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Transferring your licence in Victoria: what VicRoads asks for at the counter

You have an appointment and a licence that is not in English. Here is what the translation has to be, who may prepare it, and what goes in your bag on the day, in VicRoads’ own words where it has any.

Published 4 September 2026 · Official Translation

Transferring your overseas licence?

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Does converting apply to you, and do you need a translation at all?

VicRoads draws the line at six months. Its convert page says: “If you’re moving to Victoria and plan to live here for more than 6 months, you must convert your overseas driver licence or learner permit to a Victorian one.” If that is you and your licence is not in English, the rest of this guide is about the translation and the day you hand it over.

If you are here for a shorter stay, a lighter rule applies and there is no counter to visit: VicRoads asks a visitor to carry the overseas licence with either an English translation or an international driving permit, so if you already hold a permit from home you do not need us. The visitor rules, in VicRoads’ own words, are on driving in Victoria on an overseas licence.

One more case where you may not need us. VicRoads names your country’s consulate in Australia as an alternative source for the translation, so if your consulate offers one, that is a route VicRoads itself lists.

Who may prepare it, and which of our two options answers that

VicRoads’ wording on the convert page is short: if your licence is not in English, “you must have it translated by any NAATI accredited translator or the country’s consulate in Australia”. The word that matters is any; the full quotes, with the regulation behind them, are on licence translation for Victoria.

We offer two options at checkout, and only one of them answers that sentence. Standard is a translation with no certification statement and no stamp, so it is not the choice for a VicRoads conversion. The NAATI certification option is prepared by a NAATI-certified translator, who signs their own certification statement and applies their own stamp, and that is the option to pick here.

NAATI certifies individual translators, not companies and not documents, so what you receive is a translation completed by a NAATI-certified translator whom we engage; the translator, not us, holds the credential and the stamp. That is how our driver licence translation into English works, and how to check the translator’s credential is in how to check a NAATI stamp and the translator behind it.

What the regulations say the translation has to contain

This is the part a bare word-for-word rendering can miss. The Road Safety (Drivers) Regulations 2019 say a translation must “include a full explanation, written in English, of any condition to which the licence is subject and the category of vehicle for which the licence has been issued.” A translation that carries your name, number and dates but stops before the categories and the codes on the back leaves that sentence unanswered.

So a licence is two pages to us, the front and the back, and the order page sets that count automatically when you choose Driver’s licence. The back is usually where the categories and condition codes live, which is why a licence translation must show both sides of the card.

Where the card spells out what a category or condition means, the translator puts that wording into English in full; where the card shows only a code, the code is carried across as printed, and a translator may add a note in square brackets where its meaning can be confirmed. Anything that cannot be read is marked in square brackets rather than guessed at. Where a card prints nothing but bare codes, there is no explanatory wording on it to translate, so ask VicRoads what they expect to see before your appointment.

Two smaller things to get right. Dates in another calendar are given as the Western date with the original beside it, which dates and calendars on translations walks through. And your name follows your passport spelling, so if your licence is in a script other than Latin letters, send the passport spelling through the contact page with your order number before the translator begins; which spelling of your name goes on the translation explains what that fixes and what it cannot.

What goes in your bag on the day

Bring your original overseas licence and the translation together. The translation sits beside the licence and does not replace it; what else to bring is on VicRoads’ own convert page and requirements checker. We deliver a PDF by email, so the printing is yours to do.

  • Your original overseas licence, the card itself.
  • The printed translation, every page, in colour and at full size.
  • The PDF on your phone as well, as a backup to the printout.
  • Whatever else VicRoads’ own convert page lists for your situation; that list is theirs to keep current.

Colour and full size are not fussiness. The NAATI certification option carries the translator’s digital stamp with a QR code, and NAATI says the code “needs to be 2cm x 2cm if resized” and recommends “7cm wide as a minimum size” for the stamp to stay readable. Print one page per sheet and do not let the printer scale to fit, or the code the counter might scan becomes a grey smudge.

One thing VicRoads has not said: its pages publish no position on printed digital translations either way, so if it matters to your appointment, ring VicRoads on 13 11 71 before the day. Where a printout plainly fits and where to ask first is the subject of PDF or hard copy, where a printed translation is enough.

What we do, and what we fix

What we do is arrange the translation to the wording above and quote VicRoads’ pages honestly.

If there is an error in the translation, contact us with the order number and it is corrected and re-issued at no charge. That is in our terms, and it is the whole of what we promise.

Ready to order? Order a licence translation online. VicRoads’ full wording, quoted line by line: licence translation for Victoria. Just visiting Victoria rather than moving: driving in Victoria on an overseas licence. What a usable photo of each side looks like: photographing a document for translation. What the stamp and statement look like on the page: what a certified translation looks like.

Sources, checked on the date shown: