# Internationa driving lisence swap ?



## joantovar (Jul 29, 2010)

Can any1 tell me if once I get to the Uk this upcoming April with my regular Venezuelan driving license and my Venezuelan issue international driving license will allow me to just swap it out for a Uk license? :confused2:


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

joantovar said:


> Can any1 tell me if once I get to the Uk this upcoming April with my regular Venezuelan driving license and my Venezuelan issue international driving license will allow me to just swap it out for a Uk license? :confused2:


No you can't. You can drive with your Venezuelan licence for up to a year, but then you have to pass driving tests to get a British licence. If you get your provisional licence before your year is up, you can continue to drive up to a year without being subject to provisional licence restrictions like displaying L plates, having a full licence holder to accompany you and being banned from the motorway. And get enough driving lessons to familiarise yourself with UK driving techniques required by the tests.


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## joantovar (Jul 29, 2010)

so once i get my UK provisional license how long do i have to wait to get the regular one?
:confused2:




Joppa said:


> No you can't. You can drive with your Venezuelan licence for up to a year, but then you have to pass driving tests to get a British licence. If you get your before your year is up, you can continue to drive up to a year without being subject to provisional licence restrictions like displaying L plates, having a full licence holder to accompany you and being banned from the motorway. And get enough driving lessons to familiarise yourself with UK driving techniques required by the tests.


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

joantovar said:


> so once i get my UK provisional license how long do i have to wait to get the regular one?


Until you pass your tests. If you pass while your Venezuelan licence is still valid (i.e. within a year of arrival), you aren't bound by provisional licence restrictions. But if you don't, then after a year you must stop driving on your own and comply with learner driver requirements.
I suggest you get your provisional licence sooner (you have to wait 6 months) and then try to pass before your foreign licence ceases to be valid.

See Driving on licences from all other countries, and students on a foreign licence : Directgov - Motoring


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## Punktlich2 (Apr 30, 2009)

joantovar said:


> Can any1 tell me if once I get to the Uk this upcoming April with my regular Venezuelan driving license and my Venezuelan issue international driving license will allow me to just swap it out for a Uk license? :confused2:


Beyond what others have said: an "international driving permit" notwithstanding what scam artists on various Web sites say, is nothing other than a legal translation of your home licence and grants no further rights and cannot be "swapped" for anything.

Furthermore even if you were to exchange your Venezuelan licence for an EU one other than a UK one (each EU member state determines which country licences other than EU/EEA/Swiss ones it will exchange without tests) that EU one would not be valid in the UK after you have lived here beyond 12 months. This is because an EU licence from another EU member state is only valid without exchange (until age 70 in the UK) or for exchange for a UK licence if you took and passed theory and practical tests in an EU country (even if you took those tests before the country entered the EU).

Many migrants drive illegally or unlawfully in the UK with a foreign licence even after 12 months. They risk severe penalties if caught and also risk their car insurance not being valid.

You haven't asked, but for the record in case anyone reads this in the archives: there are at least 3 anomalies relating to driving licences that were not accounted for in the European Driving Licence directive: visiting forces licences (NATO forces driving on military permits), diplomatic licences (which in some or all other EU member states are ordinary local model licences but in the UK are (or were) issued on old-form red driving licence booklets by the London DVLA, valid 3 years and renewable only if diplomatic status continues), and holders of EEA/Swiss licenses who did not take theory and practical tests in an EU/EEA/Swiss country and who have dual residence.


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## 90199 (Mar 21, 2010)

Where I live, El Hierro, there are many immigrants from Venezuela. I am told that they change their Venezuelan licences for a Spanish one. A Spanish licence is valid in the U.K. without having to take any further tests and can be changed for a U.K. licence. My wife has just changed her U.K. licence for a Spanish one.

