Driving in Trinidad and Tobago on a Foreign Licence
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Saint Lucia on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
81 exceptions recorded across 33 countries · none match Saint Lucia to Trinidad and Tobago · Driving and licence exchange
Two provisions let a visitor drive, and they behave differently. Section 55 of the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act exempts the holder of an international driving permit issued under an international convention applied to Trinidad and Tobago for as long as the permit remains valid, with no period attached. Section 56A exempts the holder of an ordinary driving permit issued in a country the Minister specifies by Notice in the Gazette, for three months from the date of arrival. The Notice exists - Legal Notice 242 of 1986, amended by LN 10 of 2003 - and its Schedule is a long list that includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, most of Europe, the Caribbean and much of Africa and Asia. It also includes Czechoslovakia, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Yugoslavia, the Federal Republic of Germany and Zaire, none of which has existed under those names for over thirty years, and the publisher has added footnotes explaining what each has since been divided into rather than amending the list, because the Law Revision Act gives it no power to alter substance. Both exemptions are limited to the class of vehicle the foreign permit authorises, and under section 56A the driver must carry the travel document certifying the date of arrival as well as the permit.
At a glance
- On an international driving permit
- While the permit remains valid, with no stated limit
- On an ordinary foreign licence from a listed country
- 3 months from the date of arrival
Section 56A(1) prints it in words - exempted for a period of three months from the date of his arrival - which is the quotation on this record.
- How the list is made
- By Notice of the Minister published in the Gazette
Section 56A(2). The Notice in force is LN 242 of 1986 as amended by LN 10 of 2003.
- What counts as a valid driving permit
- A driving licence or a certificate of competence to drive, issued in a specified country
- What must be carried
- The permit, and the travel document showing the date of arrival
- Penalty for not carrying it
- A fine of five hundred dollars
- Countries on the list that no longer exist
- Four, with the publisher's footnotes
Czechoslovakia, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Yugoslavia, and - unfootnoted - the Federal Republic of Germany and Zaire.
Requirements
- An international driving permit issued under an applied international convention, which has no time limit here; or
- A valid driving permit, licence or certificate of competence issued in a country listed in the Schedule to Legal Notice 242 of 1986, for three months from arrival
- Carrying the permit, and under section 56A the travel document certifying your date of arrival
- Driving only the class of vehicle the foreign permit authorises
In detail
The permit with no clock on it
Section 55 is the more generous of the two and the one most accounts of the country miss. The holder of an international driving permit issued elsewhere than in Trinidad and Tobago under an international convention applied to the country is exempted from any requirement to hold a local permit while that permit remains valid, limited only to the class of vehicle he is authorised to drive in the issuing country. An international driving permit is usually valid for a year, so this is in practice a twelve-month exemption, but the Act attaches no period of its own and nothing resets on leaving and re-entering. Section 56A, by contrast, is explicitly three months from the date of arrival, which is why the travel document showing that date has to be carried alongside the licence.
A list of countries, several of which are gone
Section 56A does nothing by itself: it applies to countries the Minister specifies by Notice published in the Gazette. The Notice is LN 242 of 1986, amended once in 2003, and its Schedule runs to roughly a hundred countries in two columns. It is a document of its moment. It names Czechoslovakia, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Yugoslavia, the Federal Republic of Germany, Zaire and Democratic Kampuchea. The Law Revision Commission cannot fix that, because section 17(1) of the Law Revision Act says nothing in the Act confers power on the Commission to alter the substance of any written law, so it has added asterisked footnotes recording that the USSR is now divided between fifteen named states and Yugoslavia between five. Two of the obsolete names carry no footnote at all. The practical question - whether a German or a Congolese licence is within the Schedule - is left to be argued, and the Minister has not made a new Notice in the legal notices of 2022 to 2026.
