Exchanging an Irish driving license for a UK driving license

Vitriol19

Hi all,
I'm struggling to find an answer to this on google but has anyone recently exchanged an Irish license for a UK one? Did you have to submit proof of residency in the UK for more than 6 months?
Thanks!

Losty Dublin

E mail the DVLa on this form and they should get back to you with details.

https://emaildvla.direct.gov.uk/emaildvla/cegemail/dvla/en/driver_6_30.html

Vitriol19

Losty Dublin wrote: »

E mail the DVLa on this form and they should get back to you with details.

https://emaildvla.direct.gov.uk/emaildvla/cegemail/dvla/en/driver_6_30.html

Thanks a million

Alun

You do realize that if you move to the UK you can continue to drive on your Irish licence until it expires don't you? No need to swap it at all if you don't want to.

Vitriol19

Alun wrote: »

You do realize that if you move to the UK you can continue to drive on your Irish licence until it expires don't you? No need to swap it at all if you don't want to.

Yes I do, but I do wish to swap it provided there isn't a huge amount of work involved

Barely Hedged

Alun wrote: »

You do realize that if you move to the UK you can continue to drive on your Irish licence until it expires don't you? No need to swap it at all if you don't want to.

Not correct:
You can drive in Great Britain on a full, valid driving licence from another EU country until you’re 70, or for 3 years after becoming resident in Great Britain, whichever is longer.

Alun

First time I've seen that. There are EU wide (and that includes the UK) rules for the mutual recognition of EU driving licences as I outlined above. The only exception is if the normal validity period in the new country is shorter than that in your home country, in which case you have to renew it early. There's nothing in the rules about if the destination country has a longer validity period, or just a cutoff age, as in the UK's case.

So it would appear that if you go to the UK (and are less than 67) you can keep your Irish licence until you're 70 ... odd.

EDIT: that makes no sense .. this would imply you can carry on driving in the UK with what is effectively an expired licence. How would you then drive abroad on holidays, or even then exchange it for another EU licence if you moved elsewhere within the EU. It doesn't make sense to me.

Barely Hedged

Alun wrote: »

First time I've seen that. There are EU wide (and that includes the UK) rules for the mutual recognition of EU driving licences as I outlined above. The only exception is if the normal validity period in the new country is shorter than that in your home country, in which case you have to renew it early. There's nothing in the rules about if the destination country has a longer validity period, or just a cutoff age, as in the UK's case.

So it would appear that if you go to the UK (and are less than 67) you can keep your Irish licence until you're 70 ... odd.

EDIT: that makes no sense .. this would imply you can carry on driving in the UK with what is effectively an expired licence. How would you then drive abroad on holidays, or even then exchange it for another EU licence if you moved elsewhere within the EU. It doesn't make sense to me.

https://www.gov.uk/exchange-a-foreign-driving-licence

Carawaystick

Barely Hedged wrote: »

https://www.gov.uk/exchange-a-foreign-driving-licence

That link is for gb licenses though...

mdebets

Alun wrote: »

First time I've seen that. There are EU wide (and that includes the UK) rules for the mutual recognition of EU driving licences as I outlined above. The only exception is if the normal validity period in the new country is shorter than that in your home country, in which case you have to renew it early. There's nothing in the rules about if the destination country has a longer validity period, or just a cutoff age, as in the UK's case.

So it would appear that if you go to the UK (and are less than 67) you can keep your Irish licence until you're 70 ... odd.

EDIT: that makes no sense .. this would imply you can carry on driving in the UK with what is effectively an expired licence. How would you then drive abroad on holidays, or even then exchange it for another EU licence if you moved elsewhere within the EU. It doesn't make sense to me.

I do think, Barely Hedged is correct and the rules are within the EU rules, he has just written it a little bit awkwardly.

An expired Irish license is no longer valid, so you have to get a new one if you live in the UK.
It's get slightly different, when you reach 70, as your UK license would (AFAIK) expire at that point and you need to apply for a new one with stricter checks. If you have a non UK license, it would also expire at that point, as per the EU rules, but it looks like they give you an extra 3 years of grace period (probably for countries that don't have this rule).

