I thought I better start a thread on which countries/states require you to renounce your original drivers license in order to obtain a local one.
Taiwan has reciprocity on renunciation of drivers license and therefore requires people from those countries (or individual states within countries) to renounce their drivers license.
This however causes issues when driving abroad. For example we have a thread about Austria which no longer recognizes Taiwan drivers licenses.
We can also speak about alternatives such as applying for lost/replacement licenses or doing the test in Taiwan to avoid losing it in this thread.
This indeed a German law/regulation regarding the driver’s license exchange. Taiwan follows this as they made this agreement when setting up the drivers license exchange program.
I am not sure other countries have this. Maybe some other EU countries.
When I exchanged my USA, NY license to German one, I had to surrender my US license in Germany. It was worth it as US license was cheap and this saved me a lot of money getting German driver’s license.
From another European country that has to exchange their license for a Taiwanese once, it’s forboten to keep both! Rule covers all countries as the policy is that once you move to a new country you should adopt the license from that country, it’s utter nonsense in the modern world where people move around. I kept my home country license and did the driving test in Taiwan, technically illegal and one of the questions on renewing my home license was whether you held a license in another country.
I kept my home license for a couple of reasons, primarily as it’s far more “powerful” that the Taiwan license in that it’s accepted with IDP in many countries and secondly as it has a “big bike” category which Taiwan refused to exchange for a local “big bike” despite it being far more onerous to obtain that the Taiwan version.
It can’t be verboten or forced to be exchanged as they have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Unless Taiwan has specific arrangements with that country in that regard.
It is only not allowed to use the other one in the respective country. e.g local license gets suspended for a violation and the driver just uses the other one to continue driving.
Never heard that you had to renounce a driver’s license. So I am genuinely surprised.
Usually, the rule is that if you are a resident of a country, you need that country’s driver’s license and can’t use your old/home country license. Never heard that you can only legally have one driver’s license and I know many people that have driver’s licenses from different countries.
It’s not specific to Taiwan, statement is that once you relocate to another country you must obtain a license in that country, the “home” license should be given in exchange or allowed to expire, hence the specific question on residence of another country in the renewal process.
“Foreigners” who relocate into the country are also required to obtain a local license and are not allowed to drive on their “foreign” license past a certain time period (6 months if memory serves me correctly).
Of course there are many ways around these rules, I personally used an IDP for over 20 years in Taiwan before doing the local driving (joke) test. Part of the reason for getting the local license was due to an accident that was not my fault but the other guys insurance company, and even mine to some extent, tried to argue that my IDP was not valid for use in Taiwan. Having an APRC makes it difficult claim non residence even with frequent trips out of Taiwan!
Taipei DMV had also refused to stamp what was probably my 20th IDP, had to go to Keelung to get the stamp.
The workarounds are fine until something happens and they potentially bite you in the ass.
Australia would record and return my former home country licence then issue me with a local one. (No idea if they will take the licence if it is a Canadian one)
Canada would take my former home country licences that I hold before issuing me with a local one.
Taking and returning my old licence from another country makes more sense imho.
Why were they arguing that? It does not affect the liability in an accident if one has a license or not in Taiwan. The person who is found to not have a license is just getting an additional fine from police.
In other countries not having a license can affect the responsibility for an accident.
Whey would they try to invalidate your insurance? Isn’t it making it harder for them to collect money for damages? Especially from a foreigner who could potentially leave.
They must have been pretty stupid. They would gain no advantage whatsoever.
And if the other party has most of the liability then the impact would be limited.
The impact can be huge. Taiwan has, what I consider, bizarre rules when handling accidents and accident claims.
If my insurance was invalidated and the accident my fault then I would be personally liable to cover the other parties costs, and my legal costs if applicable.
If my insurance was invalidated and the accident was not my fault then my insurance company would not go to bat for me and I would have to personally go after the other guy for compensation. For a simple case that might not be a big problem, for a bigger claim/claim involving injuries it could be a huge issue.