Country-level policy
Every page of the Laws of Trinidad and Tobago published on the Ministry of the Attorney General's site carries two lines of its own: UNOFFICIAL VERSION and UPDATED TO 31ST DECEMBER 2016. Both are true and both matter. The Law Revision Act makes the Law Revision Commission responsible for preparing, publishing and maintaining the revised edition; section 5 says the Laws shall be published in loose-leaf form or in such other form as the Commission may determine; section 6 provides that every page must be authorised for inclusion by Order and that every page so authorised, and no other, shall form part of the Laws; and section 15 makes those authorised pages, in all Courts and for all purposes, the proper Statute Book. The web PDFs do not claim to be those pages. Their Current Authorised Pages table has a column headed Authorised by L.R.O. and the column is empty. In May 2026 Parliament passed an Act to fix this - the Law Revision (Amendment) Act, which would let the Minister designate a website as the sole official website and make a download from it deemed official and authoritative, prevailing over the loose-leaf where they differ. It was assented on 15 May 2026 and comes into operation on such date as is fixed by the President by Proclamation. No such Proclamation appears among the 822 legal notices of 2026.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Saint Lucia
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«55. (1) The holder of an international driving permit issued International
elsewhere than in Trinidad and Tobago, in accordance with the [25 of 1997].
driving permits.
provisions of any International Convention relating to the
international circulation of motor vehicles which shall have been
applied to Trinidad and Tobago, shall, whilst such permit remains
valid, be exempted from any requirement to hold a driving permit
under this Act to drive in Trinidad and Tobago; but he shall only
be entitled to drive in Trinidad and Tobago a motor vehicle of the
class for which he holds an authorisation to drive in the country
in which his international driving permit was issued.»Quoted as printed: the marginal note and amendment reference sit inside the text column. No period is attached - the exemption runs while the permit is valid.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Commission established by section 3 of the Law Revision Act, Chap. 3:03, whose statutory function under section 4 is to prepare, publish and maintain the revised edition of the written laws of Trinidad and Tobago. It serves the whole statute book as one PDF per Chapter from a flat path, each file carrying the Chapter number as its name, together with the subsidiary legislation made under that Act printed behind it and an index of it on the front. The Constitution is served separately. This is where every consolidated Chapter cited for this country comes from: the Immigration Act 18:01 with the Immigration Regulations, the Immigration (Caribbean Community Skilled Nationals) Act 18:03, the Citizenship Act 1:50, the Income Tax Act 75:01, the Caribbean Community Act 81:11 with the whole Revised Treaty as its Schedule, the Customs Act 78:01, the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act 48:50 with the 1986 driving exemption Notice, the Foreign Investment Act 70:07, the Exchange Control Act 79:50, the Proceeds of Crime Act 11:27 with the Financial Obligations Regulations, the Health Surcharge Act 75:05 and the Regional Health Authorities Act 29:05.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It says on every page that it is not the law. Each page carries the words UNOFFICIAL VERSION and UPDATED TO 31ST DECEMBER 2016, and the Current Authorised Pages table on the front of each Chapter has a column headed Authorised by L.R.O. which is empty. Under sections 6 and 15 of the Law Revision Act only pages authorised by a Law Revision Order form part of the Laws and are the proper Statute Book, so these files are a copy and not the edition. It must therefore never be cited as the authentic text, and never for the law after 31 December 2016: the Immigration (Caribbean Community Skilled Nationals) Act printed here is the pre-2022 text, in which sections 3 and 4 are the other way round from the sections now in force, and the Income Tax Act printed here states a personal allowance of seventy-two thousand dollars that has twice been raised since. It must also not be used for commencement after that date, because no instrument later than the cut-off appears in it at all. Its layout sets each section's marginal note inside the text column rather than in a margin, so a section number usually sits in the middle of a line and a sentence is interrupted by the note's words; quotations have to reproduce that, and our own check for sections an edition lists and does not print reports these Chapters as incomplete when they are not. Its server sends an incomplete TLS chain, so a plain client rejects it until the GeoTrust intermediate is supplied.
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«56A. (1) Notwithstanding section 42(1) the holder of a valid
driving permit issued in any country referred to in subsection (2)
case of valid
driving permit
held elsewhere.
shall, whilst such permit remains valid, be exempted for a period
of three months from the date of his arrival in Trinidad and
[17 of 1986].
