New driving Laws has been Commenced in Australia
Many temporary visa holders, including students from overseas, will be unqualified to drive as per new driving laws in victoria. Even with an overseas driving licence, they are unable to drive if they don’t achieve a local licence in six months of moving to the state. All the overseas visa holders of any visa status will have to change into a local licence in a period of six months before commencing their residence in victoria.
The changes will simplify the licencing requirements for interstate and overseas drivers
Presently, migrants with temporary visa are qualified to drive till they get a permanent resident visa. The migrants with permanent resident visa will be having six months after arriving first time in Australia to get a local licence. Temporary visa holders are having a period of six months starting from 29th October 2019 to convert the overseas licence.
Announcement from the Department of Transportation
The current system is complex and depends on whether the driver is from interstate or overseas, and whether they are temporary or permanent visa holders.
If they fail to do this and continue to drive they are driving unlicenced which is a serious offence.
Employers will also need to make sure that drivers they employ with international licences have not been residing there for more than 6 months. If they don’t check this, they could be committing a serious offence by allowing an unlicensed person to drive.
The objective of new driving laws is to assure that drivers have the skills and experience to drive through victorian roads. Some other transformations are also introduced in new driving laws including pointing out some of the dangerous driving behaviour. By the arrival of new subclass visas as part of Regional Migration, there will be an increase in temporary visa holders.