aswadjoshi wrote:Dear Expert Expats
My driving instructor told me Oman driving license is valid in all countries in the world i.e it is effectively an international driving license .
Now I am taking this with information with a pinch of salt !
Can anybody confirm whether this is true ?My second doubt is whether DL is valid in Dubai , other GCC countries at least ?
Please note I am not looking for detailed procedure for converting the DL in other country.
Thanks in advance .
As far as I know, you can drive on any GCC licences in all GCC countries as a visitor. Once you get a work permit or residence, you need to convert to that country's license. Some countries are a bit relaxed about this in terms of enforcement - the issue only really surfaces if you are in an accident.
Internationally it is the same if you want to rent cars and drive them. You can rent cars anywhere in the world with a DL and an international driving permit. Most times, rental companies would not even bother to ask for IDP if your DL has English script and accept it as-is. In this case, Oman is no different from UAE or even other countries electronic driving cards. I have had no issues in renting cars with either my UAE, Bahrain or even Pakistani license; all were treated the same in the UK, Europe and US. And I did not ever need to use an IDP except in stricter countries like Japan/Russia.
The real question is whether you can convert your Oman license to a local license, say in Europe, if you were to move there. The answer is no. Very few countries would accept for that to happen and almost none in Europe or UK. Barring a few exceptions here and there but laws vary - for example, you can convert a driving license from some countries of South america to a Spanish one in Spain but then other countries in the EU won't do the conversion or even consider the new Spanish license as valid in their territories.