Tobago from any requirement to hold a driving permit issued
under this Act to drive in Trinidad and Tobago; but he shall only
be entitled to drive in Trinidad and Tobago a motor vehicle of the
class for which he is authorised to drive by the permit of which
he is the holder.»Quoted as printed: the marginal note and the amendment reference sit inside the text column.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Commission established by section 3 of the Law Revision Act, Chap. 3:03, whose statutory function under section 4 is to prepare, publish and maintain the revised edition of the written laws of Trinidad and Tobago. It serves the whole statute book as one PDF per Chapter from a flat path, each file carrying the Chapter number as its name, together with the subsidiary legislation made under that Act printed behind it and an index of it on the front. The Constitution is served separately. This is where every consolidated Chapter cited for this country comes from: the Immigration Act 18:01 with the Immigration Regulations, the Immigration (Caribbean Community Skilled Nationals) Act 18:03, the Citizenship Act 1:50, the Income Tax Act 75:01, the Caribbean Community Act 81:11 with the whole Revised Treaty as its Schedule, the Customs Act 78:01, the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act 48:50 with the 1986 driving exemption Notice, the Foreign Investment Act 70:07, the Exchange Control Act 79:50, the Proceeds of Crime Act 11:27 with the Financial Obligations Regulations, the Health Surcharge Act 75:05 and the Regional Health Authorities Act 29:05.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It says on every page that it is not the law. Each page carries the words UNOFFICIAL VERSION and UPDATED TO 31ST DECEMBER 2016, and the Current Authorised Pages table on the front of each Chapter has a column headed Authorised by L.R.O. which is empty. Under sections 6 and 15 of the Law Revision Act only pages authorised by a Law Revision Order form part of the Laws and are the proper Statute Book, so these files are a copy and not the edition. It must therefore never be cited as the authentic text, and never for the law after 31 December 2016: the Immigration (Caribbean Community Skilled Nationals) Act printed here is the pre-2022 text, in which sections 3 and 4 are the other way round from the sections now in force, and the Income Tax Act printed here states a personal allowance of seventy-two thousand dollars that has twice been raised since. It must also not be used for commencement after that date, because no instrument later than the cut-off appears in it at all. Its layout sets each section's marginal note inside the text column rather than in a margin, so a section number usually sits in the middle of a line and a sentence is interrupted by the note's words; quotations have to reproduce that, and our own check for sections an edition lists and does not print reports these Chapters as incomplete when they are not. Its server sends an incomplete TLS chain, so a plain client rejects it until the GeoTrust intermediate is supplied.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«NOTICE is hereby given in accordance with section 56A(2) of the Motor
Vehicles and Road Traffic Act that the holders of a valid driving permit issued
in any of the countries listed in the Schedule shall, whilst such permit remains
valid, be exempted for a period of three months commencing on the date of
his arrival in Trinidad and Tobago, from the requirement to hold a driving
permit issued under the Act.»About this source
The Commission established by section 3 of the Law Revision Act, Chap. 3:03, whose statutory function under section 4 is to prepare, publish and maintain the revised edition of the written laws of Trinidad and Tobago. It serves the whole statute book as one PDF per Chapter from a flat path, each file carrying the Chapter number as its name, together with the subsidiary legislation made under that Act printed behind it and an index of it on the front. The Constitution is served separately. This is where every consolidated Chapter cited for this country comes from: the Immigration Act 18:01 with the Immigration Regulations, the Immigration (Caribbean Community Skilled Nationals) Act 18:03, the Citizenship Act 1:50, the Income Tax Act 75:01, the Caribbean Community Act 81:11 with the whole Revised Treaty as its Schedule, the Customs Act 78:01, the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act 48:50 with the 1986 driving exemption Notice, the Foreign Investment Act 70:07, the Exchange Control Act 79:50, the Proceeds of Crime Act 11:27 with the Financial Obligations Regulations, the Health Surcharge Act 75:05 and the Regional Health Authorities Act 29:05.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It says on every page that it is not the law. Each page carries the words UNOFFICIAL VERSION and UPDATED TO 31ST DECEMBER 2016, and the Current Authorised Pages table on the front of each Chapter has a column headed Authorised by L.R.O. which is empty. Under sections 6 and 15 of the Law Revision Act only pages authorised by a Law Revision Order form part of the Laws and are the proper Statute Book, so these files are a copy and not the edition. It must therefore never be cited as the authentic text, and never for the law after 31 December 2016: the Immigration (Caribbean Community Skilled Nationals) Act printed here is the pre-2022 text, in which sections 3 and 4 are the other way round from the sections now in force, and the Income Tax Act printed here states a personal allowance of seventy-two thousand dollars that has twice been raised since. It must also not be used for commencement after that date, because no instrument later than the cut-off appears in it at all. Its layout sets each section's marginal note inside the text column rather than in a margin, so a section number usually sits in the middle of a line and a sentence is interrupted by the note's words; quotations have to reproduce that, and our own check for sections an edition lists and does not print reports these Chapters as incomplete when they are not. Its server sends an incomplete TLS chain, so a plain client rejects it until the GeoTrust intermediate is supplied.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
