If you are planning to go on vacation soon, definitely remember to do this check before leaving.
We always look forward to going on vacation. But sometimes, a long-planned trip can turn into a nightmare or even…not turn out at all! We hope this won’t bring back any very bad memories, but every year some travelers get stuck on the ground because they forgot to check the validity of their passport before boarding a plane or when they had done it too late to be able to do another one on time. Needless to say, the blow is hard to absorb, especially financially if the stay (plane, accommodation, on-site activities, etc.) has not been properly insured.
The passport is often what comes to mind when we think of things to absolutely check before leaving for a foreign country. But other omissions can be very annoying, not to the point of not leaving but enough to spoil the party a little. Especially if you plan to rent a car to visit, often the best way to get around and not depend on public transport. Many French people don’t care much about the validity of their driving license outside France, yet it is prohibited to drive in many countries with a simple little piece of pink paper in your pocket.
By browsing the embassy sites, we see that there are a certain number of destinations for which you must complete administrative procedures in order to drive a vehicle without breaking the law. For example, if you want to go to Mexico, Thailand, the Philippines, Ecuador, Laos or Sri Lanka, a simple French driving license will not be sufficient. In the event of a police check, you risk at least a fine, sometimes high. To be in compliance once seated behind the wheel, you must have an international driving license.
Rest assured, there is no question of taking a test on the roads of the country visited. The PCI is an official document that contains translations of your national driving license in several languages. It makes it easier for local authorities to understand and is accepted in more than 150 countries around the world, but it must always be presented with a valid national driving license. It is important to take into account the deadlines for issuing the international permit. They can vary depending on the period of the request – the treatment often takes longer before the summer – but it still often takes several weeks before receiving it.
You have no reason to panic if you are planning to visit Spain, Italy or Greece by car this summer, just like the other 24 member states of the European Union, since the national driving license is sufficient to drive there legally.
However, we recommend that you always find out at least a little about the main rules of conduct when you go abroad. They may vary from one country to another, particularly regarding speed limits. It would still be crazy to have a valid driving license but to receive a fine because you did not know, for example, that you were not allowed to drive at more than 120 kilometers/hour on the motorway (instead of 130 km /h in France)…