Korean licence
Korean driver’s licence translation
Both sides of the card, every field, put into English and emailed back as a PDF; certification by a NAATI-certified translator is an option at checkout. One thing first: if you are transferring a Korean licence onto a New South Wales one, Transport for NSW accepts translations from four organisations only. We are not one of them. The Consulate-General of the Republic of Korea is.
Driving in Australia on a Korean licence?
Answer a few quick questions and get your answer in 1 second.
The card
What is on the card, and what each field becomes in English
The card is small and dense, and most of what an Australian reader needs from it is printed in Hangul. This is how each field is handled.
| On the card | In the English translation |
|---|---|
| Name, in Hangul, sometimes with a Hanja form beside it | Romanised to the spelling in your passport, in the order the card prints it. A Hanja form is carried across, not dropped. |
| Resident registration number, where your card carries one | Given digit for digit under an English label. Nothing masked or reformatted. |
| Licence number | Given digit for digit, hyphens and spacing kept, so the reader can match the two. |
| Class or type, however your card names it | Written out in English as the card gives it. No Australian class is substituted and no equivalence is stated. |
| Conditions and restriction codes | Written out in full in English, with the original code kept beside the meaning. |
| Every dated field — issue, renewal, and any test period the card shows | Given in the Western form — day, month, year — each under its own label. |
| The issuing authority printed on the card | Named in English exactly as the card names it, never shortened to police or swapped for an Australian body. |
| Address block, photograph, seals and card art | Rendered as printed, in its own order. Seals, holograms and the photograph are noted in place. |
Unsure what a field on your card says? Send a photo through the contact page and we will tell you how it would be rendered. Korean certificates and transcripts are on our Korean to English translation page.
Classes
We render your classes. We do not convert them
This is what separates a careful licence translation from a risky one.
The class stays the card’s class
Whatever series your card uses, and whatever it calls each entry, the translation gives it in English words under the label the card uses. Nothing is renamed in transit.
No Australian letter is written in
You will not find equivalent to a C class in our translation. Deciding what a foreign class is worth here is the road authority’s job, not the translator’s.
Conditions are the other half
Any restriction printed on the card is written out in English with its code beside it — the half a hire desk reads before handing over the keys.
Why the back matters as much as the front: both sides of the licence, and who reads each one. What a hire desk looks for is set out company by company on renting a car in Australia on an overseas licence.
Your name
Kim or Gim, Lee or Yi: one spelling, and it is your passport’s
There is no single English spelling of a Korean name, so the translation has to settle on one.
The passport decides
Kim or Gim, Lee or Yi or Rhee, Park or Bak: tell us the spelling your passport uses and the translation follows it, so every document on the counter agrees.
Order and Hanja are kept
The name order is kept as the card prints it, family name first where that is how it appears. A Hanja form alongside is carried across, not dropped.
If the card spells it differently
Where the card already prints a Latin-letter spelling and it is not the one in your passport, neither is overwritten. The card’s version stays as printed, and yours goes beside it in square brackets, marked as an addition.
Give us that spelling when you order, or through the contact page quoting your order number, any time before work on your order starts. The reasoning in full: which spelling of your name goes on the translation.
New South Wales
Converting in New South Wales? The consulate, not us
If you are putting your Korean licence onto a New South Wales one, this is the most useful part of the page, and it sends you elsewhere.
The route meant for you
Service NSW names four organisations whose licence-transfer translations Transport for NSW takes. One is the “Consulate-General of the Republic of Korea – for driver licences issued in the Republic of Korea”. For a Korean card, that is your line.
Source: Service NSW, transfer an overseas driver licence (checked 13 September 2026)
Why we cannot stand in
The NSW government’s preparation page is blunt: “Translations obtained through any other means are not acceptable.” The limit is on the organisation, not the credential, so no independent translator qualifies. It also asks for the original translation document and rules out photocopies; we deliver a PDF.
Source: Service NSW, transfer an overseas driver licence, and the NSW prepare-your-application page (checked 13 September 2026)
Driving here is a different job
Carrying a translation while you drive on your Korean card is a separate transaction from a transfer, and in New South Wales it is one we do serve: the state asks a visiting driver for an International Driving Permit or an English rendering of the licence, and the Australian Automobile Association, which issues permits here, says an overseas licence holder “must apply for a permit in the country that issued your licence”. The Northern Territory is the exception — it ties a translation to an authorised translator inside the Territory, we are not one, and so we do not serve the NT.
All four NSW routes, and which one is yours: licence translation for New South Wales. Every state words its own rule differently, and each authority is quoted on driver licence translation, state by state.
Two pages
Front and back: what a card costs to translate
Two pages, front and back
A card carries printing on each side, so a licence job is two pages, and the count is set for you at checkout. Photograph both sides, all four corners in frame.
The total for a card
Standard runs at $39.99 for each of the two pages. Certification adds $59.99 to each page and brings a whole card to $199.96; that version is signed by a NAATI-certified translator and stamped with a QR code the reader can scan. The two are compared on what a NAATI certified translation costs. For driving or hiring a car on your licence, choose the NAATI option; several road authorities and hire companies name NAATI.
Delivery speeds
Normal is included, with delivery estimated within 3 days. Urgent is $49 for an estimated 12–24 hours; ASAP is $99 for within 4 hours where a Korean translator is free at that moment. We do not deliver on Sundays: a delivery that would fall on a Sunday arrives on the Monday. If we cannot arrange the translation, we tell you promptly and refund you in full.
Order your licence translation
What the certified option actually contains is explained on NAATI translation in Australia. If anything on your card puzzles you, ask before you order.
Questions
Questions about translating a Korean licence
Yes, exactly as printed and under an English label, because the reader is matching it against the card in your hand. No digit is masked, reformatted or added. One request in return: when you write to us, describe the document rather than typing the number in. The photo you upload on the order page already carries it.
No, and be wary of a translator who offers to. Your class is written out in English as the card gives it, because deciding what a foreign class is worth here belongs to the road authority. The reader has your card beside the translation, and a class that had quietly changed would be the first thing they noticed.
No. Those four organisations are the whole of the list, and no outside translator can join it: what Transport for NSW restricts is who did the work, not what credential they hold. For a card issued in Korea and transferred in NSW, the Consulate-General of the Republic of Korea is the door built for your document. The other three routes are on licence translation for New South Wales.
No. We do not need the passport itself, only the spelling in it. Tell us how it is written there and the translation uses that, so the card, the passport and any booking agree letter for letter. If we are not told, the translation follows a standard romanisation, and a standard romanisation is not always the one your passport chose.