Hi all,
I'm getting contradictory advise about converting my UK licence......I am a UK citizen, working in Switzerland. I am a resident of both the UK and Switzerland, and I will need to drive frequently in both countries. If I convert my UK issued licence to a Swiss licence, which of the following will happen 1) my UK licence will be returned to ME in Switzerland noting that it is no longer valid in Switzerland, and a Swiss licence can be issued, or 2) my UK licence will be returned to the UK authorities and will be invalid anywhere. If it's 1) above, then no problem, I still have it to drive in the Uk. If it's B) above, then I won't be able to drive in the UK. Anyone have a definitive answer please.......Thanks

Hi,

When I converted my UK license to the Swiss license they took my beloved pink card and I have never seen it since. This does not stop you from driving in the UK as I have done several times since converting, but what it does is makes it more difficult to get UK insurance as most companies do not want to insure. Post-brexit I am not sure if that has changed anything as unfortunately I have not been able to get back thanks to Ms Sturgeon up in the north!

Unless someone corrects me it is 2). A Swiss licence is vaild in the UK so you can drive there. Should not be any problem.

If you convert your UK license it might very likely be returned to Swansea as explained in the {FEDRO circular license exchange} . In General this only applies to EU/EFTA countries but there are also some other countries like Tunesia, Taiwan, and special Jersey on the list which have never been part of the EU/EFTA. Hence, I suspect it will be returned also post Brexit.

If you have a permit G, than there is no need to convert the license. If you have a permit B you must apply for a exemption based on No. 127 of ASA directive 1. You will need to go back to the UK at least for 2 consecutive days twice each month. If this still does not apply you just have to hope for an exemption or acquire a Swiss license from scratch.

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It wont be valid when you are a UK resident in the same sense as a UK license is not valid in Switzerland if you are a Swiss resident. In addition UK car insurer are quite picky in this regard.

Thanks for all your help.........So, it looks like if I want to keep my UK licence, I can drive in Switzerland for a year after registering in my Canton. If I want to drive in Switzerland after that, I must take a driving test (written and road test) so that I can hold a Swiss licence in addition to my UK licence. The one year period is reset if I spend 3 months consecutively in the UK. Is that correct?

Hello. I got a driving license from an EU country after I became a Swiss resident. As far as I understand, I need to go through the usual process of getting a Swiss driving license. My question is, what exactly of the whole process I can spare? If I understand correctly, the practical classes are not mandatory. What about the VKU test?

Thank you and sorry if this has been asked before.

Help needed. My case is a bit specific. I obtained my drivers license in Croatia where I was born and exchanged it for NY state one two years ago (gave away my Croatian one to DMW NY). Recently I moved to Switzerland (canton Vaud) and not sure what to do. Should I contact DMW in hope they still have my Croatian one or should I exchange NY DL for Swiss one? I’m not US citizen!

Thanks a lot in advance

My guess is to just go with NY one which you have now, since Croatian one is cancelled anyway.

I'm from Croatia, moved to Germany, did licence exchange and I even cannot easily get Croatian one since I changed my residency (prebivalište) to Germany and I have Croatian ID with german address
So, when I come to CH, I'll just give them DE one and get CH one. At least that's what I expect is the process. But cannot confirm since I haven't done it yet and won't for several more months until I come.

I'd go to your local office here in Vaud and ask them what they want.
I think you could be in a disadvantage only if CH doesn't automatically accept NY ones, I have no clue. But they should know what they accept or not

And if they don't accept, eg you'd have to redo tests or something, and if you still have residency in Croatia (prebivalište HR but boravište USA), then you probably can go back to Croatia and request reissueing one.
Depending on the CH prices if you need to do things all over, even if you don't have resicendy/prebivalište anymore it might be worth regaining it, do the documents and then discarding it again

I just know for sure that if your residency/prebivalište isn't Croatia anymore, you cannot get drivers licence reissued.
I had some issues with mine so had to use connections to find out what's going one, and along the way found out other stuff like this one.

