Uk drivers licence update

Hi Ed,

In brief, the Spanish and UK authorities are still in negotiations about licence exchanges, so no update on that.  In the meantime, people who obtained residency under the Withdrawal Agreement have until 31 October this year to exchange their UK licence for Spanish.

More detail in the 'Driving in Spain' section of 'Living in Spain' on Gov.UK:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/living-in-spain#driving-in-spain

Kind regards, 

Kim

Hi kimmy11, thank you for the update.
I’ll air these thoughts as I think there is some (unintentional) discrimination being applied through policy.

In my view there are 4 categories of people affected.

1. Legally resident & complied with the DGT deadline. 

2. Legally resident but failed to comply for whatever reason.

3. