Most weeks someone walks into our shop on Phan Chau Trinh holding a grey booklet and asking the same thing: is this enough to ride a scooter here? Most of the time the answer depends on one line printed on the first page, and on one stamp a few pages later. This guide covers both, plus the countries whose permits look right but are not, what police actually check, and what you can ride legally if your paperwork falls short.

The short video below is our own quick version of this article, made for TikTok. The rest of the page is the long version with the legal detail.

IDP 1968 Vietnam rules at a glance

Vietnam does not accept a foreign driving license on its own. It accepts a foreign license when it is carried together with an International Driving Permit issued under the Convention on Road Traffic signed in Vienna on 8 November 1968. Vietnam deposited its accession on 20 August 2014, and under the treaty’s own rules that took effect twelve months later. That is why you will read “2014” in some places and “2015” in others; both are right.

So the IDP 1968 Vietnam question has a clear legal answer, but it comes with three conditions that trip up far more people than the convention year itself:

If you only remember one line: a valid IDP 1968 Vietnam setup is three things together, the right convention, the right stamp and the original license, all in date.

The convention year gets the attention, but at a checkpoint the officer turns straight to the category page. A 1968 permit stamped only for cars is, for a scooter, the same as no permit.

1968 vs 1949: two permits that look almost identical

There are two international road traffic treaties still in use, and each has its own model of International Driving Permit. Both are usually small grey booklets. Both carry your photo, your name in Latin letters and a grid of vehicle categories. The difference is legal, and it is printed on the cover or first inside page.

Here is the ten-second test we use at the counter: open the permit and find the treaty date. If you see 1968, keep reading to the category page. If you see 1949, stop there, because nothing else in the booklet can make it valid in Vietnam. A third, older model dated 1926 still exists in a few places; it is not valid here either.

The validity rule catches people too. A 1949 permit lasts one year. A 1968 permit can last up to three years, but the convention caps it at the expiry date of the license it translates. If your home license runs out next spring, so does your IDP, even if the booklet was issued last month.

That translation page is the whole point of the document. A traffic officer in Hoi An cannot be expected to read a Finnish or Brazilian license; the IDP gives him the same information in a format he recognises, with the categories laid out in Vietnamese.

IDP 1968 Vietnam country check: who can get one

You cannot choose which convention your permit follows. Your motoring authority issues what its government signed up to. The UN treaty record for the 1968 Convention on Road Traffic lists 91 parties, and it is the only list that settles an IDP 1968 Vietnam question for certain. These are the countries we see most often in Hoi An:

The row that surprises people most is South Korea. Da Nang is full of Korean visitors, many of whom arrive with a perfectly official permit from their licensing office, and every one of those is a 1949 permit. The same goes for Spain: it signed the 1968 treaty on the day it opened and never ratified it. A signature on a treaty is a promise to consider it, not membership.

If your country is not in the table, the PDF linked above has the full list with dates. Listed with a ratification or accession date means your authority can issue a 1968 permit. Listed with a signature only, or not listed at all, means it can’t. For UK riders, the GOV.UK page on international driving permits confirms Vietnam needs the 1968 version, sold over the counter at PayPoint shops for £5.50.

The stamp that matters: A, A1 or B

A 1968 permit does not grant anything your home license doesn’t. It copies your categories into a standard grid, and an issuing officer stamps the boxes you hold. For an IDP 1968 Vietnam check, three boxes matter:

• A: motorcycles of any size. Covers a Honda Vision, an Air Blade and a Winner 150.
• A1: light motorcycles, up to 125cc and 11 kW. Covers a Vision, Wave or Air Blade, but not a 150cc manual.
• B: cars. On its own it covers no motorbike at all.

Vietnam drew its own line in the same place. Under the Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety, in force since 1 January 2025, a Vietnamese A1 license covers motorcycles up to 125cc or electric motors up to 11 kW, and anything above needs class A. So the 125cc boundary on your permit is exactly the boundary an officer here works to.

What to carry, and what a missing paper costs

A traffic check in and around Hoi An usually takes a couple of minutes. The officer asks for the rider’s license and permit, the bike’s registration card and its insurance certificate. Our walkthrough of a police stop in Hoi An covers the conversation itself. These are the papers and the fines under Decree 168/2024, in force since 1 January 2025:

A 1949 permit, a car-only stamp or an expired booklet all count as “no valid license”, so they land in the first two rows, not the third. Riding without a valid license can also mean the bike is held at the station for several days, which turns a fine into a lost week of plans. The full breakdown is in our Vietnam motorbike license fines guide.

