Before you start

An International Driving Permit obtained in your home country before departure
Your valid national licence, which the IDP only translates
A local address, for a BRTA licence if you settle long term
A realistic assessment of whether you want to drive in Dhaka at all

Step-by-step

1
Get the International Driving Permit before you leave home
This is the step people miss. The BRTA does not issue IDPs and you cannot apply for one from inside Bangladesh — the Automobile Association of Bangladesh issues them, and its process is designed for holders of a BRTA licence going abroad. Arriving without an IDP means arriving unable to drive legally.
In personWho: YouBefore departure
2
Understand that the IDP runs twelve months
An IDP is valid for twelve months from issue and cannot outlast your national licence. If you settle in Bangladesh long term the eventual answer is a BRTA licence, and the conversion conversation should start before the IDP lapses rather than after.
OnlineWho: You
3
Test MRT Line 6 against your actual commute
Sixteen stations from Uttara North to Motijheel, roughly 07:10 to 21:00 Saturday to Thursday with a shorter Friday afternoon service, fares around Tk 20 to Tk 100. For any journey along that corridor it is faster than driving by a wide margin. The Motijheel–Kamalapur extension is under construction with a scheduled 2027 opening.
Mobile appWho: YouMonth 1
4
Consider a driver rather than driving
A full-time driver on a monthly salary is a completely ordinary arrangement for professionals in Dhaka, not a luxury, and many employers include one. It removes the parking problem, the navigation problem and the fact that Dhaka driving is a learned skill you do not have.
In personWho: You
5
Use ride-hailing and CNGs for everything else
Uber and Pathao operate car and motorcycle services and are cheap. Motorcycle ride-hailing is dramatically faster in traffic and correspondingly riskier; helmet quality is variable and bringing your own is a reasonable decision. CNG auto-rickshaws are metered in principle and negotiated in practice.
Mobile appWho: You
6
Budget time, not distance
Dhaka is among the most congested large cities in the world and average road speeds in the central areas are very low. A five-kilometre trip can take an hour at the wrong time. Locals plan by departure time and traffic pattern rather than by distance, and adopting that habit early saves a lot of frustration.
Mobile appWho: You

Documents you’ll need

National driving licence
International Driving Permit, obtained before arrival
Passport with valid visa
Proof of Dhaka address, for a BRTA licence

Things most newcomers don’t know

You cannot obtain an International Driving Permit once you are in Bangladesh.

The BRTA does not issue IDPs; the Automobile Association of Bangladesh does, and its process is built around holders of a BRTA licence travelling abroad — it asks for a copy of a valid BRTA licence and a national identity card. For an incoming foreign national that route is closed. The IDP must be obtained in your home country before you travel. This single detail strands more arriving expatriates than any other driving-related rule here.

Source: Automobile Association of Bangladesh; BRTA

MRT Line 6 is a genuine structural change and most published guidance predates it.

The metro opened in stages from December 2022, now runs sixteen stations from Uttara North to Motijheel, and carries roughly 400,000 passengers a day. Along its corridor it turns journeys that took well over an hour into twenty minutes. That makes Uttara, Mirpur and Agargaon viable addresses for someone working in Motijheel in a way they were not before — a change in the residential geography of the city, not merely a new transport option. Anything written before 2023 assumes a Dhaka that no longer exists on this axis.

Source: MRT Line 6 operations

Motorcycle ride-hailing is the fastest way across Dhaka and the most dangerous.

Pathao and Uber's motorcycle services move through traffic that stops cars entirely, and for many residents they are the difference between a twenty-minute trip and a ninety-minute one. The trade is real: helmet quality on offer varies widely and Bangladeshi road injury rates are high. People who use them regularly buy their own helmet. Whether that trade is worth making is a personal decision, but it should be a decision rather than a default.

Source: community-reported

Employing a driver is normal, and it is usually cheaper than you expect.

In a city where navigating is genuinely difficult, parking is scarce and traffic behaviour is a local skill, a full-time driver is the ordinary professional arrangement rather than an indulgence. Monthly salaries are modest by expatriate standards, many employers include one in the package, and it converts commuting time into working time. Ask what your employer provides before negotiating salary rather than after.

Source: community-reported