I'm 27 years old and from Belgium. Been driving a car (b license) since I was 18. Here I Belgium with a B license you can drive motorcycles up to 125cc.

I heard that you need a license for this in Switzerland. My question now is what do I need to do to obtain a 125cc license? And what for a full moto license? I heard that the difference was rather small.

When does one get intimated about this course? Do they tell you that you have to take them when you exchange the license, or do they intimate you later through mail?

I exchanged my license in Feb 2010 (had got the original license in March 2007), but haven't been told to do a course till date

I was converting my Indian driving license to a Swiss One.

I completed my driving practical test succesfully today in STVA Zürich. The Kontroll person who came for the test was very friendly and was speaking a bit of English as well, which helped a lot.

Thanks to English forum folks for giving useful tips and suggestions .

I have no idea mate sorry. I can ask the girl at work who had to do it. It may be canton specific though?

Hi - I have a question that I hope hasn't already been covered (I have checked most of the thread but it is LONG!).

I have been here for almost 12 mths now and so need to surrender my UK license for a Swiss one. However.....we plan to stay out here 2-3 years max and I travel frequently back to the UK and keep my old car there still. If I have surrendered my UK licence will this invalidate it and thus render my UK car insurance invalid??

My husband has changed his licence already - however has 2 paper licences (he lost it a few years back so requested a copy and then found the original) so has surrendered the original paper one and kept the copy. He has suggested I do the same but I really don't think this will work?

Has anyone any ideas / thoughts? Does anyone reading this also keep a car in the UK, if so how do they insure it?

Many thanks

Your Swiss driving license will be issued and because the UK is in the EU, your UK driving license will be sent back to the DVLA and cancelled.

Why will your UK insurance be invalid? Change companies and say that your main residence is now in Switzerland!

When you eventually go back to the UK, you will have to surrender your Swiss license and swap it for a UK one. We registered a Swiss car on its chassis number with direct line, before importing it into the UK. Try Direct Line.

A lot of, all I think, insurance companies in the UK only insurance Uk residents

As far as I know, your UK Insurance will not be invalidted because you now have a Swiss License.

I am in the same situation as are a few friends, we all have Swiss licenses and all have Cars in the UK and travel back and forth regularly.

I did call my insurance company and there was no problem as long as it was either an EC country or Swiss it was acceptable.

Call your insurance company and ask the question, it's the safest call and ask for them to put it in writing.

I think you may have a problem explaining to the Brit DVLA why you are only changing your licence after twelve years and when you no longer live there! They also have a rule that you have to exchange after a year, but not being Swiss, they have no idea how to enforce it... and have no idea how long you have been in (or out) of the country. If you still have a valid UK address it could work.... I was back in SA recently in JHB and CPT...I had forgotten the fun and games on the roads!

Your UK insurance is probably already invalid on the grounds that you are no longer a UK resident, home address no longer valid, etc - there's usually a requirement to inform them of changes of material facts like these. Perhaps a family member could insure the car for you, and have you added as an additional driver? Not sure if they ask the residency of additional drivers, but that might work.

Your husband's double licence trick doesn't work either, as you've no doubt worked out - when he did the swap, his UK licence would have been returned to the DVLA and cancelled. If he got stopped in the UK and tried to show his cancelled UK licence, it would show up as no longer valid, and it would therefore be the same infringement as driving without a valid licence. His Swiss licence is of course fine, assuming insurance is ok for whatever car he's driving.

If you've got a UK licence with additional categories - large vans, trailers, etc - then doing a basic swap will only put cars (Cat B, I think) on your Swiss licence (the other categories here are considered professional and require a medical). Once they've been removed, it's debatable whether you'd get them back upon returning to the UK as they are no longer issued as standard but are subject to additional driving tests. If this matters to you, then make sure you get them transferred onto your Swiss licence - it's quite easy, you need a basic medical from your doc (costs about 120 CHFs) and a sort of equivalent to a CRB check (order online, get in post a few days later), as well as the usual eye test. I wrote a big post about this further up the thread; searching key terms and 'kodokan' should dredge it up; it was about Jan 2010.

Good luck with it.

and buy a P plate?

You will get categories back when you return to the UK. They re-issue the original license entitlements.

I tried to exchange my license at the service des automobiles here in Lausanne (I am an Australian) and they asked for an attestation of when I completed my practical exam (over 10 years ago).

Has anyone else been asked for that - I was told that it was for US and Aus citizens only. However I know that friends in Zurich did not have to produce such a document and I have never heard of such a requirement before.

Any assistance would be very welcome! Thanks!

According to their webpage, in french:
http://www.vd.ch/fr/themes/mobilite/...nts-a-fournir/

See the 7th bullet of documents to submit, it says that in the case of renewable licenses (thus assuming yours or Australia has renewable licences), the administrating authorities need to provide an attenstation stipultating the dates of the exams as well as the categories that you possess.

Hey equitymate, did you manage to sort this out? I'm from Victoria and looking to swap over my licence in Geneva and am interested to know what you ended up doing.

Cheers.

We are in Zurich so not sure how great the differences are for the french part of CH but we had to:

Get a copy of our Aussie driving history - to show when we first were issued a driving license i.e. learners + what the 'c' class means + show what level we are at i.e. not learner/ not provisional / but full license.

This was because aussie licenses don't have an original issue date and here in Zurich the staff didnt know what a C class means on an Oz license.

We of course didnt have this document when we first went but they were super helpful and processed the application as far as they could and then we just faxed in the document when we got it and 2 days later it was all sorted.

UK > CH license in Vaud.

I did this recently and it was easy.

I got the form from here:
http://www.vd.ch/fileadmin/user_uplo...0220_V0909.pdf

Printed and filled it in myself.

Went just to an optician that I saw on the side of the road near my work. I spoke english with them and they filled out their bit on the form. 20 CHF.

Went to my commune and they checked the form and signed it. 4 CHF.

I put all the things listed here into an envelope and posted to the address in Lausanne (printed at the top of the form).
http://www.vd.ch/fileadmin/user_uplo...0220_V0909.pdf

Got my CH license in the post just 5 working days later (during the busy christmas run-up period!)

Got a bill the week after for 45CHF.

Easy.

Only one funny thing, on the license it has a valid to date that is just *********. Does that mean it's valid forever?

Hello jimdrake,
i am in very similar situation. Not coming from UK, but from Slovakia, I also need to swap licences. Which concrete optician did You visit? I do not know french almost at all, so the one You mentioned might be exactly what i need
So together whole procedure costed ~70 CHF?

Hi

Just contact Vicroads, they will send you a letter detailing your history, including any infringements, court cases etc.

This will have the date and info how long you were driving for and your driving competency. It only costs about 10 dollars, takes a few days to be sent via mail from OZ. Mine came really quick.

saiya-jin, you can use any Optician, they will know what you need. I walked into one in Morges, it took 10 minutes, they stamp the form and that's it.