We went to the police station yesterday to apply for our Swiss licenses and everything went well until the gentlemen at the counter explained that our MD drivers licenses do not specify when were obtained our formal drivers test, some 25 years ago. Anyone from the U.S. can explain how much fun our motor vehicle administration offices are to visit and now I have to contact them and ask for proof of my original drivers test from 1981 and 1984 for both my wife and I. We were taken there by our relocation coordinator and she said she has never been asked this. Has anyone else ever run into this issue and if so how did you obtain the original copies?

I've heard of them doing this if you just renewed your license before moving to Switzerland. A letter from the license department in Maryland verifying the date of when you got your first license should be sufficient.

If it makes you feel any better, it's easier to deal with it here than it used to be to get a license when you moved to a different state in the US. When I moved to Santa Barbara when I was in grad school, I had to take the written driver's exam.