Your Indian licence can’t sign off your teenager’s learner hours in NSW

Twenty years of driving in Delhi counts for nothing in the passenger seat. In NSW, supervising a learner driver requires a current full Australian driver licence, and an Indian licence, however long it has been held, does not qualify. Getting that wrong can cost both people in the car.

The rule lands on the log book. A NSW learner under 25 must record at least 120 hours, 20 of them at night, and hold the learner licence for at least 12 months before moving up to a P1. Every hour driven towards that total needs a supervisor or a licensed driving instructor in the next seat.

Supervising a learner driver takes a full Australian licence

The NSW Government’s supervision page puts it in one line: “To supervise a learner, you must hold a current full Australian driver licence.” The supervisor’s blood alcohol must be under 0.05, and it is the supervisor who marks off the learner’s progress in the log book. The penalty applies to both of them: “Both a supervisor and a learner driver can be fined if the supervisor does not have a full Australian licence.” The page gives no amount.

The learner licence itself is open from 16, after an eyesight test and the Driver Knowledge Test. Learners must never drive above 90 km/h or with any alcohol in their system, and those under 25 can book the Hazard Perception Test after 10 months. Two things shorten the log. Each hour with a licensed NSW driving instructor counts as three, for up to 10 hours of lessons. The Safer Drivers Course adds 20 bonus hours. It is open to learners under 25 once they have logged 50 hours of actual driving, some of it at night.

India is not on the list

NSW keeps a list of places whose licences convert without knowledge or driving tests. It runs from Austria to the United States, taking in Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom. India is not on it, and a licence from anywhere off the list means passing knowledge and driving tests.

How long the Indian licence has been held then decides what comes back. Under 12 months converts to a P1 licence, 12 months to under three years to a P2, and more than three years to an unrestricted licence, which the government also calls a full licence. Only that last one opens the passenger seat: P1 and P2 drivers are barred from supervising a learner. A mother who got her licence in Pune two years before migrating converts to green plates and still cannot supervise.

Under NSW fees in force from 1 July 2026, the knowledge test costs A$58 and each attempt at the driving test A$72. A five-year unrestricted licence adds A$234.

The clock is running, too. In NSW a permanent resident may drive on an overseas licence for three months from arriving in Australia. Temporary visa holders who arrived on or after 1 July 2023 and intend to live in NSW for longer than six months must get a temporary NSW licence within six months to keep driving; after that, the government’s FAQs say, they are treated as driving unlicensed. The temporary licence is described as equivalent to a NSW licence, and its page does not say whether the holder may supervise a learner.

Sixteen in Sydney, eighteen with an Indian learner’s licence

A teenager under 18 arrives with no Indian car licence to convert. Section 4 of India’s Motor Vehicles Act 1988 says “No person under the age of eighteen years shall drive a motor vehicle in any public place”, with an exception for motorcycles of 50cc or less from 16, and it bars a learner’s or driving licence for any class of vehicle the applicant is too young to drive. A 16-year-old who lands in Sydney starts where a local 16-year-old does, paying A$58 for the knowledge test and A$32 for the learner licence.

An 18- or 19-year-old may arrive holding an Indian learner’s licence. NSW lets them keep learning on it for a limited time: up to six months for temporary visa holders who arrived on or after 1 July 2023, and three months for permanent residents. They must display L plates and be “supervised at all times by the holder of a full Australian (Class C) driver licence”. Converting to a NSW learner licence takes a knowledge test.

As for the hours, NSW’s driving test page says overseas learner licence holders “must complete all components of the Graduated Licensing Scheme”. The log book page recognises hours logged in another state or territory, and it exempts people who previously held an overseas licence other than a learner licence. It says nothing about hours driven on a learner’s licence in India.

Across the Murray, an overseas licence counts

Victoria writes the rule differently. Its road rules page says a supervising driver must have an “Australian or overseas driver’s licence” that is current and full and covers the type of vehicle the learner is driving; a probationary licence does not qualify. Victorian learners under 21 also need 120 hours, 20 of them at night, and are told to include interstate and overseas driving experience in their paperwork. VicRoads adds that anyone who moves to Victoria planning to live there for more than six months must convert.

The supervisor rules on the Queensland, South Australian and Western Australian pages do not mention overseas licences. They set experience thresholds instead: Queensland asks for an open licence held for one year in total, South Australia a full licence held for two continuous years, and Western Australia a current licence held for at least four years.

In NSW the learner does the driving, but an hour behind the wheel counts only when a full Australian licence holder or an instructor sits in the next seat. For a parent who brought an Indian licence, the way into that seat starts with the knowledge and driving tests.