Hello guys,

A week from now I am leaving Colombia for Ecuador. I have a motorcycle that I bought here in Colombia and all the documents should be fine. However, there is a problem: I have an international license but I lost my Belgian motorcycle license. Will this get me into trouble at immigration? Will I be able to temporarily import my motorcycle into the country? I'm asking this because I wasn't able to rent a car in the US without showing both my international and Belgian license.

Tijidecierck, We have crosse the Colombia- Ecuador border several times and I do not recall any request for driving license. The International license - is it a Pan American license or international license? Both are issued only if a valid State or Country license is provided and the issuing authority takes a photo copy of that license. I would contact the entity that issued your International license/Pan American license via e-mail and request a scan of your original license. You will have to provide the # on the international/Pan American license plus other ID.

Most officials in South America are accustomed to photo copes of documents. So once the scan from your international/Pan American issuer arrives, print it and voila you should be OK until your replacement license arrives from Belgium.

Also, at most periodic road stops by police, your international/Pan American license should suffice. Please verify that the countries you are traveling are listed inside the international/Pan American license - some international licenses do not cover all South American countries.

If you purchased your international/Pan American license from an American Automobile Association you might telephone the # on your AAA card and they can route you to the office where you purchased your international/Pan American license.

Also, never offer documents unless asked, and be very polite and do not mention the IMF under any circumstances.

xfltrate Eat, Drink and watch your watch, wallet, testicles, spectacles and keys

Thanks for the great response, very helpful.

Hi.

Can you tell me more about how you bought the bike in Colombia ?

Thanks, Ted

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

i don´t have informations for columbia, i haven´t been there yet.

but if you go further south you may will need your european licence(the checkcard) to cross to peru.

they checked at the border and wrote the license number on the tip...the international licence doens´t have a number.

if it doesn´t work out for you...just try the next border station...it´s south america, everybody know the things right and everybody does it different

good ride

Pickypalla, I am looking at my international license right now and it has an individual # (num) in red on the cover upper right hand corner.

What international license are you referring to? Where did you purchase your international license?

xfiltrate

It is actually called "International Driving Permit" and has no legal standing unless the legal Driving License is produced, because all it does is standardise the descriptions of the type of vehicle your license is valid for and provides the info in several languages.
I've always produced my regular license and never been asked for the permit.

There is no such thing as a recognised International Drivers License even though a couple of scamming web sites would have you believe otherwise

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Tony
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Tony Lee,

As I suggested in my first post this thread discussing International Driving Permit and International Driving License:

"Both are issued only if a valid State or Country license is provided and the issuing authority takes a photo copy of that license."

Both are issued by the American Automobile Association and do not claim to be stand alone licenses/permits. Yes one is actually named International Driving License and the other International driving Permit.

The issue here is that a rider lost his driving license from Belgium and wanted to know if he could cross into Ecuador on the strength of his International Driving License. My response was when I crossed Colombia to Ecuador I was not asked to produce any Driving License.

No one here, nor the AAA, has claimed that an International Driving License or International driving Permit are stand alone documents. The International Driving License is also know as the Pan American Driving License and covers only Pan American countries and the USA. And, FYI, the American Automobile Association is a far cry from a "scamming web site." Check various foreign Embassies and you will discover many require a valid operator's license plus an International driving License.

xfiltrate

Let's try again. There is no "International Driving License" issued by the American Automobile Association (AAA). Here's an easy reference for doubters or poor researchers: International Drivers Permit.

Note that if you do, in fact, procure something called an "International Drivers License," you've fallen for a scam. It's worthless, except for bluffing purposes. It has no legal validity, no matter how much you paid for it, how long you waited, or how many fancy stamps, seals, watermarks and holograms it features.

The AAA issues two (2) International Driving Permits: one titled, unsurprisingly, "International Driving Permit" (IDP), and another entitled "Inter-American Driving Permit" (IADP). Both are "permits," which in this case means they are mere translations of your existing US license.

Other countries have similar documents which apply to their own license-holders, established per an international treaty signed approximately 65 years ago. This is not recent news.

Some countries do not seem to recognize home licenses, with or without an IDP/IADP: in Guyana I had to get a local, Guyanese license. Same in Cuba. And according to the AAA, some countries don't recognize my actual license, but will honor an IDP--I've never encountered this, but then again I sure don't know everything.

Standard disclaimer: I am perfectly prepared to be wrong about any of the above. Really. Provide an authoritative link to a governmental (or duly authorized) issuer of an actual "International Driving License," valid internationally, and I'll crawl humbly back to this thread and publicly eat my words.

Wishing you happy researching!

Mark

Thanks Mark. Good to get that clarified. I think the same people that sell the scam licenses also flog an international passport they claim is actually accepted by some countries on the third full moon of each winter season.

As for crossing borders, or in fact anything to do with international travel, one persons experience that happens to prove a positive, or in fact 10 experiences that prove a positive, mean absolutely nothing if you can come up with one experience that proves the negative.
I was asked for my drivers license when we crossed from Colombia to Ecuador and again when we crossed from Ecuador to Peru. Don't recall being asked for it at any other border though.

