International driving permits

In Finland the Finnish Ministry of the Interior has given the right for issuing the international driving permits to the automobile club and its service outlets already in the 1920’ies. The ministry has set a condition that after the IDPs are written by the automobile club or its service outlets, the IDPs must also be stamped officially by the Finnish police, before they can be handed to the customers. In Finland the IDP models of 1949 Geneva Convention and 1968 Vienna Convention are in use. The IDP 1949 is valid one year from date of issue and the model 1968 is valid for 3 years from the date of issue at the most.

Application procedure

There are not tests concerning the IDPs. The IDP can be issued against a valid Finnish driving licence. The applicant must show his valid Finnish licence or send a photocopy of it and add one passport photo to the application. If the IDP is applied by post – and not personally - the photocopy of the Finnish licence must be witnessed by 2 persons. By post, also the return address must be given, because we send the IDP’s by cash on delivery principle.
The time to process the application is one week (because we must get the police stamps on the IDP’s before giving them to the customer).

Price

The IDP model 1949 cost 34 € and the 1968 model costs 44 €. This price includes a stamp fee of 12 € collected by the Finnish police.

Offices where the IDPs are issued

In Helsinki, the head office of Autoliitto (Automobile and Touring Club of Finland) and in about 30 smaller service outlets throughout the country.