Thai driving licence: convert yours or start from scratch

If you’re visiting, you can drive on your home licence with an International Driving Permit (IDP), as long as both cover the vehicle you’re on. If you live here, get a Thai licence. With a valid licence from home it takes one morning at the Department of Land Transport (DLT), costs a few hundred baht and spares you every argument at a police checkpoint and with an insurer.

Who this is for: anyone planning to rent a scooter or car here, and residents on a non-immigrant visa who are still driving on a foreign licence.

Who should skip it: Bangkok visitors who’ll live on the BTS, the MRT and the ride-hailing apps. The getting-around guide covers those.

Visitors: the International Driving Permit

Thailand recognises both kinds of IDP. The 1949 Geneva permit is valid for one year; the 1968 Vienna permit runs up to three. Get one at home before you fly, from your country’s issuing body, and carry it together with your physical home licence. The IDP is a translation, not a licence on its own, and a digital licence on your phone may not be accepted.

Holders of a licence from another ASEAN country can drive on that licence.

The catch: the permit only covers the classes your home licence covers. A car-only licence gives you a car-only IDP, and that does not let you ride a scooter, whatever the rental shop says. Police in tourist areas such as Phuket and Pattaya run licence checks at checkpoints and rental shops.

Residents: convert or start from scratch

A DLT draft published for comment in June 2025 would stop accepting an IDP as the basis for a licence and make the written test compulsory for every foreigner converting one. It hasn’t been published as a rule, so practice still varies by office: expect the written test, and take your home licence, not just the IDP.

Converting is still the easy route, and you can add a motorcycle and a car licence in the same visit if your home licence has both classes. If you’ve never ridden a motorbike, you’ll take the full new-rider route for the motorcycle class: training, theory and a practical test on the DLT course.

Tourist visa holders are generally turned away. Some offices will process them with a residence certificate, but don’t count on it.

Documents to bring

1. Passport, with copies of the photo page, your visa or extension, and the latest entry stamp. Sign every copy.
2. A certificate of residence, under 30 days old. Get it from your local immigration office (usually free, often same day, with your passport, a TM30 receipt and your lease) or from your embassy (paid, and some need an appointment weeks ahead). A work permit showing your address works at some offices; the newer digital permits often don’t show one.
3. A medical certificate on the DLT form, from any clinic, issued within the last month. It takes five minutes and costs about 100–300 baht.
4. Your home licence with signed copies of both sides. If it isn’t in English, add a translation certified by your embassy.
5. Your IDP, if you have one.

At the office, step by step

1. Book a slot. Busy Bangkok offices want a booking through the DLT Smart Queue app or gecc.dlt.go.th. Smaller provincial offices still take walk-ins. The app and the website sometimes show different slots, so check both.
2. Do the training. Converting drivers watch about an hour of road-rule video, at the office or online beforehand. Print or screenshot the QR code you get at the end if you do it online.
3. Pass the physical tests. Colour blindness (read coloured dots), reaction time (lift your foot from an accelerator pedal to a brake pedal when a light changes), depth perception (line up two poles in a box) and peripheral vision. They take ten to fifteen minutes in total.
4. Sit the written test. It’s 50 multiple-choice questions on a computer, in English at the larger offices, and you need 45 to pass. A fail can usually be retaken the next working day. Practise with the DLT’s question bank first, because a few translations are clumsy.
5. Pay and get photographed. The card is printed on the spot.

Practice varies by office. One office checks visa stamps, the next only reads the residence certificate, and opening hours range from 7.30am to 9am starts. Call the office the day before.

What it costs and how long it lasts

Upgrade to the five-year licence up to three months before the two-year one expires. You’ll need a fresh medical certificate, residence proof and the online training, but no written or road test. Since June 2026, renewals skip the colour test, and drivers aged 55 or under whose licence lapsed a year or less also skip the foot-reaction test. Everyone still does the depth and peripheral vision checks.

Let it lapse and the price goes up in time. Up to a year late, you renew normally. Between one and three years, you retake the written test. After three years, you start again with the road test.

Why the licence matters more than the fine

A traffic stop without the right licence means a fine at the roadside or the police box. A crash without one can mean paying the hospital yourself.

Most travel insurance policies cover a scooter accident only if you held a licence valid in Thailand for that vehicle and wore a helmet. Ride on a car-only licence, without an IDP, or without a helmet, and insurers refuse claims on exactly those grounds. Rental shops add to the risk: many carry no insurance on the bike, and you’ll be asked to pay for every scratch.

What to do

• Before you fly: get an IDP that covers both car and motorcycle if your home licence has both.
• Before you rent: read your policy’s motorcycle clause. Look for the engine-size limit and the licence wording.
• Within a few months of moving: book a DLT slot and convert.
• Always: helmet on, for rider and passenger. It’s the law, and the scams guide explains how to photograph a rental bike before you ride off.