Assume a person who’s a citizen of Germany and has a German driving license. They’re on an H-1B visa living in NY. NY requires them to exchange their license within 30 days so they can’t drive there after a month on their EU license.
But… what about other states? Can they drive in Washington or other states on their EU license?
You can drive in WA on a foreign license as long as you're not a WA resident. If you do move to WA - you've got 30 days to get a local driving license. There's no law that requires that foreign license to be issued by a US state necessarily, and WA recognizes German licenses and allows to directly exchange them into local licenses on establishing residency (as opposed to any other EU country).
You may run into some additional requirements when renting cars with a foreign license - I've been asked to also present a passport with I-94 in some cases. But other than that it shouldn't be any problem.
Not necessarily related to your question, but keep in mind that if your driving privileges were taken away by a court order, then all your licenses are invalid, even if you didn't let the court know you have a foreign one.
Here is the New York law: VAT section 250
2 . A person of the age of sixteen years and upwards who shall be a nonresident of this state, and a resident of a state, territory, federal district or foreign country having laws, with which such person has complied, which require such person, in order to operate a motor vehicle or motorcycle therein, to be licensed, may operate or drive a motor vehicle or motorcycle on the public highways of this state without being so licensed under this chapter, [...]. A nonresident entitled to operate a motor vehicle or motorcycle as herein provided who shall become a resident of this state may operate or drive a motor vehicle or motorcycle on the public highways of this state for a period not exceeding thirty days from the date he becomes a resident pending the obtaining of a license to operate such motor vehicle or motorcycle in this state.
5 . As used in this section, the term "resident" shall mean domiciliary, that is, one who lives in this state with the intention of making it a fixed and permanent abode. It shall be presumptive evidence that a person who maintains a place of abode in this state for a period of at least ninety days is a resident of this state.
So just because you are "living" in New York does not mean you cannot drive on your out-of-state or foreign license, as long as you do not have the intention of making New York "a fixed and permanent abode".
Here is the Washington state law: RCW 46.20.025
The following persons may operate a motor vehicle on a Washington highway without a valid Washington driver's license:
(2) A nonresident driver who is at least:
(a) Sixteen years of age and has immediate possession of a valid driver's license issued to the driver by his or her home state; or
(b) Fifteen years of age with:
(i) A valid instruction permit issued to the driver by his or her home state; and
(ii) A licensed driver who has had at least five years of driving experience occupying a seat beside the driver; or
(c) Sixteen years of age and has immediate possession of a valid driver's license issued to the driver by his or her home country. A nonresident driver may operate a motor vehicle in this state under this subsection (2)(c) for up to one year;
It doesn't define "home state" or "home country", but since it is in the context of "nonresidents", it probably refers to the state or country you are a "resident" of. Washington state defines "resident" for the purposes of getting a Washington state driver's license in RCW 46.20.021 as
(3) For the purposes of obtaining a valid driver's license, a resident is a person who manifests an intent to live or be located in this state on more than a temporary or transient basis.
Assuming that it considers the residence the same way for nonresidents as for its own driver's license, this means that the home state/country would be the one where you have an "intent to live on more than a temporary or transient basis". If you do not have such an intent in New York and have such an intent in Germany, then I would argue that you can drive with your German driver's license in Washington state (as well as New York state).
I am not a lawyer, so I looked at this NY Department of Motor Vehicles page: https://dmv.ny.gov/more-info/resources-non-us-citizens
My interpretation - apologies if I mis-understood something.
A person with H1B work visa doesn't have to get a NY license to drive. But, if they want to, they can get a NY license that says "Temporary Visitor". To me, this sounds like the easiest solution.
They can also drive legally with their foreign license, as long as they like. But because their license is printed not in English, but in German, therefore they must also carry either an International Driving Permit or a certified translation of their license. These would not be needed if the foreign license had been in English.
NY requires them to exchange their license within 30 days
I'm ptetty sure that this isn't quite true, but please refer to the linked web page rather than rely on my interpretation.
Although not required, this sounds like the easiest route.
they can’t drive there after a month on their EU license.
I'm ptetty sure that this isn't quite true either. It doesn't matter if this is their first month in NY. If they do drive, and a cop asks to see their license, and they don't have one of the 3 documents highlighted above, then they may get in trouble for driving without a license.
There is a principle of reciprocation. Check out the following list, you will find all the states there:
https://stadt.muenchen.de/dam/jcr:6d37d7a7-5d03-4b21-88bc-007c73cc5849/Staatenliste-1.pdf
If your state is not there, bad luck on exchanging it there. BUT, you can still drive it one state's license anywhere in USA.
