Can you convert a Bangladeshi driving licence in Italy?

Last updated: 30 September 2026 · ✓ Checked against its sources

Every figure on this page was checked against the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport (MIT), ACI and the Italian highway code. Last verified: 30 September 2026. Every source is linked at the bottom.

The short answer

No — a Bangladeshi driving licence cannot be converted into an Italian one.

Italy only converts licences from countries it has a reciprocity agreement (accordo di reciprocità) with, and Bangladesh is not on the list — two separate official lists were checked, and Bangladesh is on neither. The same is true for India, Pakistan and Nepal.

In the Ministry’s own words, if conversion is not possible you have to get the Italian licence by exam.

Countries that do have an agreement include Albania, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, Moldova, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Brazil, South Korea, Switzerland and the UK.

⚠️ Because there is no lawful route to conversion, anyone who promises to arrange one for a fee cannot deliver it — nobody has that power. Before you pay anyone, look at the official list yourself; the link is at the bottom of this page.

The clock runs from residenza, not from arrival

You can drive in Italy on your Bangladeshi licence for a while, and that time is counted as one year from the day you acquired residenza in Italy.

⚠️ Not from the day you arrived. From residenza.

The difference sounds small, but it is the one that costs people most. Someone who has been in Italy three years but only got residenza last year still has time. Someone who got residenza the week they arrived, two years ago, is already past it — even though the licence looks fine and has not expired.

Once that year has passed, a Bangladeshi licence no longer lets you drive in Italy, even if it is still valid. If you are stopped, the fine is €158 to €638, the licence is taken on the spot, and because a Bangladeshi licence cannot be converted it is sent back to the authority in Bangladesh — you lose the licence itself. So find out today the date of your residenza — in law, the day you made your residenza declaration at the comune.

Your licence on its own isn’t enough — even inside that year

The one-year clock is one condition. There is a second one, and if you don’t know it you are driving illegally today, well inside your year, on a licence that looks perfectly valid.

A Bangladeshi licence alone is not enough. It has to be accompanied by either an international driving permit (permesso internazionale) or an official Italian translation of the licence (traduzione ufficiale). Both documents have to be current.

⚠️ Driving without either carries a fine of €408 to €1.634, even though your licence is genuine and unexpired.

Think of the difference this way: the one-year clock is a deadline — get it wrong and you are illegal later. This is a document you either have or you don’t — without it you are illegal today.

Which route applies to you

The international permit has to be issued by the country that issued the licence — so a Bangladeshi licence needs a Bangladeshi permit. And in Bangladesh only one body is authorised to issue it: the Automobile Association of Bangladesh (AAB).

That gives two situations:

Still in Bangladesh, or going back to visit — get the permit from AAB before you travel. It is the simpler route: it exists for exactly this purpose, and nobody has to sit and assess a translation.

Already in Italy without one — the permit route is effectively closed, because it has to be issued back home. Your realistic route is the official translation.

How an official translation is done in practice

⚠️ What follows is the procedure people use and that offices accept — read it as practice, not as what the law demands. The law says traduzione ufficiale; in practice that is done by asseverazione.

An asseverazione means the translator personally swears the translation is faithful, in front of a cancelliere (a court official) or a notaio. It carries criminal liability, and that liability is what gives the document its weight — which is also why the oath cannot be delegated to someone else.

A few things worth knowing before you start:

• You cannot translate your own licence. Rome’s rules require the translator to be someone other than you, and not a relative.
• The rules differ from court to court. Rome only requires the translator to be a third party; Milan additionally requires them to be a registered expert. There is no single national rule, so ask at your own tribunale.
• Rome charges a €16,00 marca da bollo per 100 lines, counting the oath record.

Can a CAF or an agency make the translation “official”?

Not as an authority. CAF are Centri di Assistenza Fiscale — their authorisation is for tax work (dichiarazione dei redditi, ISEE, 730). Certifying a translation is not part of it.

In practice CAF, patronati and agenzie di disbrigo pratiche do arrange this as a service — finding a translator, assembling the file, booking the court appointment. That is a real convenience, and paying for it is a fair choice.

But the fee buys convenience, not authority. The document becomes official at the moment the oath is sworn in front of the cancelliere or notaio, and at no other moment. Know that and you can decide for yourself whether to use an intermediary or go directly — and either way you will know what you are paying for.

What you actually need to do

The full Italian process, start to finish — it is the only lawful route:

1. Apply — form TT 2112, either directly at the Motorizzazione or through an autoscuola
2. Medical certificate — certificato di idoneità psicofisica
3. Pass the theory exam — 30 questions, 20 minutes, maximum 3 wrong answers
4. Get your foglio rosa — issued after the theory pass, valid 12 months
5. Pass the practical exam — up to 3 attempts within the foglio rosa’s validity

You’ll need your permesso di soggiorno

You need a valid permesso di soggiorno, or the receipt showing you have applied for a first issue or a renewal. And the same documents have to be shown again on both exam days — theory and practical — not only when you apply.

Official fees

All paid through pagoPA.

⚠️ These are the state fees only. Autoscuola tuition, the medical certificate and driving lessons are separate, are market prices, and vary a lot by city. There is no official “total cost”; the three above are the only fixed amounts. The full picture: What a Patente B actually costs

The hard part

The exam is in Italian, and the official question papers exist in exactly three languages: Italian, French and German. There is no other language to sit it in — not Bangla, not English. French and German are there for two of Italy’s own linguistic regions, not for foreigners.

Audio support exists and non-Italian citizens qualify for it, but it reads the question aloud in Italian — it does not translate. Detail: How the Italian theory exam actually works

The whole process in one place: Getting an Italian driving licence: the complete guide

Sources

• MIT — Conversione patente estera — “Se non è possibile la conversione occorre conseguire la patente italiana per esame”; the one-year rule: “può guidare veicoli… fino ad un anno dall’acquisizione della residenza in Italia”
• MIT — Conseguimento patente B
• Prefettura — list of countries with convertible licences (PDF)
• Codice della Strada, art. 135 — permit or translation (comma 1): “…a condizione che non siano residenti in Italia da oltre un anno e che, unitamente alla medesima patente, abbiano un permesso internazionale ovvero una traduzione ufficiale in lingua italiana della predetta patente”; the fine (comma 8); who issues the permit (comma 2); after the year (comma 14, fine in art. 126 comma 11): Normattiva — art. 135 · Normattiva — art. 126 · ACI (aci.gov.it)
• The translator’s criminal liability — Italian penal code, art. 483
• Automobile Association of Bangladesh — International Driving Permit
• Sworn-translation rules: Tribunale di Milano · Tribunale di Roma (PDF) — Rome’s condition: “persona diversa dall’interessato, né parente né affine”