« Albania Ecuador
Algeria Egypt
Anguilla Federal Republic of Germany
Antigua/Barbuda Fiji
Argentina Finland
Australia France
Austria Ghana
Bangladesh Greece
Barbados Grenada
Belgium Guatemala
Belize Guyana
Benin Haiti
Botswana Holy See
Brazil Hungary
Bulgaria Iceland
Canada India
Central African Republic Ireland
Chile Israel
Congo Italy
Cuba Ivory Coast
Cyprus Jamaica
*Czechoslovakia Japan
Democratic Kampuchea Jordan
Denmark Lao People’s Democratic Republic
Dominica Lebanon
Dominican Republic Lesotho»Set in two columns by the publisher, so the words run across the page as pairs. The list continues on the next page from Luxembourg and San Marino to Zaire.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Commission established by section 3 of the Law Revision Act, Chap. 3:03, whose statutory function under section 4 is to prepare, publish and maintain the revised edition of the written laws of Trinidad and Tobago. It serves the whole statute book as one PDF per Chapter from a flat path, each file carrying the Chapter number as its name, together with the subsidiary legislation made under that Act printed behind it and an index of it on the front. The Constitution is served separately. This is where every consolidated Chapter cited for this country comes from: the Immigration Act 18:01 with the Immigration Regulations, the Immigration (Caribbean Community Skilled Nationals) Act 18:03, the Citizenship Act 1:50, the Income Tax Act 75:01, the Caribbean Community Act 81:11 with the whole Revised Treaty as its Schedule, the Customs Act 78:01, the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act 48:50 with the 1986 driving exemption Notice, the Foreign Investment Act 70:07, the Exchange Control Act 79:50, the Proceeds of Crime Act 11:27 with the Financial Obligations Regulations, the Health Surcharge Act 75:05 and the Regional Health Authorities Act 29:05.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It says on every page that it is not the law. Each page carries the words UNOFFICIAL VERSION and UPDATED TO 31ST DECEMBER 2016, and the Current Authorised Pages table on the front of each Chapter has a column headed Authorised by L.R.O. which is empty. Under sections 6 and 15 of the Law Revision Act only pages authorised by a Law Revision Order form part of the Laws and are the proper Statute Book, so these files are a copy and not the edition. It must therefore never be cited as the authentic text, and never for the law after 31 December 2016: the Immigration (Caribbean Community Skilled Nationals) Act printed here is the pre-2022 text, in which sections 3 and 4 are the other way round from the sections now in force, and the Income Tax Act printed here states a personal allowance of seventy-two thousand dollars that has twice been raised since. It must also not be used for commencement after that date, because no instrument later than the cut-off appears in it at all. Its layout sets each section's marginal note inside the text column rather than in a margin, so a section number usually sits in the middle of a line and a sentence is interrupted by the note's words; quotations have to reproduce that, and our own check for sections an edition lists and does not print reports these Chapters as incomplete when they are not. Its server sends an incomplete TLS chain, so a plain client rejects it until the GeoTrust intermediate is supplied.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«* The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is now divided between Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus,
Estonia, Georgia, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
† Yugoslavia is now divided between Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia and
FR Yugoslavia.»The Law Revision Commission's own notes. Section 17(1) of the Law Revision Act forbids the Commission from altering the substance of a written law, so it footnotes the dissolved states instead of removing them.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Commission established by section 3 of the Law Revision Act, Chap. 3:03, whose statutory function under section 4 is to prepare, publish and maintain the revised edition of the written laws of Trinidad and Tobago. It serves the whole statute book as one PDF per Chapter from a flat path, each file carrying the Chapter number as its name, together with the subsidiary legislation made under that Act printed behind it and an index of it on the front. The Constitution is served separately. This is where every consolidated Chapter cited for this country comes from: the Immigration Act 18:01 with the Immigration Regulations, the Immigration (Caribbean Community Skilled Nationals) Act 18:03, the Citizenship Act 1:50, the Income Tax Act 75:01, the Caribbean Community Act 81:11 with the whole Revised Treaty as its Schedule, the Customs Act 78:01, the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act 48:50 with the 1986 driving exemption Notice, the Foreign Investment Act 70:07, the Exchange Control Act 79:50, the Proceeds of Crime Act 11:27 with the Financial Obligations Regulations, the Health Surcharge Act 75:05 and the Regional Health Authorities Act 29:05.