How do I exchange my uk driving licence for a Spanish one

Can anyone please advise how I swap my uk driving licence for a Spanish one and the process/cost.

I think I saw that they have stopped at the moment

Except that the latest news is that you would be well to have applied before 1 November ( assuming no deal Brexit) or you might not be able to change it without having to do a Spanish Driving Test. Difficult to get apts etc, recommend asking Torrievieja Translators. They are affiliated with DGT in Elche and if anyone can do it at this late stage I'd say they could. They did mine earlier this year and were very professional.

https://torreviejatranslators.com/

Chrisdee wrote:I think I saw that they have stopped at the moment

I hear they've stopped making appointments but you can still turn up unannounced.

The DGT has said that if you apply BEFORE 1st November to exchange your licence then you will be guaranteed a swap.
You can make an appointment by dialling 060 but I would suggest you have a Spanish speaker handy to do so.
I note on the cita previa (appointment) page that UK has disappeared from the list.

Perhaps going, in person, to trafico in Alicante (not sure if Elche does it as it doesn't come up as an office to do the exchange) and requesting the exchange will count as a formal application and they should, at least, give you the correct paperwork.
The office at Alicante wouldn't speak English when we changed ours about 5 years ago so, if you are not fluent, take a Spanish speaker with you.

Best of luck and let's have fingers crossed that the current chats mean there will be a deal on exiting the EU.

Steve4878 wrote:Can anyone please advise how I swap my uk driving licence for a Spanish one and the process/cost.

My husband and I went to Almoradi last week to change ours. I have put the address at the bottom. They do everything for you for €61? They do the eye test, coordination test, photos and relevant paperwork. They open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 4-8pm. We were changing from Cypriot licenses to Spanish which they were not able to complete so they did all the parts they could and made an appointment for yesterday for Elche. We went there and got it all sorted. The new Spanish ones are sent in the post to you in about 4 weeks.

Central De Reconocimiento
Dr. Maranon
Calle Dr. Maranon No.5
Almoradi

9 October at 18:16 ·

‼️‼️ IMPORTANT NOTICE TO ALL UK LICENCE HOLDERS ‼️‼️

Individuals looking to exchange their licence by themselves at the DGT can no longer book to do so, Torrevieja Translators can still help you exchange your licence until the end of this month, however. More info below:

We have some news for you all, which came as a big surprise to us all yesterday evening. We are Frankly shocked that this information was not shared by any official channels up until now.

As of yesterday evening, the DGT is no longer allowing individual bookings for driving licence exchanges for UK licence holders. The options to select "Reino Unido" as the country of issue are no longer available, both under "Canje" and "Renovación".

This means that you as an individual can no longer book yourself into any Tráfico office across the country to exchange your driving licence by yourself.

Although we expected this to occur as of the 31st of this month, it seems to have been actioned already as of yesterday.

That being said, we as affiliates of the DGT in Elche are still able to perform these exchanges up until the 21st at least due to our status with that office. We have been in touch with the head of foreign exchanges in said office, who assured us that the DVLA will be disconnecting its validation system with the DGT on the 31st of October until some sort of arrangement is reached between the UK and Spanish authorities for reciprocal exchanges.

While this is bad news for those of you who wanted to 'wait and see' it is good news for those of you who have signed up for an exchange with us before the 28th of this month. Those of you who wish to sign up can still do so but we are not joking around when we say that this is the final call for people to exchange their driving licences.

We attach below, the section of the online booking portal for the DGT where you can see that "Reino Unido" is no longer present, you will find this under any exchange option that you chose in any office across the country.

If you are serious about getting legal but have not done it yet due to "planned trips" or "holidays", you will now need to set your priorities straight or hope for the best that the UK reach an agreement with Spain in order for the DGT to reenable bookings for this process.

Get in touch with us today if you would like to sign up or would like to argue with us about how "it's not going to happen" because as we can clearly see, it's happening.

Our driving licence exchange service starts from 80€ per person* get in touch with us for more details or sign up via our website: https://torreviejatranslators.com/reque ... exchanges/

*This is our fee and does not include DGT fees or medical costs.

**EDIT - Information has come to light that you are able to pre-register for a special exchange grace period with the DGT. To do so, you must submit the special application form provided to you on the DGT website by visiting your Tráfico office to hand it in, in person or via the online portal (if you have access to a digital certificate or Cl@ve). You MUST submit this form now as these will only be accepted until the 31st. If you have done this, you will be entitled to complete your exchange from the 11th of November for nine months. If you do not hand this form in, you will not be permitted to exchange. Please note: This is the current situation, and it is, of course, subject to change once again at any time.
No photo description available.

From the above missive:

"DVLA will be disconnecting its validation system with the DGT on the 31st of October until some sort of arrangement is reached between the UK and Spanish authorities for reciprocal exchanges"

So have DGT stopped accepting applications or not?

The entire problem could be solved at the stroke of a pen if Spain were to simply ratify the 1968 Vienna convention which they are signed up to. UK were only signatories but in anticipation of such issues as fallout from Brexit ratified in 2018.

The special measures put in place by the Spanish Department of Transport for UK nationals to exchange their driving licence have now been extended, so that the deadline to register your request to exchange is now 31 January, although we would advise doing it as soon as you can.

Some other points of clarification that might be useful:

It doesn’t matter if your UK licence is expired or lost. If the licence has expired, you should follow the instructions for ‘renovación’. If lost, follow the instructions for ‘sustitución’.

You can start the process (online or by calling 060) with a NIE, even if you don´t have your green residency document. The first step of the process is essentially asking the Spanish authorities to verify your UK licence. The formal request for exchange is done once you go in for your appointment at the DGT. At that point you will need a valid residency certificate.

If you started the process in October you can now request an appointment at your Jefatura Provincial de Tráfico.

If you started the process in November, or are about to start the process, you can request an appointment at the JPT two days after registering your details. The DGT recommends that you continue using the special measures for UK licence holders.

You can continue to send us direct messages with any specific issues and we will feed your questions back to the DGT.

The easiest way to exchange your UK driving license to a Spanish one is contact One Way Services in Quesada. They organise everything and take you to have the medical and Tráfico.