meinkl

Loving rules is one thing, but if you read the DVLA online application form for driving licence renewal, then it asks "what has been your residential address for the past 5 years".
Thus, anyone arriving back in Blightly cannot give such an address in the UK and, ipso facto, cannot have a UK licence for the next 5 years. Doh!
Sometimes rules have to be 'interpreted' to be effective (especially in Malaysia)

NeonHippy

And if you had moved in the last five years you would need to list all the places where you had resided in the last five years. The rules don't say that you have to have resided in the same place for the last five years, just that you must be currently resident in the UK.

I very much doubt that the various government agencies have joined up thinking or that they will be constantly looking at me to try and catch me out. I am not some super rich pop star. But giving a UK address for a renewed licence and using that address when you return to the UK will be enough for HMRC to count that as a tie. The number of ties you retain with the UK will affect how many days you can return each year before being declared tax resident.

If your friend of a friend chooses to break the rules that is for their conscience but I do think people need to understand the rules and the potential consequences before they choose to follow them or not.

meinkl

I agree... that's what I told him. :-)
Regarding interlinked data systems. I recall once when I had just moved house and a couple of days later did a 3 day road business trip to Singapore. On the way back i got caught by 2 roadside cameras doing ‘slightly’ over the limit. The only place i had written my new address was on the immigration slip at Tuas. Yet a week later I received both tickets direct to my NEW address.
One of my ex colleagues returning to UK in 1998 at the end of his 2 year contract, was stopped at departure passport control and told to go to the tax office and pay his unpaid tax bill before he could leave. He managed it, just, thanks to a race style taxi driver!

JPJ, Immigration, Visa clearance, Tax and Customs data systems in Malaysia have been linked for many years.

thermalboyz

Hi all, thanks for this useful information shared. I have a question to ask and whether the rules will apply to myself as well. Thank you.

I am Malaysia citizen (Malaysia Passport with UK Indefinite Leave to Remain) and currently reside in the UK. I've been in the UK for almost 10 years but my Malaysia Driving license been long expired (5 years). Checked on JPJ site and i cannot renew my Mas License because it been expired more than 3 years so need to re-do all the test & Exam. I had UK license since 2010 and valid until 2019 so I wonder the rules will apply for me as I am going back for visiting (1 month). I could use my UK Driving license to drive as a Malaysia Citizen.

Thank you and appreciate your expert advise.

kwan

InVinoVeritas

I'm not an expert but it would seem entirely logical that you should be allowed to do that.

PS Welcome to the forum BTW!

thermalboyz

Thank you for your comments. I will ring JPJ next week to double check because I have some doubt on this.

InVinoVeritas

Good luck, I'm sure it'll be OK but please post back here once you have a definitive answer.

Davita

I'm not so sure that a citizen returning to Malaysia would be legal to drive using another countries driving permit.

It was around late 1950's when I returned from my RAF tour of duty in Malaya/Singapore with a shiny Singapore driving licence. It was not accepted in Grimsby...where I was re-posted. I had to sit a UK driving test and failed the first time. I told the examiner my experience was driving trucks to Alor Star with a machine gun on my lap in case the communist rebels wanted to steal the truck. I then told him I took 2 days to drive my Riley Pathfinder from Butterworth to Singapore on the old windy jungle road and drove around the narrow Singapore streets before they remodelled...but he was not impressed. He said driving across other people's lawns, to cut a corner, was not acceptable in the fair county of Lincolnshire....

I suggest thermo should get an International permit from UK which at least gives 1 year grace and time to unfresh his/her driving skills to sit the Malaysian test...

JC3

Hi Kwan,

I agree with IVV, there should be no problem at all using your UK driving licence to drive in Malaysia whilst you are on holiday or on a business trip here.

Here's the basics:

For foreigners driving in the UK, the driving licence rules are:

All foreigners with driving licences issued outside of the UK are allowed to drive in the UK for 12 months without obtaining a British driving licence.

