Hello, living in Japan.
Have some problems with exchanging my driving license. I have a driving license of my native country, but before coming to Japan I was there only for 2 months with driving license. (3 months is a mandatory according to the documents ). Is this condition serious and is there any way to bypass this condition.
Sorry for possible mistakes, English is not native for me.
Hope for your help.
4 comments
>Is this condition serious
Yes, they won’t convert your license.
>and is there any way to bypass this condition
No
It’s a firm condition and there is no way around it.
Did you pass your test 2 months before arriving or are you from one of those countries that changes the date on it when you get it renewed? If it’s the former then you’re pretty much out of luck. With the latter, you’ll need something to prove it like a driving record.
***edited as this advice is apparently outdated. Now I feel old.***
~~Unfortunately, the only way would have been to stay an extra month before moving here.~~
~~And the 3 month requirement has to be contiguous – meaning you have to be in the country for 3 whole months without leaving. So you can’t just go home for a month and say “I was in the country for 3 months total”.~~
So now you’ve got two options:
1. Go back to your home country and ~~somehow stay there for 3 months in a row.~~ stay there for another month.
2. Go through the normal Japanese driving license process, paying a bunch of money to do so.