I’m British and living in Spain – how can I prepare for Brexit?

A friend says he has been told by an Abogado here to wait until AFTER Brexit to swap his license for a Spanish one.

He’s done the illegal trick of reporting licence lost, so he ends up with two UK licenses.  He knows if he tries to swap now, DGT check with DVLA and will see that the licence has been reported missing and he will not be able to retain the other UK one.  He says he has been told to wait until after BREXIT when DGT and DVLA will no longer be linked and then they can’t check .... I think he has that a little skewed somehow - can anyone shed light on this please?

"He says he has been told to wait until after BREXIT when DGT and DVLA will no longer be linked and then they can’t check ...."

My supposition is that since Spain and the UK intend to maintain reciprocal health agreements post-any-Brexit then they are highly likely to do so regarding trafico stuff and maintain that DGT-DVLA link.

Aye - my thoughts were along those lines; failing that link being maintained, surely you’d no longer be able to just swap your licence and would have to re-take a test here ....,?

I can’t see how if the original UK  licence has been reported missing that it will

still be valid as surely it will be flagged up as void should it be presented for any reason!! 

Yup.  I told him that, but unfortunately some people just cannot be told ..... his reasoning is that he’ll present the licence that was reported missing to Tráfico post-Brexit and they will just swap the licence with no check with DVLA.  Yah. No, I don’t think so ....

Once you have Residencia, you have six months to change youre UK driving licence for a Spanish one.

It isnt strictly enforced, even with direct links between Spains DGT and the DVLA, but it could go down on any one day to what side of bed any particular officer got out of.

As for questions about Brexit, I'm considering buying a job lot of crystal balls if anyones interested, if the PM and UK ministers dont have much of a clue I could be on to a winner lol.

Not entirely sure about time limits re post Residencia and having to swap UK for Spanish licencies but am quite sure if you go beyond say 9 mths you will have to undergo Spanish driving test all over again.

We duplicated our UK licences as back up, just as we duplicated and shrunk our  passports, all legal.

Good idea about shrinking / laminating license.  I have scanned ours in, so similar effect I guess.   I also have separate note of the all important Driver Numbers.

Both if us have swapped to Spanish license now .... If you're selling any of them there Brexit Crystal Balls ........ (interesting aside - I thought that's why David Davis walked funny - you know, coz he had Crystal ...)

I have got an international driving license (£15 via DVLA) they will be issuing plastic card ones from March 2019 and application forms will be available at post offices - I expect this will be the solution to the driving license issues if you have a UK license just get an international one too!

Except that as Chevyrecycler notes, if you take Residencia, you are obligated to swap to a Spanish licence.  An IDP is only really useful if you are holidaying here.  If you are resident, it won’t cut it.  It’s the same as going to UK with an IDP issued in, say, South Africa - ok for holiday, but if you take up residency in the UK you are obliged to get a UK licence.  IDP actually state on them that they must be supported by licence of origin and are invalid if you take residency in the country for which they were issued.

The plastic DVLA issued IDP will be to allow UK citizens holidaying in Europe to still drive there