Barely Hedged

Carawaystick wrote: »

That link is for gb licenses though...

The question was how do you exchange your Irish licence for a UK one...

Barely Hedged

mdebets wrote: »

I do think, Barely Hedged is correct and the rules are within the EU rules, he has just written it a little bit awkwardly.

An expired Irish license is no longer valid, so you have to get a new one if you live in the UK.
It's get slightly different, when you reach 70, as your UK license would (AFAIK) expire at that point and you need to apply for a new one with stricter checks. If you have a non UK license, it would also expire at that point, as per the EU rules, but it looks like they give you an extra 3 years of grace period (probably for countries that don't have this rule).

I just did a copy and paste job from the DVLA website when you follow the link I pasted above. You are also correct in what you say though

Carawaystick

Barely Hedged wrote: »

The question was how do you exchange your Irish licence for a UK one...

Yes, which is why I pointed out that the link is only for a GB License. GB is not the same as UK.

Barely Hedged

Carawaystick wrote: »

Yes, which is why I pointed out that the link is only for a GB License. GB is not the same as UK.

Are you serious about the semantics of that statement? If you went through the link you would see that it specifies NI as special case along with the CI.

The post got answered fully - you contributed nothing but a childish statement.

kingshankly

I did this last year had to send of my driving license to dvla a lot of people will get a second southern one before had (calming it lost) to have the 2

monument

Barely Hedged wrote: »

Are you serious about the semantics of that statement? If you went through the link you would see that it specifies NI as special case along with the CI.

The post got answered fully - you contributed nothing but a childish statement.

Please read the charter -- and please don't post again before you do.

- Mod

Carawaystick

Barely Hedged wrote: »

Are you serious about the semantics of that statement? If you went through the link you would see that it specifies NI as special case along with the CI.

The post got answered fully - you contributed nothing but a childish statement.

The OP asked about getting a license from the UK. The link was for a part of that kingdom. A prime minister of that kingdom stated plainly that the non-gb parts of that kingdom were the same as the gb parts. There is nothing on the linked page to clearly show it is for all ukgbani residents.
In fact if you follow thorough and click on the start now button, you are asked are you a resident of great britain. If you click No, you are told you can't exchange your license.
I presume by "CI" you mean the Channel Islands, these aren't part of the ukgbani, and are irrelevant.

Barely Hedged

Carawaystick wrote: »

The OP asked about getting a license from the UK. The link was for a part of that kingdom. A prime minister of that kingdom stated plainly that the non-gb parts of that kingdom were the same as the gb parts. There is nothing on the linked page to clearly show it is for all ukgbani residents.
In fact if you follow thorough and click on the start now button, you are asked are you a resident of great britain. If you click No, you are told you can't exchange your license.
I presume by "CI" you mean the Channel Islands, these aren't part of the ukgbani, and are irrelevant.

Is a driving licence issued in NI not come with "UK" on it? A licence issued in GB has "UK" on it. Seems they use the terms interchangeably.

In the link above, if you say you are not a resident of the it returns the message:
Sorry, you can't exchange your driving licence because you're not a resident of Great Britain.


You may be able to drive in the UK for up to 12 months on your foreign licence.


The DVLA doesnt seem to make any distinction between GB and UK given the licence's are issued with UK on them and the last 2nd paragraph from above.


I dont understand the point you are making in regard to "A prime minister of that kingdom stated plainly that the non-gb parts of that kingdom were the same as the gb parts". Does that not confirm what i have said? Surely the fact that it is the UK governments website indicates that its for "ukgbani" residents information purposes and any further explanation of that fact in each page is unecessary?

iopener

Is a driving licence issued in NI not come with "UK" on it? A licence issued in GB has "UK" on it. Seems they use the terms interchangeably.


i changed my southern( republic of ireland if that's the way you like it called)driving license last year my northern license (northern ireland/NI/GB/UK what ever you want to call the six counties) i can confirm it does have UK in the middle of the european flag the same way the irish licence has IRL. you do have to provide proof of residence, bank account and house hold utility bill no mobile phone bills will do, the bank account statement must be within the previous 3 months of application date and stamped from your local bank branch, driving licences are an important piece of identification so do have necessary security checks