Vancouver Travel Forum

I will be visiting Vancouver for 5 months as a tourist, and would like to be able to drive my friends car while I am there.

I have a Belgian drivers license and was wondering if anybody knows whether ICBC will insure a visitor on a foreign license.

Alternatively, if not, is it possible for a visitor to receive a BC Drivers License?

The only ID I have is my passport, and in that passport will be the 6 month entry stamp that I will receive at immigration coming into the country. It is my understanding (according to the website) that ICBC does not accept Passports as Primary Identification in order to issue a new license.

Does this mean a visitor to Canada is unable to apply for a drivers license? Is this different in other provinces?

Why don't you get in touch with the Belgium Automobile club (I assume there is one, but not sure of the name,) they should be able to issue you with an international drivers licence valid for 1 year as long as your Belgium licence is current

i was going to suggest the same as Steve has.

all countries have international driver licenses that are issued from a special agency. when we used to travel from UAE, we always got international drivers licenses issued to us.

You are permitted to drive with you Belgian Drivers License for up to 6 months while visiting Canada, BC or other Provinces. If your friends car is insured and he gives you authority to drive it, it is insured.
ICBC will pretty much laugh at a IDL as it has no authority

the other good thing about an international licence is that it is another form of signed photo ID

YVRDave is right on the spot with the correct answer.

this is strange, because we always used IDL issued from abu dhabi whenever we visited the usa and canada. we were always able to rent cars too.

but when my brother in law visits from Qatar, he is able to use his Qater DL as ID everywhere and rents cars out.

is BC still a part of canada or are we residents of ontario being dumped by all the western provinces? LOL.