Foreign driving licence

People ask about this document with two quite different situations in mind, and the answers are not the same.

Driving on a foreign licence

Whether, and for how long, a foreign licence can be used in Türkiye is set by legislation and by arrangements with the issuing country. That is a traffic law question rather than a document question, and it changes.

⚠ Confirm it with the responsible authority. We do not publish periods here, because an out-of-date figure on this subject has consequences beyond a wasted trip to a counter.

⭐ Exchanging it for a Turkish licence

This is the document procedure. Exchange generally requires a notarised sworn translation of the licence, along with identity documents and whatever else the authority specifies.

Whether exchange is available at all, and on what conditions, depends on the issuing country and on arrangements between the two states. Ask before preparing anything.

What is translated

Both sides of the card. Category codes, restriction codes, issue and expiry dates and the issuing authority are all on it, and the restriction codes on the reverse are exactly what an exchange procedure reads.

Codes are carried across as written rather than converted into their assumed Turkish counterparts; deciding which Turkish category corresponds is the authority’s function.

Apostille

Whether an apostille is required depends on the authority and the country. Ask before obtaining one — for identity-type documents the answer is sometimes no.

Names

The name on the licence must be reconcilable with your passport. Where the licence was issued in another script, transliteration follows the passport spelling, so send the passport page with it.

International permits

An international driving permit is a standardised multilingual document issued alongside a national licence. Being multilingual by design, it is generally not translated — and it does not replace the national licence, which is presented with it.

If the licence is lost or expired

An expired licence generally cannot be exchanged, and a lost one cannot be translated. Where either applies, the issuing country has to replace or renew it first, and that is often harder to arrange from abroad than people expect.

Ask the issuing authority whether it can act on an application made from another country, and see which documents need an apostille for whether the replacement will need certification.

Keep the original

Some exchange procedures retain the foreign licence. Ask in advance whether yours will be kept, because that changes whether you can still drive on it in the country that issued it.

Where the licence was issued in a script other than the Latin alphabet, the same transliteration rules apply as to any identity document — see name spelling and date formats, and use the spelling your passport already carries.