Indian Driving Licence in Saudi Arabia: Visitor Rights, Embassy Steps and the Test Route

Reports say Saudi traffic swaps foreign licences without tests for about 47 to 48 countries, mostly the GCC, Europe, the UK, the US and a few others. We found no list that names India and our Saudi driving licence guide and conversion checker reach the same view. We could not find an official Saudi page naming India either way, so confirm in Absher or at a Moroor office before paying a school.

The school route, fees and timings are the same for every nationality and sit in the Saudi driving licence service page. The rest of this page is about what changes because the licence is Indian.

Indian licences are printed in English and the state language, so the translation step is mainly about Arabic. Ask the accredited translator what they check, because we could not confirm it. A licence that was fine on a visit visa is not a defence once the Iqama is in your wallet.

The Embassy of India in Riyadh covers the Central, North and Eastern regions and the Consulate General in Jeddah the rest, and both take applications through VFS Global. We could not find a page on either mission that describes a licence verification procedure or its fee. An expat guide for dependants from May 2021 says Indian applicants for a Saudi licence were asked for two separate embassy documents, a letter of verification and an attestation of the home licence, with fees we could not confirm.

Treat that as old and unconfirmed. They matter mainly if you are a dependant or a professional applying through a channel that asks for them. If a school or Moroor officer asks for an Indian letter, ask the VFS counter in Riyadh or Jeddah for the current checklist, and bring a printout of your licence details from the Parivahan portal. The embassy page for attestation adds SAR 8 for the welfare fund and SAR 15 for VFS on top of consular fees. Our Saudi attestation service covers other documents.

An Indian international driving permit comes from the regional transport office that handles your application on Form 4-A, and commercial guides describe it as valid for one year or until the Indian licence expires. India's 2021 decision let missions abroad facilitate IDP renewal, and the Abu Dhabi embassy does so, but we found no Saudi mission page confirming it, so ask the Riyadh embassy or Jeddah consulate.

On the treaty side, the UN records show India ratified the 1949 Geneva Convention on 9 March 1962. Saudi Arabia acceded to the 1968 Vienna Convention on 12 May 2016, and we found India in none of the 1968 entries or Saudi Arabia in the 1949 list. The two countries therefore do not share a convention text, which is one more reason to treat the permit as a visitor aid only. For residents, it does not replace the Saudi licence.

The Ministry of External Affairs table for January 2026 lists about 2.75 million Indian nationals in Saudi Arabia, 2,747,551 NRIs and about 3,000 persons of Indian origin. Many arrive on driver, delivery and technical visas, which bring a licence expectation from week one, while professionals often have the Iqama well before they drive.

Check that your Iqama profession is right, because a mismatch can block traffic services, as our profession correction guide explains. If your family joins you, dependants follow the same school route, see our dependant Iqama guide for timing.

Third-party guides say an Indian licence can be renewed through the Sarathi portal from abroad with Aadhaar OTP, a scanned expired card, photo and signature, while some states want a medical certificate in Form 1A. We found no official confirmation, so ask the issuing RTO. Keep it valid even if you hold a Saudi one, because the Indian licence is the document most RTOs ask for when you return.

We found no official Indian rule that swaps a Saudi licence for an Indian one without a test, and NRI guides say the state RTO decides. A Saudi licence is accepted on most Gulf exchange lists, as the GCC conversion comparison shows.

Our mock tests use 35 questions with 22 correct to pass. Practise with the free Saudi practice tests, try the Riyadh mock test 1 and print the Saudi papers. Indian drivers moving to Saudi roads should read our road test failure guide because lane discipline and Saher cameras are less forgiving than many Indian cities.