Unfortunately this was over 15 years ago and I have long since forgotten who it was. Sorry.

Before Brexit, when I still lived in the UK, I could not add my wife to my standard car policy since she did not have an EU or UK licence, so I just did all the driving.

There are insurance brokers who may be able to assist. One company I used for specialist (offroad) insurance was Adrian Flux . I can't comment if they do cover non UK licence holders, but may be worth a look.

It seems to be getting harder and harder to add non UK residents onto UK car insurance policies. When our children come to visit I have tried to add them as named drivers for a short period. They are US resident and hold US drivers license but none of our policies will add them as drivers. I found a couple of custom companies that you can purchase individually but they were charging hundreds of pounds for a week policy. It was cheaper for the children to hire a car! If anyone has any suggestions or ideas I would love to hear!

Towards the end of Covid when the car rental prices were sky-high we purchased a car in the UK to use instead of renting. We still had our UK licences and a UK address - which probably made things easier. We got insurance through insure2drive, which was pretty costly to start with since they wouldn't accept any US no-claims. (Having returned to the UK now, they still won't accept the US no-claims, although I believe Aviva does - so will chase them in due course).

Aren't driving licences tied to residency so when you still lived in the US (as in were normally resident there) your UK licences were technically invalid? I know there's no way to tell the DVLA that and I still keep my UK license active at a friend's address, but I'd never drive on it unless I return to the UK full time (I hire a car in the UK when I travel back with my New Jersey DL). I'd be very worried that in the event of a claim, insure2drive (or their underwriters) would detect that you're not normally resident in the UK, and therefore your UK license was invalid, and that they'd not pay out any claim. Even worse, the police might notice the same and prosecute you for driving without the correct license or insurance.

https://www.gov.uk/change-address-driving-licence

The insurers were fully aware of our situation - and we double checked that the policy details were correct and reflected our situation.

But the insurance company cannot decide if a DL is valid or not, and they wont insure someone to drive without a valid DL.

You can be resident in more than 1 country at a time. For a short while we maintained a place in Texas and in England. We intended to divide our time between our 2 homes. I had a UK driving licence with our UK address and owned a car in England, suitably insured.

Agree but ckusa implied they were visiting:

I agree, but I was replying to postbox134 who said, correctly I think, that you had to be resident to hold a driving licence in a particular country. A little off topic I know.

This might be obvious to others, but how can you own a car in the UK if you are non-resident? Don't you need to be resident (or at least have a UK address you can use) in order to have it registered/taxed etc?

Anyway, a quick google search threw up Sterling as one insurance company that might be able to help. If the car is already insured by someone else and you want to investigate being added to their policy as a named driver, trying calling the company rather than using online chats/forms, as sometimes a real person can provide flexibility that a computer algorithm lacks....

FWIW, I had about 15 years no-claims in the US and struggled to find a company that would accept it (I don't recall if I tried Aviva) but then I got an online quote from Allianz that was significantly better than pretty much anyone else (and v competitve according to my friends of same age) so I just gave up and used them. All this to day, don't get too hung up on being able to transfer your US no-claims if you're able to snag a competitive rate without it.

Being resident in more than one country is the way I've always perceived it. Despite being in the US for 20+ years, I always kept my UK driving licence (and bank accounts, etc) registered to my dad's address. For the last 11 years, I also had (and still have) my motorcycle in the UK, insured by me as a UK resident living there for the (frequent) times back to visit. I was even unfortunately involved in an accident - but noone (the Police, insurers or NHS) batted an eyelid, or questioned whether I lived anywhere else.

Of course, this does not work if you don't have a storage/mailing address in UK and/or have given up your UK licence.

I don't think you can be resident in more than one country at a time, actually, because I think "permanency" is inherent in the definition of residency, I understand it's a complex question, with no ultimate arbiter who would decide. But there seem to be all kinds of tests: for example, which is your tax home? If you were claiming residency in two countries, you'd presumably be happy to pay double income tax? If not, then which country are you paying it in, and which are you claiming any tax exemption from? The former would be your place of residence. There are similar tests about legal residency if one is on a permanent residence visa (e.g. Green Card).

In terms of this specific question about validity of driving licenses, several sites post a DVLA response to the question that states: :‘"Normal residence is taken to mean the place where someone usually lives, that is for at least 185 days in each calendar year, because of personal or occupationalties, or, in the case of a person with no occupational ties, because of personal ties which show close links between that person and the place where he/she is living."

See for example: https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/fleet-ma...icences/35775/

So I think it would be safe to say that DVLA wants just over six months presence - though even then it adds : ‘Neither visitor nor resident is defined in driver licensing legislation. It is for the individual to determine his/her status by seeking legal advice if necessary. The ultimate decision is down to the individual concerned and he/she must be prepared to justify his/her status if challenged.’" (See:https://www.keithmichaels.co.uk/news...e-as-an-expat/ )

I think it is at best a legal grey area if you are hovering around the six months area. Even if DVLA would not pronounce on the issue, it would all come down to the insurer in the event of a claim. Given insurers try all they can to get out of paying like postbox132, I'd be very cautious about claiming "dual residency" even if one felt technically correct.

Unfortunately, this is not allowed.The DVLA says you cannot renew a license if you are not permanently resident in UK. I think you'd might actually be criminally liable for doing so. Have you told your insurer you live in the US? If not, I think you'd find your insurance would not cover you in the event of a claim - and I suspect if you claim they will suddenly become more proactive about finding out exactly where you live.