If you are a British driver living in Spain, or a Spanish driver living in the UK, you can now exchange your driving license for a local one. This closes a gap that had been open since Brexit.
After Brexit, this kind of license exchange was frozen. That left many British residents in Spain unable to convert their UK license into a Spanish one. This week, Spain and the UK signed a cooperation agreement to fix that, and Spain's Council of Ministers has approved it.
What the agreement covers
The agreement allows Spain and the UK to recognize and exchange each other's driving licenses, and it also lets the two countries share information on traffic offenses to support road safety.
There are two situations covered:
- If your exchange process was already underway but got frozen after Brexit, it can now go ahead.
- If you are starting a new exchange, your license needs to have been issued in the country where you were legally resident at the time.
What this means for you
If you are a British citizen living in Spain and your driving license was never recognized, either before Brexit or during the extensions granted since, you can now apply for the exchange. This became possible from Thursday, March 16th.
To give people time to sort out the paperwork at their local traffic office, there is a six-month window during which British citizens can keep driving in Spain on their original license while the exchange is being processed.