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It says on every page that it is not the law. Each page carries the words UNOFFICIAL VERSION and UPDATED TO 31ST DECEMBER 2016, and the Current Authorised Pages table on the front of each Chapter has a column headed Authorised by L.R.O. which is empty. Under sections 6 and 15 of the Law Revision Act only pages authorised by a Law Revision Order form part of the Laws and are the proper Statute Book, so these files are a copy and not the edition. It must therefore never be cited as the authentic text, and never for the law after 31 December 2016: the Immigration (Caribbean Community Skilled Nationals) Act printed here is the pre-2022 text, in which sections 3 and 4 are the other way round from the sections now in force, and the Income Tax Act printed here states a personal allowance of seventy-two thousand dollars that has twice been raised since. It must also not be used for commencement after that date, because no instrument later than the cut-off appears in it at all. Its layout sets each section's marginal note inside the text column rather than in a margin, so a section number usually sits in the middle of a line and a sentence is interrupted by the note's words; quotations have to reproduce that, and our own check for sections an edition lists and does not print reports these Chapters as incomplete when they are not. Its server sends an incomplete TLS chain, so a plain client rejects it until the GeoTrust intermediate is supplied.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
Practical notes
There is no visitor's driving permit to buy, as there is in Barbados. The exemptions are automatic if they apply and there is nothing to apply for.
Section 56A(6) defines valid driving permit to include a valid driving licence or a valid certificate of competence to drive issued in a specified country, so a document that is not called a permit is still within it.
Neither section says what happens after the three months. A person staying longer needs a driving permit issued under the Act, applied for from the Licensing Authority, and the Act's own route for that is in sections 44 to 54.
This record rests on sections 55, 56 and 56A of the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act and on the Notice of Exemption made under section 56A(2), both in the edition updated to 31 December 2016, and on the Digital Legislative Library's list of legal notices for 2022 to 2026.
- consolidatesMotor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act, Chapter 48:50, with its subsidiary legislation
Law Revision Commission, Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs of Trinidad and Tobago · consolidated to 2016-12-31
About this source
The Commission established by section 3 of the Law Revision Act, Chap. 3:03, whose statutory function under section 4 is to prepare, publish and maintain the revised edition of the written laws of Trinidad and Tobago. It serves the whole statute book as one PDF per Chapter from a flat path, each file carrying the Chapter number as its name, together with the subsidiary legislation made under that Act printed behind it and an index of it on the front. The Constitution is served separately. This is where every consolidated Chapter cited for this country comes from: the Immigration Act 18:01 with the Immigration Regulations, the Immigration (Caribbean Community Skilled Nationals) Act 18:03, the Citizenship Act 1:50, the Income Tax Act 75:01, the Caribbean Community Act 81:11 with the whole Revised Treaty as its Schedule, the Customs Act 78:01, the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act 48:50 with the 1986 driving exemption Notice, the Foreign Investment Act 70:07, the Exchange Control Act 79:50, the Proceeds of Crime Act 11:27 with the Financial Obligations Regulations, the Health Surcharge Act 75:05 and the Regional Health Authorities Act 29:05.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It says on every page that it is not the law. Each page carries the words UNOFFICIAL VERSION and UPDATED TO 31ST DECEMBER 2016, and the Current Authorised Pages table on the front of each Chapter has a column headed Authorised by L.R.O. which is empty. Under sections 6 and 15 of the Law Revision Act only pages authorised by a Law Revision Order form part of the Laws and are the proper Statute Book, so these files are a copy and not the edition. It must therefore never be cited as the authentic text, and never for the law after 31 December 2016: the Immigration (Caribbean Community Skilled Nationals) Act printed here is the pre-2022 text, in which sections 3 and 4 are the other way round from the sections now in force, and the Income Tax Act printed here states a personal allowance of seventy-two thousand dollars that has twice been raised since. It must also not be used for commencement after that date, because no instrument later than the cut-off appears in it at all. Its layout sets each section's marginal note inside the text column rather than in a margin, so a section number usually sits in the middle of a line and a sentence is interrupted by the note's words; quotations have to reproduce that, and our own check for sections an edition lists and does not print reports these Chapters as incomplete when they are not. Its server sends an incomplete TLS chain, so a plain client rejects it until the GeoTrust intermediate is supplied.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source