california driving with international license

You have New York’s driving license and it has now expired. You should renew your US driving license on time and get a new one if you move to a different state as per their rules. If you ever got a US driving license from any state in the past, then you are expected to use it. You are allowed to use your home country driving license in the USA only once if you are staying in the USA for the long term. How Many Times Can International License be Used? There is no license scanning or any other checks performed by the car rental agency. They only need to see that you do have the driving capability by looking at your license. Many people visiting the USA on temporary business visits on B1/B2 visa have rented the car just by showing the Indian, Europian, Japanese, and other driving licenses. Rental car companies like Budget, Avis, or Enterprise will easily rent you a car without a US driving license. You may not be eligible to apply for a US driving license with a B1/B2 temporary short term visit visa though. Getting a US driving license helps you make your driving history which will help reduce your auto insurance premium. I strongly recommend getting a US driving license as soon as possible and preferably immediately after you land in America to start working on H1B or L work visa. You can be arrested and fined if you jumped the red signal or hit someone badly. They will probably just let you go by issuing a warning if it is a regular offense of minor speeding. If you are stopped by police and you are using your international driving license, then, there is no way of adding the ticket to your name by a police officer. You can contact your consulate or embassy to translate the information on the driver’s license prior to arriving in the US. Some states like Texas accept foreign licenses in Spanish but I still recommend getting English translation. A sample form for driving license in English translation has been given by Massachusetts DMV. The translation document should have your photograph too. If your license is in your local language, then you should either get the international driving license in English or have the English translation. International License Issues Transation to English I have kept the time to drive as 2 months for states that do not have any out of country license time defined explicitly with no reference link.

This requirement is common for all 50 US states.

Note that as soon as you become a resident of the state, you should get their state driving license.

California driving with international license