Driving in the Americas 2026: IDP Rules by Country, Road-Traffic Conventions, and Official Sources

This page covers driving documents for visitors to 30 countries and territories in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. For each one, the table below shows whether an International Driving Permit (IDP) is required or recommended, which road-traffic convention applies, the rule that matters most to a visiting driver, and the official source it comes from. Where the State Department page gives no license rule, the row says so and links that page.

The E-ITA booklet is a private translation of your license, not an International Driving Permit. U.S. license holders get an IDP from AAA or AATA.

Country guides

These countries have their own full guide:

• Argentina
• Brazil
• Canada
• El Salvador
• Grenada
• Jamaica
• Mexico
• United States

IDP rules for the rest of the Americas

The IDP column reports what the U.S. Department of State tells visitors with a U.S. license. “Not required” means the page accepts the U.S. license (for the period stated, where it gives one) and names an alternative or a time limit. “IDP not mentioned” means the page says nothing about an IDP. The rest of the cell says what the page does require. Drivers with a license from another country should check their own government's travel guidance too. The convention column comes from the UN Treaty Collection. A country listed as a party has ratified, acceded to, or succeeded to that convention. A country that only signed is not listed as a party.

Rules change. Each source above shows its own last-updated date. Check it again close to your trip, and read your rental company's terms, which can ask for more than the law.

Sources

All accessed 2026-09-29.

• UN Treaty Collection, Convention on Road Traffic, Geneva 1949 (parties, territorial application, and declarations)
• UN Treaty Collection, Convention on Road Traffic, Vienna 1968 (parties, signatories, and declarations)
• U.S. Department of State country pages, one per row in the table above, each linked in its row
• USA.gov, International driver's license (who issues an IDP)
• U.S. Department of State, 7 FAM 1430 (background on driver's licenses and IDPs)

Driving nearby

See the full guides for driving in Mexico, driving in Brazil, and driving in Argentina, or browse every country.

Publishing notes for E-ITA

• Every row was checked on 2026-09-29. 27 of the 30 rows state the visitor license rule from the U.S. Department of State page for that country. Three rows (Colombia, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua) say “Check before travel”, because that page gives no license rule for visitors. Before publishing, a reviewer who reads Spanish checks each of the three against the national transport authority and either fills the cell with a cited rule or keeps “Check before travel”.
• Rows that need a check by a native speaker of the local language, against that country's own transport authority: Spanish for Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Dutch for Aruba, Curaçao, and Suriname. French for Haiti. The English-speaking rows need the same source check in English.
• Every row needs a named reviewer before publishing. Add the reviewer's name, linked to a bio page, and the review date to the page byline, as on the Italy model page. The page does not ship with the byline empty.
• The IDP column reflects guidance for U.S. license holders. If order records show another main visitor nationality for a country, check that nationality's own government guidance and add the exception to the row.
• The convention column counts a country as a party only when the UN Treaty Collection lists it as ratified, acceded, or succeeded. Signing alone does not count. Where a former colonial power extended the 1949 convention before independence, the row says so and does not treat the country as a party in its own right.
• To add a country row: open the U.S. Department of State page for that country and copy the license rule and one or two rules a visitor is most likely to break. Look the country up in both UN Treaty Collection pages. Add the row in alphabetical order with the source link. If the page gives no license rule, write “Check before travel” and link the best official page. Never fill a cell from memory. Then add the country's old URL to the redirect map, pointing to this page.
• Re-check every row at least quarterly, and whenever a source's last-updated date changes.