# Driving licence



## kaipa (Aug 3, 2013)

I submitted all my papers to change my UK licence to Spanish back in August. Then they asked for my UK licence in October so they could issue a temporary one. It is still not ready and I need to travel tomorrow. Will my paper licence be sufficient to use? It's very frustrating as it has been nearly 4 months.


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## kaipa (Aug 3, 2013)

Sorry forgot to say trafico still have my actual UK licence


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## Overandout (Nov 10, 2012)

The temporary licence should be valid to drive in Spain without any issue. But you should check to see if it has a date of expiry on it somewhere just in case.

It probably wouldn't be valid outside Spain though, and not as ID either.


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## kaipa (Aug 3, 2013)

Yes but I don't have the temporary licence and they have my UK one. All I have is UK counterpart


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## danboy20 (Jul 10, 2017)

Are you travelling outside of Spain?

I was told that I could not drive outside of Spain whilst the process was ongoing.

My gestoria wrote me a temporary legal note during the exchange process, and I had a photocopy of my old licence and paper licence.

Last week I received my temporary Spanish paper licence. Long process.


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## danboy20 (Jul 10, 2017)

They must literally have thousands of Brits doing this because of Brexit.


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## Overandout (Nov 10, 2012)

Although this is probably not going to help you; you should not be in this situation.
When they took your UK licence, they should have given you a temporary certificate as danyboy says. This would be valid to drive in Spain.
You should not have left them your UK licence without them having given you a temporary one.

I thought that when you said "paper licence", this was what you are referring to.

As it stands you legally cannot drive anywhere....


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## Megsmum (Sep 9, 2012)

We handed over our UK licence and we got a temporary certificate valid only in Spain it was valid for 12 weeks. We were told IF the license had not arrived we should return for a note temporary one

Took four weeks in total from applying to receiving licences. I have to agree with O&O. I’m not sure you are supposed to be driving at all. Certainly that uk but won’t be valid




> If your country confirms that you hold a valid driving licence, it will be notified to Spain. Afterwards, you will receive a letter from the DGT so that you can surrender your original driving licence. The Spanish DGT office provides you with a temporary driving licence (usually for three months) while the original one is processed. After a few weeks, the final, original Spanish driving licence will be sent to your home by pos


t.


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## Williams2 (Sep 15, 2013)

Further to the above I have queried the 'what if' situation with DVLA in the past myself,
if I'm without a UK license because it's been handed in for exchange,
awaiting a new Spanish license and their take on it is this - there's nothing to
worry about, with regard to traveling in your own car in the UK.
As the British Police can always check your UK driving license online with the DVLA;
if you happen to get stopped and you cannot give them the proper photocard license;
of course carrying a photo copy of your current UK driving license helps.

The only problem you might have is if you want to hire a car in the UK without
your proper photo card license on you.

So the OP's temporary Spanish paper license will cover you for Spain and DVLA
should still hold the OP's UK driving license record on their database for scrutiny by
the British Police. In fact you don't drop off their DB's at all except that once
you get your proper photocard Spanish driving, DVLA's informed that the
exchange has been completed, so as to ensure you cannot have a UK one as well.
At which point only your new Spanish driving license will be valid in the UK.

Therefore the only problem the OP could have is traveling through France without
a proper photocard license, to get to and from the UK by car.


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## Megsmum (Sep 9, 2012)

Williams2 said:


> Further to the above I have queried the 'what if' situation with DVLA in the past myself,
> if I'm without a UK license because it's been handed in for exchange,
> awaiting a new Spanish license and their take on it is this - there's nothing to
> worry about, with regard to traveling in your own car in the UK.
> ...


But the OP is saying she doesn’t have the temporary paper licence she has nothing !



> Yes but I don't have the temporary licence and they have my UK one. All I have is UK counterpart


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## Williams2 (Sep 15, 2013)

Megsmum said:


> But the OP is saying she doesn’t have the temporary paper licence she has nothing !


Yes that is a bind - I must admit, looks like falling back on taxi's and good old public transport, is the only
way to get about for now !!


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## kaipa (Aug 3, 2013)

Umff. Real pain. I speak Spanish so I called trafico and they said that I will get one on Tuesday but they are really busy. No idea if it's because of Brexit. But there you go. Thanks all


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Probably down to staff cutbacks. It only took six weeks when we got ours a few years ago. And the temporary licence isn't valid outside Spain - you can't hire a car in the UK, for example.


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## Nomoss (Nov 25, 2016)

Alcalaina said:


> Probably down to staff cutbacks. It only took six weeks when we got ours a few years ago. And the temporary licence isn't valid outside Spain - you can't hire a car in the UK, for example.


It's a while ago, but after Trafico took my UK licence and gave me a licence with entitlement to drive only cars I considered that I had lost my UK licence to drive everything else.

I still wished to drive larger vehicles, so I wrote to DVLA stating that my licence had been lost and they sent me another one...................

This was never queried, so, if they are supposed to send exchanged licences back to the country of issue, the system ain't working.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Nomoss said:


> It's a while ago, but after Trafico took my UK licence and gave me a licence with entitlement to drive only cars I considered that I had lost my UK licence to drive everything else.
> 
> I still wished to drive larger vehicles, so I wrote to DVLA stating that my licence had been lost and they sent me another one...................
> 
> This was never queried, so, if they are supposed to send exchanged licences back to the country of issue, the system ain't working.



But presumably you were still using a UK address? DVLA won't send them to Spain will they?


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## Nomoss (Nov 25, 2016)

Alcalaina said:


> But presumably you were still using a UK address? DVLA won't send them to Spain will they?


Yes, I used an address in the UK.


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## Megsmum (Sep 9, 2012)

Confused. Don’t you have to be resident in Spain to have a driving licence here and Vicky vercky for Spain.?


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## Nomoss (Nov 25, 2016)

Megsmum said:


> Confused. Don’t you have to be resident in Spain to have a driving licence here and Vicky vercky for Spain.?


I assume you mean vice-versa for the UK.

I was resident in Spain but we still had a house in the UK, occupied by our family.

DVLA didn't ask me if I was resident.


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## Megsmum (Sep 9, 2012)

Nomoss said:


> I assume you mean vice-versa for the UK.
> 
> I was resident in Spain but we still had a house in the UK, occupied by our family.
> 
> DVLA didn't ask me if I was resident.


Ok so you’re not resident in UK but got a licence. 

Thought that was the case as I was clearly told by DVLA not resident no UK licence


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## Nomoss (Nov 25, 2016)

Megsmum said:


> Ok so you’re not resident in UK but got a licence.
> 
> Thought that was the case as I was clearly told by DVLA not resident no UK licence



As I said, they didn't ask me, and I don't offer information I'm not asked for.

I find it makes life simpler


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Megsmum said:


> Confused. Don’t you have to be resident in Spain to have a driving licence here and Vicky vercky for Spain.?


Yes that's right. But people don't always play by the rules, do they.


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## Nomoss (Nov 25, 2016)

Alcalaina said:


> Yes that's right. But people don't always play by the rules, do they.



Not even those who run the country.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Nomoss said:


> Not even those who run the country.


True!


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