we track:

• 66 are party to both conventions;
• 35 to the 1949 Geneva Convention only — including Japan, United States, India, Canada;
• 31 to the 1968 Vienna Convention only — including Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, Russia;
• 22 to neither — including Mexico, China, Colombia, Panama. There, local law alone decides what a visiting driver must carry.

The practical upshot: an IDP is only as useful as its match with your destination. Every country page names the convention that country follows.

What an IDP is not

• Not a driving licence. It is valid only alongside your national licence, and only while that licence is valid.
• Not identity. Carry your passport as well.
• Not a way around local rules. The destination's minimum age, its road rules and the rental company's own conditions all still apply.
• Not a substitute for a local licence if you become resident. Visitor rules usually run for a limited period; see how long an IDP lasts.

Who actually uses one

Mostly visitors who rent a car, and drivers whose licence is not in the local language or the Latin alphabet. Rental companies are a common reason people find they need one: many ask to see a translation at the counter regardless of what the law says. A driver crossing between countries that drive on different sides of the road — 36 of the countries we track drive on the left — also benefits from knowing the local rules before collecting the car.