Driving License in Vietnam: How Foreigners Convert a License

Driving license in Vietnam rules are simple to state: a foreigner who lives, works or studies in the country can swap a valid home license for a Vietnamese one, and the swap is done at a provincial transport office. This guide lists who qualifies, what to bring, where to apply and how long the new license lasts.

Who can convert a foreign license

The rule sits in Article 37 of the Ministry of Transport's Circular 12/2017/TT-BGTVT, dated April 15, 2017, and amended by Circular 38/2019/TT-BGTVT in October 2019. It lets certain people convert a valid foreign license into a Vietnamese license of the same category.

The first group is foreigners who live, work or study in Vietnam. They must hold a diplomatic or official-duty identity card, a temporary residence card, a residence card, a sojourn card or a permanent residence card. The stay must be at least three months. The second group is foreign tourists who drive foreign-registered vehicles into the country. The third is Vietnamese citizens who come back after living, studying or working abroad and want to use a foreign license.

If you hold licenses for several vehicle classes at home, you get a Vietnamese license for those classes.

Sources: Vietnam Law Magazine, “Persons entitled to convert foreign driver licenses into Vietnamese ones,” June 2, 2023; Circular 12/2017/TT-BGTVT.

Who cannot convert

Article 37 also lists cases where conversion is refused, even for people in the groups above. The foreign license cannot be a temporary license or an international driving permit. It cannot be expired, or so damaged or erased that it no longer shows the needed details. It cannot have been issued by an authority that had no power to issue it. The applicant must also be physically fit to drive under Vietnamese rules.

The international driving permit point matters. A permit is not a license that you can swap. It is a separate document, and it works differently, as the last section explains.

Sources: Vietnam Law Magazine, June 2, 2023, quoting Article 37.6 of Circular 12/2017/TT-BGTVT.

Documents to bring

Article 41 of the circular sets the file. A foreigner submits three items.

• A written request to exchange the license, on the form in Appendix 20 of the circular.
• A Vietnamese translation of the foreign license, certified by a notary office or by an embassy or consulate in Vietnam, stamped across the edges of the pages, plus a copy of the license itself.
• A copy of your passport, showing the passport number, your name, your photo, its validity and your Vietnam visa page. A residence card, sojourn card, temporary residence card or permanent residence card, or a paper that proves long-term residence, also works.

Bring the originals as well. The office takes your photo when you file and checks the originals against the copies. If it has doubts, it can write to the embassy of the country that issued the license, or to the immigration authorities, to verify the papers.

Sources: Vietnam Law Magazine, “Procedures for conversion of driver licenses for foreigners residing in Vietnam,” June 4, 2023; VCCI, “Procedures to exchange foreign driving license to Vietnam’s,” September 22, 2021.

Where to apply and how long it takes

You file the papers by hand at the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam or at the provincial Department of Transport where you are registered for residence or stay. Most expats use the provincial office, because it is where their residence card or visa registration is on record.

The law sets five working days for the conversion once the office has a complete and valid file. The checks on translations and papers are where delays tend to happen, so a clean set of papers is the fastest route.

The new license does not last forever. Its validity equals that of your visa or temporary residence card. It also cannot go beyond the time left on your foreign license, or beyond the longest term Vietnam allows for its own licenses. If your visa runs out in a year, expect a license that runs out in a year.

Sources: Vietnam Law Magazine, June 4, 2023, quoting Article 41 of Circular 12/2017/TT-BGTVT.

When you may not need to convert

Some visitors do not have to convert at all. A Vietnamese lawyer quoted by Tuoi Tre News in March 2024 said a foreigner with a valid international driving permit does not need a Vietnamese license under Circular 12/2017/TT-BGTVT. The permit must come from a country that is a party to the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic. Vietnam joined that convention in 2014.

Under Article 11 of Circular 29/2015/TT-BGTVT, a person using such a permit must carry both the permit and the national license, and the license must cover the class of vehicle being driven. Anyone who falls outside that case has to complete the conversion to drive legally in Vietnam.

In short, a short-stay visitor with a Vienna Convention permit and a valid home license is covered. A resident with a long-term card is the person the conversion rule is built for. Check your own permit and your card type with your provincial Department of Transport before you drive.

Sources: Tuoi Tre News, “Is converting foreign driver’s licenses required in Vietnam?” March 14, 2024.

Sources

• Ministry of Transport, Circular 12/2017/TT-BGTVT (April 15, 2017), as amended by Circular 38/2019/TT-BGTVT, as quoted by Vietnam Law Magazine (vietnamlawmagazine.vn), June 2 and June 4, 2023.
• VCCI, en.vcci.com.vn, September 22, 2021.
• Tuoi Tre News, tuoitrenews.vn, March 14, 2024.