How to get an international driving licence in France?

[Cecile and Bryan 0]

Hello French people!

I'm just wondering, where should I go to get an international driving licence? is it at the "prefecture"? can it be done by mail/internet/some other way? is it free?

How did you do guys?

[Nich-Nick 3,353]

Are you the US citizen and you just want to drive in France on a visit? We drove around the continent of Europe and that was one of the requirements we read about in our research. I got one at the AAA (American Automobile Association) office in Houston. I think it's basically a companion document for your US license and translates it into a lot of different languages. It's good for a year. Find a AAA near you and take 2 passport photos. They put a photo in the document and stamp it. There's probably a form you can download and fill in ahead of time. It only cost $10-$15. If you're already in France, then I don't know.

Edited April 16, 2008 by Nich-Nick

[payxibka 10,044]

Hello French people!

I'm just wondering, where should I go to get an international driving licence? is it at the "prefecture"? can it be done by mail/internet/some other way? is it free?

How did you do guys?

IDL is nothing more than a translation booklet of your current driving license and they are "issued" typically by travel agencies...

[Cecile and Bryan 0]

Are you the US citizen and you just want to drive in France on a visit? We drove around the continent of Europe and that was one of the requirements we read about in our research. I got one at the AAA (American Automobile Association) office in Houston. I think it's basically a companion document for your US license and translates it into a lot of different languages. It's good for a year. Find a AAA near you and take 2 passport photos. They put a photo in the document and stamp it. There's probably a form you can download and fill in ahead of time. It only cost $10-$15. If you're already in France, then I don't know.

Oops sorry I forgot to say that I'm French and I need an international DL to be able to drive when I arrive in the USA with my K1 visa, since I can't get a Missouri DL as soon as I get there.

IDL is nothing more than a translation booklet of your current driving license and they are "issued" typically by travel agencies...

Oh really? travel agencies? I thought that it would be kind of an official document... not as official as a normal DL, but I didn't think travel agencies could give me one!

[Pam&Josh 0]

Hi Cécile!

I don't know about getting an IDL in travel agencies, but I did get mine years ago in my "prefecture". I went over there, you give them your French DL and 2 pictures(who can be taken at the prefecture), and 15 mns later, a lady gave me my IDL.

I don't remenber paying anything at that time.

Hope I helped.

[JeroenAndMichelle 28]

I could be wrong since I am not French myself but shouldn't you also be able to get an IDL at the ASFA? I got mine at the Dutch equivalant of that and I know people can get them at the Triple A in the US as well.

It's an officially translated document which also holds your picture and stuff so I guess it is not very likely to be sold at travel agencies.

[Cecile and Bryan 0]

Hi Cécile!

I don't know about getting an IDL in travel agencies, but I did get mine years ago in my "prefecture". I went over there, you give them your French DL and 2 pictures(who can be taken at the prefecture), and 15 mns later, a lady gave me my IDL.

I don't remenber paying anything at that time.

Hope I helped.

Thank you. I'll probably go there and ask them (hopefully it doesn't have to be at the prefecture that delivered me my DL years ago...)

I could be wrong since I am not French myself but shouldn't you also be able to get an IDL at the ASFA? I got mine at the Dutch equivalant of that and I know people can get them at the Triple A in the US as well.

It's an officially translated document which also holds your picture and stuff so I guess it is not very likely to be sold at travel agencies.

So you're saying it is something official. That makes more sense to me.

[MIDUVIL 34]

Hello,

I had mine in the prefecture of my town.

I need picture (i forgot the number, maybe 1), a "justificatif de domicile" and my french driving licence. It's free.

It's a document that you can use for 3 years. It's written on several languages, the true question is can it be used in usa with the K1 visa.

[payxibka 10,044]

Hello,

I had mine in the prefecture of my town.

I need picture (i forgot the number, maybe 1), a "justificatif de domicile" and my french driving licence. It's free.

It's a document that you can use for 3 years. It's written on several languages, the true question is can it be used in usa with the K1 visa.

driving priveleges are under state control... the answer maybe yes, the answer maybe no.... you will need to check locally.

[Cecile and Bryan 0]

Yes we already checked with the DMV in Missouri, they said I can use it for a while (don't remember exactly how long, but I have the email somewhere, i'm just too lazy to check right now...). But I'll definitely try to find more and more info about that before to try to drive with it. Just in case the police wouldn't agree with the DMV ^^

[kimandfred 0]

I'm french too. The international driving license is issued by the prefecture and it's free. As other people said, in some state you can drive on it in some other you can't. But if you can't then you should be able to get a state license. Don't let the DMV tell you that you can't drive while waiting for AOS. That's what happened to me, I had to find, call, send email to finally get what I wanted. Like Bob would say, you have to fight for your rights, ahahaha!