drivers license in NY

[regular kalle]

Hi!

How hard is it for a foreigner to get the american drivers license in New York when already having a foreign driverslicense (and an international if that is needed). I've searched through the webpage for NY-DMV, but its hard to get the information. They suggest that you should not obtain the license unless youre planning to move to the state of NY.

The problem is that we are planning to go on a roadtrip, but we are too young to hire a car, and are therefore looking into buying a used one. You need an insurance policy for a car, but the policy gets canceled in 30 days unless you have an american drivers license.

Any suggestions what to do or information about how hard it is to get the license would be appreciated :)

Thanks

[Mark Sedenquist]

How hard is it for a foreigner to get the american drivers license in New York when already having a foreign driverslicense (and an international if that is needed). I've searched through the webpage for NY-DMV, but its hard to get the information. They suggest that you should not obtain the license unless youre planning to move to the state of NY.

That is an interesting challenge -- what I would suggest is to look at some of the online drivers license preparation services as a way of estimating what will be required. Our list is not extensive, but it might at least point you in the right direction. (Scroll down to the bottom of the page in that link).

Also, there might be other states that would be less challenging than others. I will ask Moderator Bob, (RTA's defensive driving expert) for his counsel on this matter.

Mark

[Robert Schaller]

In the past, the research I've done in this direction indicated that insurance could be obtained as long as a person had obtained an international drivers license. Unless something has changed, this is probably still the case at least with some companies. My advice is shop around with some other sources, and see if some other company will insure with the international license alone.

(Run a search on the forum using "international driver license" and you'll come up with the information I've posted on this in the past, for what it is worth.)

Bob

[regular kalle]

thanks alot for the replies :)

[Noora]

I'm Finnish aswell and going on a roadtrip in the States next spring.

You don't need an American driver's license, a Finnish one is enough if your visit is shorter than 90 days. You might want to have it translated by some official translator though, just in case.

For the rental cars, the cheapest one I found online was holiday cars (www.holidaycars.com). They don't seem to have an charge if you're over 21, but you might want to check it w/ them aswell.

That's all I have to offer. :) Have a nice trip!
Noora

[Robert Schaller]

The problem is that we are planning to go on a roadtrip, but we are too young to hire a car, and are therefore looking into buying a used one. You need an insurance policy for a car, but the policy gets canceled in 30 days unless you have an american drivers license.

Note: The situation asked about in this thread is different than just coming to the USA for a visit and renting a vehicle. This person asked about insuring a purchased vehicle. It takes more than a foreign government-issued driver license to do that. I contacted several agencies in the United States a few months back and received the information that I posted above from reliable sources -- I was informed that you'd need both a local address for registration and licensing, and the international drivers license for the insurance. Bob