Purchase & register a car in Puerto Rico without a PR ?

When I first moved to Puerto Rico I kept my DC license for nearly a year. In the meantime, I bought a car, rented a house started working, etc. Don't go through the hassle of the local DMV if you are certain that you will only be here a short while.

If you are sure will only be here for six months, why not consider a long-term car rental?

Like Fond of Ibiza said, yes, it is possible to register a car, work, etc., without having a PR license. It may or may not be illegal to actually drive without having changed your license over to a PR license depending on how long you are in PR.

Here is a link that is in Spanish to the PR DTOP (DMV).

Thank you both. This is what I suspected, but I'm glad to have it confirmed.

I was thinking the same about long term car rental.  Does anyone know of an agency that gives good rates for long term rentals?

I've used Enterprise long-term (28+ days) rentals before but not in PR. If the short-term rental prices in PR are anything to go by, it'll cost top dollar.

Yes, we have also thought about long-term rental - just to avoid the hassle of buying & registering. But I am frequently in PR (usually for shorter stays) so it would be useful to own a car anyway, and I suspect I will be able to park it securely at a friend's house when I am not there. We will investigate both options. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Thank you, NomadLawyer, for responding.

Anolis, let us know what you end up doing, if you can. When we start coming longer term it would be nice to see the options.  Bless!

you should have no trouble purchasing and registering a car with or without a license. If you consider a used car be very careful and make sure a reliable mechanic checks it out VERY well.  The roads and the drivers here are VERY hard on cars.
As far as a local license, you can probably get away without a local one.  I believe the 'rules" are that if you stay here more than 6 consecutive months you SHOULD get a local one.  You can get a local one without turning in you out of state one but you must be willing to take the written test ( in English) and a road test.  It's really NOT a big deal, but be sure to read the book first.. they ask crazy questions like amounts of fines for certain infractions, if I remember correctly.  I have a PR license and my NY license... I didn't give it up..

We had great success with enterprise month to month program. First month for economy car $550- And every month you renewed they took another $25 off each month. They notified you when service due with pep boys and billed directly to enterprise. We had a flat tire that was handled by pep boys never shelled out a cent. More than pleased with mayaquez personal as well as bqn airport personal. They also waived the fee for renting from one location turning into another.

Ciderpress, thank you, that is exactly the information I was looking for! Sounds like Enteprise has great service

I am very interested in anyone's experience with buying a car and registering it without a PR license. I had read that this could be an issue but I have nothing definitive-as in a first hand experience. We have recently purchased a condo in the Fajardo area (MonteSol Condos) and want to buy a car that we can leave there, as we have a covered parking spot right below our condo. From doing some research I know that it is very easy to get a taxi from SJU to Fajardo, and so we are planning to buy a car and then just take taxis to/from the airport.