However the easiest way in your case might be to take a course of lessons and take the driving tests afresh, you would then have in addition to your Venezuelan Licence, a U.K. full licence

Hepa


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## Punktlich2 (Apr 30, 2009)

Hepa said:


> Where I live, El Hierro, there are many immigrants from Venezuela. I am told that they change their Venezuelan licences for a Spanish one. A Spanish licence is valid in the U.K. without having to take any further tests and can be changed for a U.K. licence. My wife has just changed her U.K. licence for a Spanish one.
> 
> However the easiest way in your case might be to take a course of lessons and take the driving tests afresh, you would then have in addition to your Venezuelan Licence, a U.K. full licence
> 
> Hepa


_ "A Spanish licence is valid in the U.K. without having to take any further tests and can be changed for a U.K. licence."_

This is not true under the circumstances specified. The UK application now asks whether you took a theory & practical test in an EU member state and they check, as they always did, with the issuer of the licence you propose to exchange. The Europen Union Driving Licence Directive does not require that member states exchange an EU licence if you did not take EU tests to acquire it, nor can you use such a licence beyond 12 months in the UK.

Thus a Spanish licence obtained with tests on the basis of a Venezuelan licence will not work as you say. 

If this were not so, I would have been able to exchange my French licence for a UK one (I took the UK practical 3 times before I passed). As it happens I have lived in many countries and even today have four (4) licences that are facially valid and that I still renew as and when and if required. I took theory & practical tests years ago for 2 of them and quite recently for the UK one.

(The UK road test paper asks the driver to certify that s/he has resided in the UK for at least six months. (For a non-EU/EEA/Swiss national this will be apparent from the applicant's passport when s/he applies for a provisional licence. But inasmuch as the UK (unlike many or most other member states) does not require or provide for registration of residence by anybody there is no definitive means of proving this for others. In a number of countries, Switzerland among them, the application for a driving licence (whether by exchange or by examination) must be stamped and countersigned by the Office de Population.))

BTW one is not allowed to hold more than one EU licence except where one was held prior to that state joining the EU. But of course nobody has ever asked for my old French one back either.

Please see para. 6 of the official FAQ (click FAQ under "documents" in right-hand margin: EU - Road safety - Driving licence ("However, if your licence was issued in exchange for a driving licence issued by a non-EU country, Member States are under no obligation to recognise it") Unless you in fact once took and passed theory and practical tests in an EU member state.

This issue has been address by the courts and by European Parliament petition several times.

Most of what I have written can be confirmed here: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/DriverLicensing/DrivingInGbOnAForeignLicence/DG_4022562


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## Punktlich2 (Apr 30, 2009)

Here is one of several petitions to the European Parliament on the subject: http://bit.ly/hq04Rz (PDF: "The petitioner complains that the British authorities refuse to recognise his German driving licence. He states that he passed a driving test in the USA and obtained an American driving licence. ...")


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## 90199 (Mar 21, 2010)

Then the O.P. should as I suggested, take a driving test in the U.K., or perhaps come and live in the Canary Islands where we are far more tolerant of Venezuelans.

However here one has to take a medical prior to the issue of a licence whereas in the U.K. it is not required. It seems to me that the countries in the E.U. interpret the rules, directives and regulations quite differently,

Hepa


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## Punktlich2 (Apr 30, 2009)

Hepa said:


> Then the O.P. should as I suggested, take a driving test in the U.K., or perhaps come and live in the Canary Islands where we are far more tolerant of Venezuelans.
> 
> However here one has to take a medical prior to the issue of a licence whereas in the U.K. it is not required. It seems to me that the countries in the E.U. interpret the rules, directives and regulations quite differently,
> 
> Hepa


Indeed. A decade ago the European Commission was complaining that member states were not applying EU law properly in this matter:

"Concerning driving licences, the conformity of measures transposing Directive 91/439/EC still gives serious cause for concern. The proceedings against Italy were terminated in 2000 but examination of national transposal measures reveals that in eight other Member States there are many discrepancies in such matters as the minimum age for a vehicle category, renewal of licences for EU citizens no longer residing in the Member State of issue, criteria for test vehicles, the duration of the practical test and minimum requirements in terms of physical and mental aptitude. The procedures for automatic registration of licences belonging to drivers who move from one country to another are incompatible with the principle of mutual recognition of driving licences."
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:52001DC0309:EN:HTML

I have read and heard of, but never met, migrants who claim to have secured Romanian or Bulgarian or Greek, etc. driving licences by paying large sums to a driving school teacher who, they assume, bribed the practical test guy. A session on Google will tell you that this sort of stuff goes on. But since Romanian, Bulgarian and Greek are not among languages I speak or pretend to speak, what would I know. (I note that Sid Caesar could fake speaking any language. Wish I could do that.)


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