The loss of the normal license means the IDP has no standing AND since I doubt whether any jurisdiction allows people to drive without having a valid driving license on their person, seems to me the OP has more to worry about that getting across borders. When my 5-year DL expired when we were overseas, I went through a very difficult and expensive process to make sure I was sent new licenses before the old ones expired - simply because there is more than enough scope for having things go wrong when all the paperwork is in order so I didn't want to be in a position where I lost the battle right at the start.

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Tony
Click here for Travel Photos & Travel Map

Ladies and Gentlemen who read here... it is with great sadness and pain that I present the following evidence to support my position on this thread. Tony Lee is well versed in international law and might well be an attorney, and Markarf's advice is usually very solid. Unfortunately, and I mean that, in this specific post, both are in error.
In no way do I want this destruction of their mutual argument to reflect upon their remarks on other threads or their character in general. I feel both have supported my positions in the past and I have supported them. Just because they are wrong here does not mean they are always wrong. Matter of fact I have great respect for both of these gentlemen.

Cover photo3062 clearly presents an International Driving License I purchased from a branch of the American automobile Association, Phoenix Arizona with a start date of 01 November, 2015 and expiration October 31, 2016.

Page 1 photo3063 lists the Pan American countries where this International driving License is valid.

Pages 6&7 photo3067 clearly states that this International Driving License was issued by the American Automobile Association on 01nov2015.

Pages 8&9 photo3066 presents a photo of me with the official stamp/seal of the American Automobile Association.

I do not expect the apology from Tony Lee or markarf that I doubt will be forthcoming anyway. But to clarify the matter, I have never stated that an International Driving License is a stand alone document - it must be accompanied by a valid country or State of the US license.

The question originally posed here was whether a Driving License was requested at the border wither upon leaving Colombia or entering Ecuador and my response after crossing that border 4 times was no!

xfiltrate eat, drink and try to remember who your friends are

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it got complicated

i think it doesn´t make sense talking about US licenses. the guy is from belgium - europe

so, for germany it looks like this:
the international one



and xfiltrate, you are right, there is a number (i haven´t seen this before ) but it is not valid without the european licence


i bet belgium has quite similar documents. i was not able to cross the border to peru wihtout my european licence, but maybe because i didn´t see the number^^ they just need a number for the tip, thats all, if i have showed them the number on the international license, i think they would have accepted it.


try to make a good copy of your european one (i hope you have them somewhere digital) and laminate it, than try and just in case you have something to show...

good luck


pictures found on google

The original question was - if a driving license was requested by border officials when entering Ecuador from Colombia. This has nothing to do with geocentric driving licenses/permits. After having transgressed that border 4 times, I responded that no, no driving license/permit was requested at the border. This was the question. Pickypalla, as you might have noticed by now there is a lot more going on here than the original post suggests.

Pickypalla, You seem to be a fairly clever guy and probably get the drift of this thread - it may be a little weird to you, being a sincere person, who only wants to help, but your positive nature does come through and I hope your posting of German licenses has some meaning to someone somewhere.

xfiltrate

Thought I'd contribute, again as with others above, my experiences mean jack. It's just that I've travelled though multiple borders in South America many times in the past year; all the way from Ushuaia to Santa Marta. I was never asked for any drivers licence at any borders, ever.

When stopped in country (very rarely: being on a bike you can hide behind large vehicles and it's easy to avoid eye contact when riding in the ditch/on the verge when undertaking stationary traffic being hassled by el commandante importante = fat bloke in a uniform fishing for a bribe = justifying his existence on the planet = increasing the hole in the ozone layer through his flatulence).

The one or twice I was stopped, I either did the usual no fumar espanol or showed him my colour photocopy of my expired drivers licence (laminated) or expired actual drivers license. On one occasion the matey actually had 2 brain cells to rub together and spotted that date on licence was prior to the actually date. I did have a new real current DL that I was able to flash at said copper.

I also carried a real international DL, albeit one that had expired (Uk ones only valid for 1 year) and had been (by magic?) extended with a biro squiggle and a stamp (from my local library? From when I last climbed the Eiffel Tower?), but it was never available as it doesn't fit in my mugger wallet in my jacket pocket and stuffed if I was getting off by bike in order to access my important documents, hidden on my person, just to satisfy some plod.

Summary to the OP:
1. Don't sweat it
2. Don't stop at road blocks
3. Learn how to use photo editing software
4. If 1 to 3 above fail, use bs or revert to the dumb gringo No fumar espanol. Remember to smile profusely. If you do, they think you really are stupido.

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All very good, but you just muddied the water again by calling the IDP and IDL :-)

And the difference between "permit" and "licence" appears to be the root of the argument/discussion.

But yes, I echo all your points and the OP should not sweat it. We were never asked for our licence or IDP at borders from CA to SA.

The only times we had to produce our licences was at police stops, and buying insurance.

In Chile I happily showed the real one to police as they are

a) not stupid
b) not corrupt

Everywhere else it was a copy.

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