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I am an expat US national in Sweden and am trying to find out if I can drive a car/rent a car legally when I come back to visit in Ohio without using an Ohio or other US state driving license. My Ohio license is about to expire and I cannot renew it since I do not have a permanent Ohio address. I do have a legal Swedish driving license and understand I can also get an international one based upon this. Somewhere long ago I came across that this generally was a 'catch 22' type of situation – US citizens must drive on valid US licenses when in the US AND US citizens not permanently residing in a given state cannot get a drivers license. Not sure this is actually the law, hence hoping for some up-to-date info on this from the experienced here. So (a) can I as a US citizen drive legally in the US (Ohio) on my Swedish driving license? (b) Can I use, do I need or is it better to use an international driving license instead? Sweden is listed as a signatory to the 1949 Multilateral Road Traffic Convention. And I cannot find an answer to my specific question on the Ohio BMV site. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

rbsweden
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  • Everytime I've gone back to visit family, the rental car companies accepted my full UK drivers license without question. I've never heard of any requirement that U.S. citizens must drive on a U.S. license. That is typically a state-by-state decision and all state make accomodations for foreign licenses (especially for tourist purposes). – ouflak Jul 11 '17 at 14:52
  • There is no requirement for a US citizen to use a US license in the US. Licensing is done in the jurisdiction of residence. You reside in Sweden. You have a Swedish license. It's that simple. (Do you have a source for the claim that a US citizen needs a US license to drive in the US?) – phoog Jul 11 '17 at 15:34
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    People often confuse "citizen" and "resident" when discussing things like this; it's possible that your question results from an imprecise discussion of the problem. Here's an example of a law firm getting it wrong; it contrasts foreign residents driving in the US with US citizens driving abroad (it should say "when US residents visit..."): http://www.riddelllaw.com/ohio-international-foreign-drivers-license/ – phoog Jul 11 '17 at 17:02
  • @phoog that is a direct quite taken from the source I used in my answer. I believe it is clearly wrong as a Us citizen who is a resident and licensed to drive in a country that has not signed onto the Geneva treaty, they will not be covered. – StrongBad Jul 11 '17 at 18:54
  • First, thank you all for taking time & effort to respond. @Phoog, I'm sorry but no I don't have a source for my statement. I just remember it from some article and/or related expat discussion from a number of years ago. Now that it becomes more real I'd like to know for sure. And I also agree that the biggest problems are imprecise descriptions and more or less unconscious assumptions that become built into such descriptions. For example, mention 'resident of a foreign country'' to most any American in the US and it will likely be assumed to mean a foreign person – non-American. – rbsweden Jul 14 '17 at 08:15

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The Ohio motor vehicle law says:

Motorists who are residents of other nations and who are bona fide tourists visiting the United States may drive up to one year with their own national license plates (registration tags) on their vehicle and with their own driver license. (United States motorists may drive in foreign countries under the same conditions.)

It goes on to say:

Every visiting motorist from a ratifying country should also carry an International Driving Permit, but this is not obligatory. This permit, printed in the official languages of the United Nations, is helpful when local police speak only one language and may be essential in case of emergency. Even with an International Driving Permit, visiting motorists must have a valid license issued in their country of residence.

As a side note, I also could not find this info on the Ohio BMV but I got an answer from their online chat service in under a minute. I was pretty impressed.

StrongBad
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  • Did you also ask whether this applies to US citizens? I imagine an argument that "bona fide tourist" excludes US citizens. – phoog Jul 11 '17 at 15:36
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    @phoog I asked as a US citizen living in Sweden. The guidance says nothing about citizenship and I don't see why a US citizen expat who is bona fide resident of another country couldn't be a bona fide tourist in the US. – StrongBad Jul 11 '17 at 15:54
  • I agree that a US citizen can be a bona fide tourist, but i imagine that some people might come to the conclusion that a bona fide tourist can only be someone in B-2 status. I would disagree with them, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone were to make that argument. – phoog Jul 11 '17 at 16:53
  • I don't see how the first quote could possibly be correct and I think the Ohio DMV is simply stretching the situation as it exists within the USA between the different states and assuming it applies internationally. You can't take your US 'tags' and put them on a car in the UK and legally drive it around on public roads. Similarly taking the 'tags' off a foreign car and bringing them to the US wouldn't work because in many other countries, the 'tags' are registered to the vehicle, not the owner. – brhans Jul 11 '17 at 20:56
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    @brhans it doesn't say you can take the tags off your car. It says you can drive your car with your/its tags in a foreign country. In other words if you ship your Ohio registered car to the UK for your holiday you can drive it with the Ohio tags. – StrongBad Jul 11 '17 at 21:50
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    More realistically, Canadians can drive their cars with Ontario (or other province) plates into the States and don't need to get US plates when they cross the border. They use their Ontario drivers license too. This happens on the scale of thousands of drivers a day. – Kate Gregory Jul 13 '17 at 13:27
  • @StrongBad. Thanks! And I also agree that there are a couple of assumptions there, but not a clear answer to 'does this apply to a US citizen or not'. Just would prefer to have it definitive for liability clarity in case of an accident and insurance, but also for me personally if a foreign or international license would be rejected because of my US nationality hence construed to 'driving without a license'. It strikes me that if pulled over by the police for whatever reason, the default is moving to 'find something wrong' rather than benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. – rbsweden Jul 14 '17 at 08:25
  • @StrongBad And I hadn't thought to use the chat facility because I considered my question way out of the norm they probably deal with. But maybe I should try. – rbsweden Jul 14 '17 at 08:27
  • @KateGregory some of those Ontario residents are of course US citizens, dual or otherwise. – phoog Jul 14 '17 at 12:38
  • @rbsweden I can offer an anecdote. Around 15 years ago I was on the phone with a US citizen when he was pulled over by police in Florida. He showed them his Belgian driver's license. At one point he told them "I live in Belgium." No ticket. – phoog Jul 14 '17 at 12:45
  • @rbswedenrb it is possible the actual law is worded clearer than the digest, but at that point the BMV chat is probably unable to help you. – StrongBad Jul 14 '17 at 12:49
  • Thanks both, I'll follow it up again with BMV during office hours and post back whatever further clarity I might get. In the meantime I'm also going to get an international license as a 'just in case'. – rbsweden Jul 15 '17 at 13:01
  • A belated followup: I contacted Ohio BMV via chat since phone did not work so well and asked specifically about me being considered a foreign tourist and therefore being able to drive on my foreign drivers license even though a US citizen resident in Sweden. His answer after some research was 'yes'. I double checked this with him and got yes again so at least according to him it would be OK. I copied the chat as 'insurance' for whatever it might be worth in the future. So case closed on this one, at least as far as a chat room person's answer goes. – rbsweden Aug 11 '17 at 15:55