Driving Licence - Page 3

Thanks Lynn, I shall keep my fingers crossed 🤞

I just need to post in response to this topic as some people are being really judgemental and simplistic about this. Just to make you aware, some are in a difficult position through absolutely no fault of their own. My husband for example. Came over in November 2020 intending to apply for residency under the withdrawal agreement. First step of Padron, even though submitted with the help of an experienced Gestor, experienced months of delay due to covid and the 'pre-Brexit rush'. Even had to submit his application for residency with just the receipt that Padron had been applied for, in the hope that it would be accepted (which is was eventually, once he could follow up the rest of the required paperwork with Padron). When he asked if he could register to exchange his licence before the cut off point, HE WAS REFUSED AS HE COULD NOT PRODUCE PADRON. He has his TIE now but really stuffed regarding the driving licence. He has held a UK driving licence for 30 years. It includes licence to drive cars, motorbikes and HGVs. He is now faced with having to take all of those tests all over again, in Spanish. What's more, as things stand, he will be unable to ride his Spanish motorbike again until at least 2024 as in Spain, you have to ride a lower cc for at least 2 years before you can take the next test to ride a bigger bike. For the bike alone, he'd have to therefore take several tests spread out over several years to even get back to riding the same bike he has been riding all around Spain for the last 4 months!

Jackie, your situation is very similar to mine. The facts as I remember them…..

Mid nov 2020 DGT advises a new process to register your intent to exchange licences. (This wasn’t widely advertised as far as I’m aware).  

However it said resident & book an appointment, hand-in your UK licence & get a temp licence valid only in Spain. 

My application (and my wife’s) were still being progressed. Arguably we could have been declined. 

Regardless of being declined or not, I didn’t think it wise to hand in my UK licence for a limited addition licence not valid outside Spain. We do move back and forward. 

So residency (submitted in 2020) gets approved July 2021. So the DGTs rush to have a process in place (Nov 2020)is/was due to the realisation that they needed to check points & validity of UK licences before 30 Dec 3020. Apart from the “rights” we are supposed to have retained they could have requested that information as part of assessing suitability for residency. That’s me assuming they would have tried to weed out criminals. So the easy answer for the DGT is to “allow” those in limbo at the withdrawal deadline to exchange their licences and in the meantime ask DVLA or us personally to do a licence check. 

Why are some people just  nasty domt reply if you cant give a decent answer

Agree.

It's not the people who have had a year or more to get the licence, it's people who recently became residence and are left in limbo. Be honest nobody wants to have to take a test, we were on the understanding both governments were trying to avoid this but can't get their heads together to sort it one way or another. If you have to take a test then so be it but just let us know once and for all..... 

Register in Ireland,your wife is an Irish citizen she can then swop UK licence for Irish EU licence.I n the future can then swop easily for Spanish licence.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I think she would have to live in Ireland to be able to do that. One of this forum members has intimated that things are going well in the talks between the UK and Spain in regards to being allowed to exchange them again.

Thanks though 

So, an up-date of sorts.

Lets hope this is done in a couple weeks as stated..

https://www.majorcadailybulletin.com/island-life/paperwork/2022/06/02/101993/mallorca-british-residents-could-back-driving-the-road-soon.html

Looks optimistic let’s hope so

Great post!

Hi, 

 I just got my residencia early this year and am currently studying the theory test and am finding the translation of the Spanish theory booklet to be badly translated with more than a few questions almost unintelligible.

You can go on line to take mock exams and in the first 30 mins I have found a question to be totally wrong. It asks if you can have an overhanging load on a car  In the handbook it says you can overhang by 10 to 15% in the mock exam it says you can't have an overhang. . This would be enough for one to fail the exam, you are only allowed 3 wrong questions from 39.

This I must say is pissing me off because the Spanish in the UK are not being put through this expensive and uneccessary stress.  I was quite happily getting on with the theory  but one would expect it to have been proof read by someone competent.

Is anyone else struggling with the badly edited theory., it's not that the questions are difficult just badly edited. 

Please no smug replies about you should have converted before the cut off date, not everything is black and white.