EU Style Driving Licences

[juliafry]

This will not be an issue (and not be of interest I guess) for those with permanent residence here in Aus. as I understand that you must obtain an Aussie driving licence.

My husband and I are happily residing in Melbourne on a 457 Visa and under the terms of our temporary residence are entitled to drive without a VIC driving licence so long as our UK licence is valid

For those of you with two part EU style driving licences, you may have seen the e-mails doing the rounds that warn about the expiry date - 4b on the plastic card part of the licence. If you have not, the issue in short; the paper part of the licence expires on the day before the holders 60th birthday whilst the plastic part of the licence, with the photo ID, expires every 10 years from issue. Both parts must be within date for the licence to be valid.

Sadly (unlike overseas passport renewals) the UK (DVLA) makes no provision to issue renewal's for expiring licences where the holder is resident outside the UK, even if only on a temporary visa. Having been redirected by the British Consulate in Melbourne, I exchanged some e-mails with the DVLA and obtained this statement in confirmation.

We can of course obtain a VIC licence (fairly easily I am told) to ensure that we can continue to drive here. This will probably suffice to drive with when we visit the UK - I'm awaiting confirmation from the DVLA - and whilst we wait for renewal upon our permanent return.

There must be many UK temporary expats who are in the same situation (?) some with easy solutions and some with none. I'm not sure that the DVLA's position makes sense to me so any suggestions that might help would be most gratefully received.

Thanks in advance.

[amaslam]

Hi Julia:

Can you clarify your question a bit more. As for the AU part, it should be a straightforward paper procedure, go to the local Vicroads, fill out the form to get an AU license and your UK license provides sufficient evidence that you don't need to take a practical road test. You may have to do a written test (I did for NSW) which covers the laws and is usually a multiple choice computer based test.

If your question is about renewing your UK portions then I can't help there, but perhaps someone else on the board has done it.

Good luck

Originally Posted by juliafry

This will not be an issue (and not be of interest I guess) for those with permanent residence here in Aus. as I understand that you must obtain an Aussie driving licence.

My husband and I are happily residing in Melbourne on a 457 Visa and under the terms of our temporary residence are entitled to drive without a VIC driving licence so long as our UK licence is valid

For those of you with two part EU style driving licences, you may have seen the e-mails doing the rounds that warn about the expiry date - 4b on the plastic card part of the licence. If you have not, the issue in short; the paper part of the licence expires on the day before the holders 60th birthday whilst the plastic part of the licence, with the photo ID, expires every 10 years from issue. Both parts must be within date for the licence to be valid.

Sadly (unlike overseas passport renewals) the UK (DVLA) makes no provision to issue renewal's for expiring licences where the holder is resident outside the UK, even if only on a temporary visa. Having been redirected by the British Consulate in Melbourne, I exchanged some e-mails with the DVLA and obtained this statement in confirmation.

We can of course obtain a VIC licence (fairly easily I am told) to ensure that we can continue to drive here. This will probably suffice to drive with when we visit the UK - I'm awaiting confirmation from the DVLA - and whilst we wait for renewal upon our permanent return.

There must be many UK temporary expats who are in the same situation (?) some with easy solutions and some with none. I'm not sure that the DVLA's position makes sense to me so any suggestions that might help would be most gratefully received.

Thanks in advance.

[juliafry]

Hi Amaslam
I think that you are probably correct in noting that the proceedure to obtain a VIC driving licence is fairly straightforward - and probably the only option that exists to ensure that we drive legally whilst here in Aus. once our UK licences expire.

The issue relates to there being no opportunity to renew the UK driving licences (either directly with the UK licencing authority or here in Aus.) that we hold as we are temporarily non resident in the UK i.e. when we return to the UK we will only hold current VIC driving licences (so long as we are able to obtain them -as para 1) and not EU driving licences.

It would seem sensible to me to have the renewal process available to expats who are temporarily non resident rather than those who have obtained permanent residence in an other country worldwide - after all it is no more complex than renewing a passport and e.g. we can do that here in Australia via the local High Commission.

[The Brit in Aus]

Originally Posted by juliafry

It would seem sensible to me to have the renewal process available to expats who are temporarily non resident rather than those who have obtained permanent residence in an other country worldwide - after all it is no more complex than renewing a passport and e.g. we can do that here in Australia via the local High Commission.

I read somewhere that you should actually hand in your UK licence if you no longer have a UK address.

I do know that they won't accept an overseas address on their records, so it is best to maintain it at a relatives UK address.