Question
I’m an international university student studying here in Illinois. I was stopped and ticketed for not having a valid driver’s license, even though I showed the police my license from my home country. Isn’t a valid driver’s license from another country valid here in the United States?Answer
It should be. Just as most foreign countries are supposed to accept U.S. driver’s licenses, we’re supposed to accept foreign licenses. Unless you’re from one of the few countries whose driver’s licenses the U.S. doesn’t accept, your foreign license should have been good enough for you to drive legally here in Illinois.
To deal with people traveling around the world, and cars going across borders, the United Nations passed the Convention on International Road Traffic in 1949. This agreement says that any country that has signed this agreement must allow drivers from other countries to drive on its roads. Just as an American driver's license would be legal to use in France, a French driver's license should be legal to use here. So far, about 175 other countries have signed this agreement.
In the U.S., then, a driver’s license from one of those 175 other countries makes you a legal driver here. As the Illinois Motor Vehicle Code says, “a nonresident who has in his immediate possession a valid license issued to him in his home state or country may operate a motor vehicle for which he is licensed for the period during which he is in this State.” This means that if you have a driver's license from another country with you, you can legally drive a car in Illinois.
If your license isn’t in English, you should have some kind of translation from your language into English. That’s usually included in an International Driver’s Permit (IDP), which is a translation of your license into languages that police around the world are likely to understand, on a standard form they’re likely to accept.
You can only get your IDP in the country that gave you your license. You should also understand that even though the IDP helps the local police understand your foreign license, it’s your license—not the IDP—that’s the key to being legal here in the U.S.
A foreign license should be legal in the U.S. for as long as it’s legal in your home country, and as long as you don’t become a resident by making Illinois your permanent home. Nonresidents who become Illinois residents have a 90 day grace period to get an Illinois license. This means that once you become an Illinois resident, you have 90 days to get an Illinois driver's license.
Since 2005, visitors from another country can get an Illinois Temporary Visitor Driver’s License (TVDL). It’s a license for non-U.S. citizens, who are here legally for at least a year, but who can’t get a Social Security Number (SSN), which is needed for an Illinois license.
Six Secretary of State offices take applications for TVDLs. Outside of Chicago, they’re located in Champaign, Springfield, Bloomington, and Carbondale. To apply, you need to first apply for an SSN, get turned down, and then give the Secretary of State's office a fresh notice of you being turned down. You also have to give other documents that prove your identity and that you’re legally here. Finally, you will have to pass the same tests—written, vision, and driving—that locals do.
http://www.illinoislegalaid.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.dsp_content&contentID=5091 |