I'm not 100% sure on years, but... I believe if your most recent license was issued fewer than 3 years ago you will be issued with a provisional license unless you can prove you've been driving longer. At the very least it impacts insurance rates.

When I moved here, my latest U.S. license was not very old. In order to convert without issues, the Swiss wanted an extract of my driving record, which proved I'd been driving on a full adult license since age 16.

Do you have a photocopy of your old Croatian license, or can you obtain a driving record extract from Croatia?

So, US licences don't show the date when you passed your exam, just the date of issueing?
That definitely sounds like a problem. German ones have both dates, as Croatian ones too...

My UK Paper one shows the Car test date & online you can print off the various dates / Groups & current validity. Quite amusing as it should have been cancelled when exchanged for a Swiss license in 1994, that for some reason did not show my 7.5 ton entitlement I had due to the year I took my test.

Since my Swiss license became an Eu license, I believe I may be able to reactivate the UK license if I live in the UK yet retain the EU one too. ( Now there is a benefit of BREXIT JackieH as I know you will be watching )

Correct, at least not in the two states where I received licenses. In both cases, it only has a date issued and an expiration date.

Update:

I received my Swiss dl with B, BE and F categories with no restrictions. Also they returned me my US dl with sticker not valid in Switzerland. Thanks for your generous help.

I have a silly question that prolly has been answered many times here.

I have UK license, can I exchange it to Swiss post Brexit without any theory tests ?

I currently have two valid licenses (both happy countries), one in Japan, and one in New York.

The Japanese license is of course, in Japanese. Unfortunately, even the dates are in Japanese, showing that it was issued in the year 26 of the glorious Emperor Heisei's reign, which would be 2014 in the rest of the world, as well as the renewal, dated year 2 of the glorious Emperor Reiwa's reign, aka 2020.

The New York one, which I have had for forty years, with frequent renewals, only shows the issuing date (June 2021), and the expiration date (2028).

My questions are as follows:

Any ideas where how I can obtain the year my NY license was issued, in an acceptable format for the Swiss authorities of Geneva or Vaud? I'm sure NY will send me an email with the information, but I'm not sure that that will be acceptable. I'm in Japan currently and can't go to a DMV in person.

Or, do I need to get a translation done of my Japanese license, and that leads to the following problems: can this be done in Geneva? Notaries are shockingly unavailable and if found can run hundreds of Francs in Japan. And it's highly unlikely that a French translation can be done in (my non Tokyo part of ) Japan, so if I can get an English translation, would that work? My thought is possibly getting a translation done at the JAS and hope they've got an official looking stamp (similar to the US AAA - automotive association).

Thanks!!!

Hello sir,
First of all i appreciate your explanation and the very helpful informations , i have only one question, i am from the non happy countries, and im new in switzerland, and have a still have my moroccan driving licence im driving my wife’s car right now in switzerland, my question is can i drive my wife’s car also through the CH/DE borders to go train in a gym and comeback home ?
I would appreciate your answer ?

Thank you

We recently moved here from the US and are trying to figure out the order of things related to cars and licenses. We are currently in the process of changing cantons from ZUR to AR and are also planning to buy a used car (and to a certain degree kinda need to do it all at once as we will be more car dependent in our new home). It looks like, with the timing of the canton change and relevant paperwork, it makes the most sense for us to delay purchasing a car until we are within 2 weeks of our move or right after we move (so that we can register it in the new canton) and to exchange our licenses to Swiss licenses after we move as well. My question is whether we can purchase and insure a used car in Switzerland before we have exchanged our licenses. Can we go through the purchase and insurance and registration steps using our US licenses and then exchange our licenses after that? (We are well within the 12-month window). Thanks so much in advance!

Buying a car (used or new), getting insurance, and registering a car -> these are all separate from the driving license. You can do all these even without a DL.
I don't see any issue for you. And since you are within the 12-month window, you can drive the car home with your US DL.

Awesome! Thank you!