If you have a driving licence issued by an EU country, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway, you can drive within the UK for as long as your licence remains valid.

If you have a driving licence issued in one of the following ‘designated’ countries: Australia, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Japan, Monaco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland and Zimbabwe, you need to exchange your licence for a British licence to be able to drive in the UK for more than 12 months.


If you hold a driving licence issued by any country not listed above (such as Malaysia), then you need to pass a British driving test in order to continue driving in the UK beyond the initial 12-month period.

So, in your case, you are now Resident in the UK, and correctly now have, and use, a UK Driving Licence and not a Malaysian one.

The following is from the Malaysian JPJ website:

Section 28 of the Road Transport Act (APJ) 1987, states that "a driving license issued under the corresponding provisions of any law in force in any State which is a party to a treaty to which Malaysia is also a party and purporting to recognize domestic driving licenses issued by the contracting countries shall, so long as the license remains in force in that State, be deemed to be a driving license granted under this Part. "Pursuant to Section 28 of the Road Transport Act 1987, as mentioned above, the holder of a foreign country's driving license can drive in this country as long as the foreign domestic driving license is still valid, and is accompanied by a translation in Bahasa Inggeris or Malay (where the license is in a language other than Bahasa Inggeris or Malay), which is confirmed by the embassy of the country of origin in Malaysia, or by the authority issuing the driving license concerned.

Hope this helps

JC3

Davita

Thanks JC3. good post....but you make the point that foreigners are allowed to drive in UK for 12 months on their foreign driver's licence but what about a British guy with 'say' a Hong Kong licence and no British licence...is it the same? It wasn't in my case but that was many moons ago.
Also, the Malaysian Act you included doesn't define that so it may be OK as you say....unless defined elsewhere.

JC3

The basic point is that if you are an expat living / working in the UK for more than a year very often you will have to physically exchange your foreign driving licence for a British one, and in many cases pass the UK driving test after your initial 12 months in the UK.

This means you will no longer have your foreign driving licence if you go to your home country or elsewhere on a visit. In many countries a UK photocard licence will be sufficient, but in some countries (especially where the police are less likely to speak or read English) you’ll need an International Driving Licence which contains several pages in various languages.

In your example, I believe a Brit resident in Hong Kong would need to exchange his British Driving Licence for a Hong Kong Licence after one year (a similar rule to the UK one). He could then use his HK licence when visiting and driving in the UK.

Here's a tool to use to see if you can drive in Great Britain with a non-GB driving licence.

www.gov.uk/driving-nongb-licence

JC3

Gunnar45

Hi JC,
Just wondering if the EXCHANGE of license from say HKG or Switzerland really means physically handing in the license document to the British authority in order to get a UK license and not only that you would need to OBTAIN a UK license by presenting the foreign license as proof of your competence?
It sounds a bit weird to me that the UK authority would force people to give up another country's document which entitles them to drive there....

JC3

Yes it's a bit weird, but note the exchange doesn't apply to everyone - typically not to nationals of countries where the driving test is as stringent as the UK test.

Malaysian drivers (who can pass the Malaysian driving test after just 6 hours instruction) might struggle a bit with some UK roundabouts (see photo), so it's probably wise that they take a UK test if staying a while.

Where an exchange is compulsory I believe it's also partly to do with stopping people circumventing the UK's penalty points system, where for example you get penalty points for driving without due care and attention or without reasonable consideration for other road users, speeding, or failing to stop after an accident.

In the UK you can be disqualified from driving if you build up 12 or more penalty points within a period of 3 years. If one had a UK licence and a foreign licence....then one might be tempted to keep driving whilst disqualified, using the second licence if stopped by the police.

JC3

Scuba Tyke

Good grief JC3, I have been driving in the UK on & off for over 40 years and I would have trouble with the roundabout in your photo! Do you know where it is? I shall avoid it all costs!

ST

InVinoVeritas

It's the Swindon magic roundabout. People travel here from all over the world just to go round it! Even the Norwegian Blue has been spotted here, flying in ever decreasing circles