Rules to Exchange to British Driving Licence

The following conditions must be met before a licence can be granted in exchange for a GB one:

You must be normally resident in GB and have a permanent address here in the UK.

If you are a community driving licence holder applying for a British test at the same time as exchanging your licence and you have moved to GB having recently been permanently resident in another state of the EC or EEA, you must have been normally resident in GB for 185 days in the 12 months prior to your application for a full driving licence.

Licences from the designated countries must be current at the time the application for exchange is received at DVLA: licences from the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands are acceptable for exchange if issued after 01/04/91.Those issued in any EC or EEA country may be valid for exchange even if they have expired

You must surrender your foreign licence which will be returned to the issuing authority.

International driving permits are not exchangeable

Test pass certificates are not exchangeable except for those issued in Northern Ireland or Gibraltar when the test was passed within two years of the date of the licence application

Japanese licences must be accompanied by an official translation, available for a fee from the Consulate General of Japan at 101-104 Piccadilly, London W1J 7JT or 2 Melville Crescent, Edinburgh, EH3 7HW

Republic of Korea licences must be accompanied by an official translation from the Embassy of the Republic of Korea at 60 Buckingham Gate, London, SW1E 6AJ

Motocycle licences from the Republic of Korea and Faroe Islands are not exchangeable 

Applicants will not be considered 'normally resident' for the purposes of a driving licence application if they:

Do not have leave to remain in the UK

Are in the UK country on a temporary basis without leave to remain either while awaiting a decision on an application to stay in the UK or following a decision refusing such an application