Hello,

My wife went to get her Swiss Driving Licence today and it was all fine.

However they kept her UK driving license and gave her a photocopy of it. They asid they would send this back to the DVLA for her.

IS this normal as we are slightly concerned?

Hope someone can tell me it is the normal thing!!

cheers
Chris

yes normal

Yep, new policy apparently for all converted licenses. If you need your UK one back, you'll have to apply in the UK.

They sent mine back to Canada which is a problem for me as they wouldn't convert my bike license... and now I can't get it back without crossing the water.

Yep normal, happened to us too

We did this last Monday and the new Licence arrived on Wednesday. The stamped temporary licence is only good for Switzerland so no jaunting off to France till you get the new one

F

although my gf got hers back (US one with a sticker on it) a few months ago Im gonna see when I convert mine also to get it back as I drive belgian plated cars often( app it is illegal to drive with a different license then your plates in a foreign country......

thanks everyone for the replies, i feel happy now i know!!

cheers
chris

Only normal in the EU.

I have a US license and asked for it back. I explained that I might be moving back there and the chap stamped it on the back "Not valable en Suisse," and returned it to me then and there.

Very straight forward. Can't explain why they did this to you. Of course, I did ask at the outset. So maybe that is the reason.

The UK will always have a record of her having had one but my EU license did not get returned to the country it came from, I got a pcopy for posterity but the original never surfaced again...

What he said (and others...)

LOL. Define "new". They did it to me when I handed mine in 10 years ago...

I guess there is a difference between US and UK licenses because my husband and I (US) simply asked to keep ours right there at the counter and they stamped them and gave them right back.

Hope you receive yours back soon.

I once read either on the DVLA site or direct.gov.uk, that when you return you would apply if you want to renew your licence, enclose your foreign one and then you will be returned the British one with your original DVLA licence number. Never tried it though

There is a difference between EU and US.
I wanted to get my old one back but they said there was no way I could keep it, neither cancelled nor stamped nor when I returned to it's country... I did get a new one issued eventually when I went back, but with difficulty-they didn't understand how Switzerland could confiscate my original one...

Are you a UK national Mabern? I ask only because I know several people who've returned to the UK and had no problem converting surrendering their Swiss licence to DVLA and getting back a UK one.

Chris yes this is normal, happened to our UK licenses too. There was going to be a slightly more restrictive swiss license issued, could have been minibuses excluded (can't remember exactly now), without a more extensive medical than standard. We paid for this extra so that the licenses are equivalent and it should be able to swap back if we return. Hope this helps.