Exchanging a U.K. driving licence

Hi, that was me.

Opposite the police station on the Roquetas 'high street' (Av. Roquetas) there is a sign on an apartment block saying something about Arms certification. They also do the driving license tests. It's on the first floor, just walk in. I think they need a photo.

Then, make an appointment with the DGT in Almeria (we got someone else to do this bit - it's the hardest part).

There's an underground car park right next door in Almeria. Go in the main entrance, turn right, enter your appointment details in the machine in front of you as you walk in, and wait your turn. They'll give you a form to fill in (unfortunately in Spanish) and ask for a photo.

They'll give you an A4 piece of paper which serves as your temporary license until the real one turns up in the post.

Oh, and they'll keep your UK license.

Hope this helps.

Brian.

Thanks so much Brian! I don’t know why the original post & reply was removed by the forum, guess it was the admin. Anyway we are good to go now, we have photos, and DGT appointments. I think that there is a time-limit after we get the medical certification, we have to present them to DGT within a specific period but we don’t know what it is. Might you know that?

TIA!

Don't know, sorry. I went a couple of days later.

Best of luck,

Brian.

We went to the place above in Roquetas and got the medicals done today. €72 altogether for both of us. The medical is in two parts: an eye test of symbol recognition, and a test of ability to assess stopping distance at different speeds using a red blob on a screen that goes behind a fixed column, you press a button to indicate when you think the blob will reappear. At any rate we both passed! Next week we are at DGT to hand over our U.K. licences.

For anyone renewing UK licences in Almería, thought I'd post our experience this morning. We turned up at the appointed time at DGT office in Almería having got cita previas online. Go to the machine, put in your details (NIE's for us) get a ticket and wait your turn. Nice lady behind the counter did our renewal applications together although we had made separate appointments, just in case. 

Needed - UK licences and copies; passports and copies of photo pages, little green residence cards and copies (take copies of everything, basically!) medical certificates of fitness to drive which we did last week and 1 mini passport photo each of the correct size. 

She kept our passport and residence card copies and gave us back the originals. We went to the ayuntamiento yesterday to update our padrón as it was issued last June, however, the Trafico woman didn't ask for it. She gave us the talón foto form to fill in and sign. 

All very quick and efficient and we now each have a temporary document that allows us to drive while we wait for our licences to arrive via Correos. We paid at the counter with a debit card - €24.10 each. 

Having heard a couple of horror stories about dealing with DGT in general, I have to say the lady who dealt with us was lovely, however, I guess a lot of that is to do with making sure you have everything you need plus relevant copies. A positive experience!

My wife’s Spanish is improving all the time (mine is very basic) so that helped as the assistant spoke only Spanish. We parked in the adjacent underground parking, we were away an hour and it cost less than 2 euros. There are two entrances, we went in wrong one originally but were redirected.

My experience was similar. I was impressed by how smoothly everything went. If you go in the right entrance, then it's immediately on the right. It's very easy with the car park being so close by.

My only gripe was having to watch videos of how to negotiate roundabouts for 15 minutes while I waited (just joking).

My license arrived in the post in about a week. You didn't mention that they keep the British one. To be expected.

P.S. There's a tobacconist close by where you can get photocopies, if you forget one.

Thankyou for an incredibly helpful description and when my time comes I shall follow your example!

I just wanted to add one detail, my husband and I went to Almeria and exchanged our licences yesterday.

I only had categories A&B and my licence was due to expire in 2028.

Whether you need a license renewal or exchange, you MUST have a medical. There is a "centro medico" 2 minutes from the trafico office where they charged me 36 euros for mine. They have a blue and white sign, to get in you go down some steps.

We had a very kind and helpful lady helping us at the trafico office, she happened to speak English but we had gone prepared with anything we might need to say written down in Spanish as we're still learning the language.

Beware, if you have youre medical and the hand eye co-ordination tests and pass, state youre categories and have youre picture taken, its all only valid for 3 months as I found to my dismay when I didnt follow through and exchange my licence.