An international driving permit is a translation of your licence into a standard format, not a licence in its own right, and there are three incompatible versions of it — 1926, 1949 and 1968. Which one you need depends entirely on which treaty your destination signed. Japan accepts only the 1949 version. Thailand and Vietnam want the 1968. Cross both on one trip and you carry two permits. Checked August 2026; the issuing authority in your own country and the transport authority of your destination are the binding sources.
Why there are three of them
Each version corresponds to a separate international convention on road traffic, and a country only recognises the permit issued under the convention it is party to. The most recent, the Convention on Road Traffic done at Vienna on 8 November 1968, entered into force on 21 May 1977 and had 91 parties as of August 2026. The 1949 Geneva convention has a different and overlapping membership. The 1926 Paris convention survives in a handful of places.
The practical consequence is that "do I need an IDP" is the wrong question. The right one is "which IDP, and does my destination accept my home licence without one at all". Several European countries appear on the 1968 list yet do not require a permit from a photocard licence holder, which is why riders come back from France insisting the whole thing is a myth.
Which permit for which destination
| Destination | IDP version | Notes from the official guidance |
|---|---|---|
| Japan | 1949 | The 1949 permit is the only one accepted, and it must show the motorcycle category |
| Thailand | 1968 | Carry the permit and the licence together |
| Vietnam | 1968 | Riding without third-party insurance is illegal |
| Indonesia | 1968 | A UK licence alone is not accepted at all |
| Laos, Cambodia | 1949 | Different from their Vietnamese and Thai neighbours |
| Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United States | 1949 | Some US states and Canadian provinces set their own rules on top |
| Taiwan | 1949 | Needed for stays longer than 30 days |
| Turkey, Morocco | 1968 | Green card usually needed as well |
| France, Greece, Switzerland | 1968 on paper | No permit needed with a UK photocard licence |
That table is a starting point and it goes out of date. The GOV.UK country-by-country IDP table is maintained centrally and covers well over a hundred territories with the specific conditions attached to each, including several where the permit is only required after 30 or 90 days.
The category trap that only affects riders
An IDP is issued against the categories on your licence, and the person behind the counter stamps the ones you hold. If you hold a car licence and a motorcycle licence, the permit needs both marked. If only the car category is stamped, the permit does not authorise you to ride anything.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department answers this directly in its published FAQ. Asked whether a permit stamped for category B allows a moped in Japan, its answer is a flat no — you need the category A stamp to ride a moped or a motorcycle under 50 cc.
Check the stamps before you leave the counter. Correcting a permit from another continent is not a process that exists.
Getting one, and the mistakes that waste the trip
- Apply at home, in person or by post, before you travel. You cannot buy a UK-issued permit from outside the UK, and no consulate will produce one for you.
- Hold a valid photocard licence first. A permit is issued against a licence, and a paper licence holder is told to update to a photocard or get a permit instead.
- Carry the licence as well. Every convention treats the permit as a supporting document. On its own it is not proof of entitlement, and police in most countries will treat a rider carrying only the permit as unlicensed.
- Buy every version your route needs. A Bangkok-to-Vientiane ride crosses from 1968 territory to 1949 territory. Two permits, both bought before departure.
- Check the expiry date printed inside against your trip. The two versions do not run for the same length of time, and neither outlives the licence it was issued against. A permit that expires halfway through a long trip is worse than none, because by then you will have stopped thinking about it.
The obvious cost is small and the obvious benefit is avoiding a fine. The less obvious benefit matters more: travel insurers and motorcycle hire firms routinely refuse claims where the rider was not legally licensed in the country, and an unstamped or missing permit is the cleanest possible reason to refuse.
What a permit will not do for you
It does not upgrade your entitlement. A permit issued against an A1 licence authorises A1 machines, so hiring a 650 in Thailand on an A1-derived permit is riding unlicensed regardless of what the rental shop says.
It does not replace local insurance. Several countries require a locally issued third-party policy for a foreign-registered or hired machine, and the permit says nothing about cover.
It does not make a hire bike legal. In Thailand the Foreign Office notes that motorcycles and scooters rented in tourist areas are often unregistered and cannot legally be used on a public road at all — your paperwork can be perfect and the machine still illegal.
And it does not survive your licence. If your licence is suspended, revoked or expires, the permit issued against it stops being valid at the same moment, whatever date is printed inside it.
Know how it is actually read at the roadside. The document is a booklet of translations, and the officer reading it is looking at three things: the photograph, the category stamps, and the expiry date. Nothing else on the page is doing any work.
That shapes how you should carry it. Keep the permit and the licence together but not in the same pocket as your phone, because the phone is what you reach for and the permit is what falls out. Keep them somewhere you can produce without dismounting, since a rider fumbling in a top box at a checkpoint invites a longer conversation than one who hands over two documents in five seconds.
It also shapes what you check before departure. Look at the photograph — permits issued from an old application can carry an image that no longer resembles you, and the officer's first comparison is your face against the page. Look at the category stamps against the machine you intend to ride. Look at the expiry against your return date, not your outbound one.
Some countries add a step that no amount of preparation at home covers. A handful require the permit to be presented to a local authority for certification after arrival, and a few tie the permit's usefulness to the number of days since you entered rather than to its printed expiry. Both are country-specific, both are published by the destination's own authority, and neither is visible on the document itself.
The final habit worth building is the boring one: photograph every page of the permit and the licence before you leave and store the images offline. They will not get you past a checkpoint, but they will make a replacement application and an insurance claim considerably shorter.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an international driving permit to ride a motorcycle in Europe?
Generally not with a photocard licence issued in the UK, the EU or the EEA. Paper licences and some Crown Dependency licences are treated differently, and hire companies may impose their own requirement.
Which IDP do I need for Japan?
The 1949 version, with the motorcycle category stamped. Permits issued under the 1968 convention are not accepted in Japan.
Can I get an IDP after I have arrived abroad?
No. It is issued in the country that issued your licence, and it must be obtained before you travel.
How long is an international driving permit valid?
The two versions run for different periods and the expiry is printed inside the booklet. Whatever that date says, the permit stops being valid when the licence it was issued against expires or is withdrawn.
Does an IDP let me ride a bigger bike than my licence allows?
No. It reproduces the categories you already hold. Riding outside them abroad is riding unlicensed, with the same insurance consequences as at home.
The permit is one item on a longer list, laid out in the paperwork checklist for riding abroad, and it sits alongside the insurance questions in motorcycle insurance and green cards in Europe. Riders heading to the destinations in the table above will find the specifics in the guides to riding a motorcycle in Japan and licence rules across Southeast Asia. On long multi-country routes where the phone is also your only camera and translator, a JADO H1 smart riding system keeps navigation off the handset and its battery intact for the border queue.
