Visitors To USA

Visitors to USA who Plan on Driving in the U.S.

Every year several thousand of visitor come to the United States on a visitor visa for a short term stay in USA. Many of those visitor plan to drive the miles and miles of interconnected freeways, highways and toll roads, in addition to the local roads and streets in the US. Here are some details for international visitors pertaining to driving in the United States.

If you are going to reside in the U.S., you can get a U.S. driver’s license once you are in the U.S., but it may take several months to obtain a U.S. driver’s license. The residency requirement for obtaining a U.S. driver’s license varies with each state. Foreign visitors who become U.S. residents can only obtain a driver’s license from the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) from the US state in which they reside in. Each state has its own driving rules and regulations as listed by the respective DMV agencies. Check with your state’s motor vehicles department to find out how to apply. Once you receive your U.S. driver’s license from a state motor vehicles department, you will be permitted to drive in all other U.S. states. The laws in each state vary from one to another. It is your responsibility to know and obey the laws of that state while driving.

For short term visitors, an International Driving Permit (IDP) which is obtained from the visitors home country before arriving to the USA. The United States does NOT issue an IDP to USA visitors, so you will need to obtain this document before traveling to the U.S. The IDP translates information contained on your driver’s license into 10 languages so that officials in USA are able to interpret your home country license. An IDP supplements a valid government-issued license and it does not serve as a replacement for a license. If you are stopped by law enforcement, you will most likely be asked to produce both your IDP and your official home country driver’s license.

With the cost of health care already high and rising in USA, Visitor Insurance USA should be made mandatory for all international visitors to the U.S. as these travel medical insurance plans provide visitors health insurance coverage and protection from risks associated from sickness or illness while visiting and traveling in the US, or for any injury while driving a car or riding a motorcycle visitor in USA.