Spanish driving licence

Validity of your "European" driving licence when you take up residence in Spain

We have written about this in the past and it is still a point of discussion: the Spanish driving licence. Who needs it, what are the conditions and how can you get it?

On the DGT website, you will find an extensive page of text and links on this subject, which in our opinion is not easy to decipher. The link can be found below.

However, there is also another Spanish government website that communicates the information released by DGT in a slightly lighter way to the reader. This link can also be found below.

In this article, we will elaborate on what the last source tells us. If you read under the heading Validity of an EU driving licence, you can read there the conditions for when you should claim a Spanish driving licence once you have become a resident.

Mandatory or not

Firstly, you are completely free to choose to exchange your current European valid driving licence with a Spanish driving licence (also European valid). There is no obligation for you to exchange your driving licence. If you do not wish to drive any more, you do not need to exchange your driving licence. However, if you wish to continue driving your vehicle, there are rules that apply.

As it is written, after your residency you must apply for (exchange) a Spanish driving license if you wish to continue driving around. The period in which you need to do this can vary. If you have a driving license of indefinite duration or one that is valid for more than 15 years, you must do the conversion within 2 years of your residency (we are talking about AM, A1, A2, A, B and BE).

Another reason to renew your driver's license to a Spanish one is in case of loss, theft, or that the license expires within 2 years. You cannot renew the driving license in the previous country of residence because you are no longer registered there.

Here comes the point of discussion or the cause of confusion. In Belgium we still know the paper version and also the newer card version. On both, the validity of your driver's license(proof that you can drive a vehicle) is on mostly UNLIMITED. However, the major difference between the two is that the card version has an ADMINISTRATIVE VALIDITY and the paper version does not. Is the Administrative validity the same as the validity of your driver's license? Because in reality we may interpret that the proof you have obtained on the ability to drive a vehicle is valid indefinitely. What the difference is we leave to the experts in traffic law within Europe).