The time you can drive on an overseas car licence in New Zealand has extended from 12 months to 18 months. You can drive on your overseas car licence for 18 months from the date you last arrived in New Zealand.
This gives overseas car licence holders more time to prepare for their tests when they convert their licence, and helps to ease pressure on the driver testing system. Applicants from many countries must pass a theory and practical driving test to convert their licence.
If you're driving on an overseas motorcycle or truck licence, you can still only drive for 12 months from your date of arrival in New Zealand.
By 18 months, you will need to:
If you leave New Zealand and come back, your 18 months will start again.
Allow plenty of time to convert your licence. It may take a while to get a test booking.
How to convert to a New Zealand licence
To continue to use your overseas licence to drive in New Zealand, it must be current and valid.
If your overseas licence isn’t in English, you must also have an accurate English translation or an international driving permit (IDP). The IDP can be current or expired up to 6 months, but you must also carry your current overseas licence with you.
You must not have got a licence disqualification or suspension in New Zealand.
You must not have got a New Zealand licence since you last arrived in New Zealand.
If you're partway through converting your overseas licence to a New Zealand licence, you may not be able to use your overseas licence again.
If you've already got a New Zealand licence with a supervisor condition or a New Zealand learner licence, this overrides your overseas licence. This means you cannot start to drive again in New Zealand using your overseas licence.
If you've started to convert your licence but haven't got a New Zealand licence yet (for example, you haven't passed the theory test) then you can continue to drive on your overseas licence for up to 18 months from when you last arrived in New Zealand.
We expect the extension to help reduce pressure on driver licence test wait times, although this change alone won’t resolve the problem.
Applicants from non-exempt countries must pass a theory and practical driving test to convert their licence. Extending the time they can drive on their overseas licence gives them more time to prepare to pass the tests.
After 2 years, the time limit will go back to 12 months.
Further action to tackle driver licence wait times | Beehive press release(external link)
