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Hi all
Wondering if anyone knows if you can get an International Driving Permit in Spain. We have been told we need to get a Spanish licence, and been informed when we do they take your english licence off you, so a bit reluctant to do it. So could an IDP be the answer.
Many thanks for any input
Marian
Posted: Tue May 21, 2019 4:28pm
Very helpful member
You will receive a temporary licence until the Spanish one arrives.
If you have Residencia and are living in Spain permanently you are obliged to exchange your UK license for the Spanish equivalent, this will involve a medical check and the surrender of your UK license...if you are here on a temporary basis you do not need to do so but what effect Brexit will have remains to be seen...
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Posted: Tue May 21, 2019 9:14pm
Legendary helpful member
Short answer - no, as previous posters pointed out, if you are resident here, you must surrender your U.K. Licence in favour of a Spanish one. An IDP is at this time only useful for countries outside the EU - it remains valid for 12 months and MUST be obtained in the country from which you are traveling - i.e. you can’t get an IDP issued in Spain, to drive in Spain. That aside, the validity of an IDP ceases if you take Residencia as you then need to obtain a local licence.
You are obliged to obtain Residencia if it is your intention to spend more than 90 days in any 180 day period resident in Spain
Posted: Wed May 22, 2019 10:23am
Thanks for all the info. Looks like we are going to have to get Spanish licence, as we do have our residencies. Hope irs easy lol.
Posted: Thu May 23, 2019 8:48am
Super helpful member
It’s not hard to do this yourself at Almeria City DGT (Trafico). If you also have some Spanish it can help.
You need to get the medicals done first, a few weeks before your DGT appointment. The medicals are two things: a computer screen test of your ability to judge speeds; and a simple sight test.
As Dario says, if you live here in Spain you don’t need an IDP and your EU driving licence covers you everywhere in the EU (and indeed the world) including the U.K. Fortunately Brexit seems unlikely to happen but if it does then the U.K. govt has said that the U.K. will accept EU driving licences.
We sadly got a speeding fine a day after obtaining our Spanish licences - no connection! But we were relieved that we had the temporary Spanish licence documents in the car to show, as if we had not exchanged our UK licences for Spanish ones we could have been fined more...
Chris
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