Carry the original home license and the IDP together, in a zip bag under the seat or in a money belt. A phone photo helps the conversation but is not a legal substitute. Your passport can stay in the hotel safe; a clear photo of the photo page and visa is usually enough for a traffic check.

Five ways a real permit still fails

1. The home license stayed at home

The IDP translates a license; it does not replace one. People leave the plastic card at home “to be safe” and bring only the booklet. At a checkpoint that is treated as riding without a license.

2. The permit outlived the license

If your home license expired or was renewed with a new number, the old IDP no longer matches anything. Renew both together.

3. The online “international license”

Websites selling an “international driver’s license” or “international driving document” are private businesses. Their booklets are translations with no legal status, however official the design. A real IDP comes only from the body your government authorises: PayPoint in the UK, AAA or AATA in the US, the national automobile club or licensing office elsewhere. We also see plastic “IDP” cards from some countries; if the treaty date and category page are not there, it is not the document Vietnam recognises.

4. The bike is bigger than the stamp

An A1 stamp and a Winner 150 do not match. Neither does a 125cc permit and a 155cc NVX. The officer reads the engine size off the registration card, then looks for the category that covers it.

5. “Nobody checks”

Checks are routine on the roads to Da Nang, the beach roads and around My Son, and more frequent around Tet and public holidays. More importantly, travel insurers check after an accident. Most policies exclude claims when the rider did not hold a valid license for the vehicle, and a broken wrist in Da Nang can cost far more than any fine.

Living in Vietnam: when an IDP stops being enough

The IDP 1968 Vietnam route is designed for visitors. If you live here on a work permit or temporary residence card, the practical answer is to convert your home license into a Vietnamese one. Conversion is generally open to foreigners staying at least three months, needs your original license, a notarised Vietnamese translation, a health certificate and your residence papers, and leads to a Vietnamese license for the same classes.

Two changes since 2025 are worth knowing. First, driver licensing moved from the Ministry of Transport to the Ministry of Public Security on 1 March 2025, so conversion is now handled by the traffic police rather than the old Department of Transport offices. Second, Vietnam now issues IDPs itself to holders of Vietnamese or convention-country licenses, but an IDP issued in Vietnam is for driving abroad. It cannot be used in place of a Vietnamese license inside Vietnam, so getting one here does not solve the problem for a resident.

No 1968 IDP? What you can still ride

Missing the right permit does not mean missing Hoi An. Vietnamese law lets anyone aged 16 or over ride the following without any license, and they cover most of what visitors actually do here: the Old Town, the rice fields at Tra Que, An Bang and Cua Dai beaches.

A genuine 50cc is slow on the coast road and not built for mountain passes, so it suits short trips rather than a day out to the Hai Van Pass. Make sure a “50cc” really is one: our guide to the license for a 50cc scooter in Vietnam shows how to read the registration card, and renting a motorbike in Hoi An without a license compares the options in more detail.

How we check permits at Anh Khoa

We would rather lose a booking than hand a 125cc scooter to someone whose paperwork will not hold up, for their sake more than ours. So our IDP 1968 Vietnam check is simple and the same for everyone:

• Before you book: send a photo of your IDP’s cover page and category page on WhatsApp. We tell you which bikes you can ride legally before you pay anything.
• At handover: we look at the original permit and the original home license together. A 1949 permit, an online booklet or a car-only stamp means we offer a 50cc, a low-speed electric scooter or an e-bike instead.
• What we don’t do: we don’t take a deposit and we don’t keep your passport. Helmets come with every bike, and our roadside line answers 24/7 if a bike stops on you.

Frequently asked questions

The wider picture, bike by bike: Do you need a license to ride a motorbike in Hoi An? · Bản tiếng Việt: Thuê xe máy Hội An có cần bằng lái không?

Updated October 2026. Treaty membership and dates are taken from the UN Treaty Collection record for the 1968 Convention on Road Traffic; Korea, Spain, Mexico, Chile and Indonesia appear there as signatories without ratification. Legal points reflect Vietnam’s Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety 2024 (in force 1 January 2025) and Decree 168/2024/ND-CP on traffic penalties. USD amounts are rounded approximations. This is general information written by a motorbike rental business, not legal advice; if your situation is unusual, ask the issuing authority in your home country.