Drone laws by country
3 jurisdictions · every fact linked to its official source · each page re-checked about once a month.
Drone rules change roughly twice a year, and most of what you will find online is out of date without saying so. Every row below shows the date we last checked it against the regulator itself. Where we could not confirm something, we say so instead of guessing.
Compare
| Jurisdiction | Registration from | Pilot credential | Max altitude | Remote ID | Visitor can fly? | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| European Union | 250 g | Free online training and a 40-question exam (75% to pass) for A1/A3; a further 30-question exam for the A2 Certificate of Competency | 120 m from the closest point of the surface | Direct (broadcast) remote ID, required on C1, C2, C3, C5 and C6 class-marked aircraft | Yes | |
| Germany | 250 g | Free online training and a 40-question exam (75% to pass) for A1/A3; a further 30-question exam for the A2 Certificate of Competency | 120 m from the closest point of the surface | Direct (broadcast) remote ID, required on C1, C2, C3, C5 and C6 class-marked aircraft | Yes | |
| United States | 250 g (0 | TRUST (free online test) for recreational flight; a Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate for everything else | 400 ft (120 m) AGL, or within 400 ft of a structure | Mandatory (broadcast) | Yes |
Every entry above was re-checked against its own regulator on or after , and each is re-checked about once a month. A dash means we have not confirmed that field from an official source — it does not mean there is no rule.
Recently changed
- United States — Section 232 tariffs take effect — 25% on consumer drones
- United States — Part 108 BVLOS final rule sent to OIRA — still unpublished
- United States — State and local police gain counter-drone authority
- United States — Proposed flight restrictions around critical infrastructure (new Part 74)
- United States — DETER settlement programme for first-time violators
- European Union — Commission action plan proposes a "Drone Security Package"
- United States — FAA shifts from education-first to mandatory legal enforcement
- European Union — Declarations under national standard scenarios cease to be valid
- United States — FCC adds all foreign-produced drones and critical components to the Covered List
- European Union — SORA 2.5 adopted as the accepted means of compliance
Guides
- Why your drone licence stops at the border — Your registration and your pilot certificate are worthless the moment you cross a border — with exactly one exception on Earth.
Not yet covered, and why
Completeness is easy to claim and hard to earn. These are the jurisdictions we have deliberately left out, with the reason:
- France — every official French government drone page we tried returned 404; AlphaTango and the DGAC/IGN map could not be confirmed against a live official source
- Brazil — RBAC 100 replaced RBAC-E 94 in June 2026, but we have only secondary sources — ANAC sits behind a CAPTCHA and its English page still describes the superseded rule
- United Arab Emirates — whether recreational and visitor flying resumed after the 30 June 2026 lift is genuinely unclear in every source we could reach
- Indonesia — the regulator's portal fails TLS verification; the tourist import-permit rule that everyone repeats is unsourced
- Israel — no current official English-language source from the CAAI could be verified
How this is maintained
Each jurisdiction is re-checked against its own regulator about once a month. When something changes, it is added to that country's timeline with the source and the date, and the summary row above is updated at the same time — so the timeline is the audit trail of the table. More about the method →
This is not legal advice. ListDrone is an information site, not a law firm or an aviation authority. Verify with the regulator before you fly.