Surrendering Irish Driving Licence Abroad

ondadole

Hi all;
As a holder of a full Irish driving licence I have a question about surrendering my driving licence in Canada. I'm in the process of moving to Canada and in certain states, that I'm aware of, in order to get a Canadian driving licence, by that I mean, in order to sit the exam, one must surrender their Irish one.
Now my question is this; seeing as Canada and Ireland do not hold any agreement on issuing driving licences, and seeing as I will have to do a driving test as well as surrender my Irish licence, will I have to resit my test when I return to Ireland?

coylemj

Why surrender your driving licence if you have to do the exam? Just tell them you have no licence in Ireland. If you're starting from scratch anyway I see no reason to surrender your Irish driving licence so just pretend you don't have one, unless having an existing full licence allows you to avoid some prerequisite training or driving tests.

Anyway, even if you did surrender the Irish licence, when you come home you can just report your Irish licence lost and apply for a new one, problem solved.

ondadole

coylemj wrote: »

Why surrender your driving licence if you have to do the exam? Just tell them you have no licence in Ireland. If you're starting from scratch anyway I see no reason to surrender your Irish driving licence so just pretend you don't have one, unless having an existing full licence allows you to avoid some prerequisite training or driving tests.

Anyway, even if you did surrender the Irish licence, when you come home you can just report your Irish licence lost and apply for a new one, problem solved.

Yep; apparently surrendering the existing licence does mean one would avoid "starting from scratch" - so to speak.

anthony4335

Surrender it ,and have a replacement ordered stating you lost it while on hols, you only need to have the Gards sign the form.

ssa2010

Hi folks,

I have held a full Irish driving licence for the last 5 years and I will be moving permanently to Canada (Alberta) later on this year. I am thinking of minimizing the stress of having to sit the Alberta multi-staged driving tests all over again and to safe time by exchanging my Irish DL for a UK-DL, seeing as UK has a reciprocal arrangement with the province of Alberta.

Here's the catch: Alberta requires that the Uk -DL should have been valid for 2 years prior to exchanging it. The question is if i exchange my Irish-DL to UK-DL, will the UK-DL have the same validity (as in 'valid from' date) as my Irish licence or will it be valid from the date I exchange it?

Also, how easy is it to change over to UK-DL and also what is the process involved in changing UK-DL to Alberta DL. I will like anyone who has experience in this regards to share them please.

galwaytt

ssa2010 wrote: »

Hi folks,

I have held a full Irish driving licence for the last 5 years and I will be moving permanently to Canada (Alberta) later on this year. I am thinking of minimizing the stress of having to sit the Alberta multi-staged driving tests all over again and to safe time by exchanging my Irish DL for a UK-DL, seeing as UK has a reciprocal arrangement with the province of Alberta.

Here's the catch: Alberta requires that the Uk -DL should have been valid for 2 years prior to exchanging it. The question is if i exchange my Irish-DL to UK-DL, will the UK-DL have the same validity (as in 'valid from' date) as my Irish licence or will it be valid from the date I exchange it?

Also, how easy is it to change over to UK-DL and also what is the process involved in changing UK-DL to Alberta DL. I will like anyone who has experience in this regards to share them please.

Well, how long do you have, before you have to surrender it ? If not immediately, then maybe you'll have your UK licence 2 years by the time you actually HAVE to surrender it, in which case, problem solved..........

Now, I did hear, anecdotally, of what someone claimed to have done........they bought an International Licence...........and surrendered that instead, and kept their domestic one........

ssa2010

ssa2010 wrote: »

Here's the catch: Alberta requires that the Uk -DL should have been valid for 2 years prior to exchanging it. The question is if i exchange my Irish-DL to UK-DL, will the UK-DL have the same validity (as in 'valid from' date) as my Irish licence or will it be valid from the date I exchange it?

I exchanged my Irish licence for UK one when I was living there, the back of my UK licence states the "Valid from" as being the date I passed my test in Ireland.

ssa2010 wrote: »

Also, how easy is it to change over to UK-DL

It was very straight forward to change over. I was living there at the time (just about to move home actually ) but I think I commented at the time that I could have changed over if I was living there or not once I had an address to use. The one thing I can't remember is if I had to provide my NI number (PPSN number here). I just went to a DVLA office with the form, I think they required my passport and I had to surrender my Irish licence and it cost £50 it was a very easy process.

Marcusm

ssa2010 wrote: »

Hi folks,

I have held a full Irish driving licence for the last 5 years and I will be moving permanently to Canada (Alberta) later on this year. I am thinking of minimizing the stress of having to sit the Alberta multi-staged driving tests all over again and to safe time by exchanging my Irish DL for a UK-DL, seeing as UK has a reciprocal arrangement with the province of Alberta.

Here's the catch: Alberta requires that the Uk -DL should have been valid for 2 years prior to exchanging it. The question is if i exchange my Irish-DL to UK-DL, will the UK-DL have the same validity (as in 'valid from' date) as my Irish licence or will it be valid from the date I exchange it?

Also, how easy is it to change over to UK-DL and also what is the process involved in changing UK-DL to Alberta DL. I will like anyone who has experience in this regards to share them please.

You need to be UK resident to obtain a UK licence whether by exchange or otherwise

CiniO

Marcusm wrote: »

You need to be UK resident to obtain a UK licence whether by exchange or otherwise

The same requirement in Ireland when exchanging foreign licence for Irish one. You have to be resident in Ireland.

However when I swapped my Polish licence for Irish licence, no one ever checked my residency status. I just filled in the form and got licence 2 weeks later in the post. Possibly it works similar in UK.