Insurance Tips
Back to Tips Index | To drive or not to drive – foreign license in Israel
The son of a client of ours has been living in the U.S. and then coming home for a few months each year.
Last year, he spent the larger part of the year in Israel without returning to the U.S. Two months ago he had a bad accident and caused damage of NIS 45,000 to his parent’s car. So far so good! The problem was only uncovered when he sent in a copy of his driver’s license as required by the insurance company. He only had a U.S. license – in other words, he had not transferred the foreign license to an Israeli one.
The law is as follows: In general, a foreign license is valid in Israel for one year only. That “year” is cumulative, i.e. if he/she spent 10 months in Israel, a month overseas, and then another 10 months in Israel – the license is no longer valid. If however, he/she left Israel for periods totaling three months or more, then the one year period begins again.
Back to our case: Initially, the insurance company turned down the claim. At this point, we – as the insurance agents – got into the act and managed to persuade the claim manager to pay the claim in full, despite the “technical problem”.
Now a very relieved young man is doing the necessary test to transfer the license!
Moral: Don’t rely on miracles (or even on us!) If you need to--take out an Israeli license. Any driving school will give you details.