Motorbike licences in Vietnam do not expire. Under Article 57 of the Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety (No. 36/2024/QH15), the A1 and A classes — the two-wheeled motorbike classes — are issued with no time limit. You do not renew them the way a car licence is renewed every few years.
What “no time limit” covers
An A1 or A licence stays valid indefinitely in three situations: it never reaches a printed expiry date; it does not need periodic renewal; and it only leaves circulation when lost, damaged, reissued with changed details, or invalidated by the points system. That last one matters — a licence with all 12 points deducted stops being usable even though it has no expiry date to lapse.
What still has a time limit
Car and commercial classes (B, C, D and the rest) remain time-limited licences under the same law. A rider holding an integrated card with both motorbike and car categories renews for the car side; the motorbike side follows along administratively. And pre-2025 licences continue under Article 89’s transitional rule: they remain usable as issued, per the validity printed on them.
Paper licences
Older motorbike licences printed on paper remain valid under the transitional provisions, but a reissue — triggered by loss, damage, or a detail change — produces the current PET card. Many riders exchange voluntarily for the card because it is the format foreign car rental counters and IDP applications accept.
Renewal-style situations
The procedures that feel like renewal are reissues: a licence lost or damaged is reissued with the same classes; a change of registered details is updated onto a new card; a licence whose points have been fully deducted comes back only after the recovery process. For motorbikes, “renewal” is really “reissue when something happens to the card”.
For foreign residents, a Vietnamese motorbike licence obtained by exchange follows the same no-expiry rule once issued.
Information, not legal advice. Verified against Law 36/2024/QH15 and Circular 12/2025/TT-BCA on 2026-09-22.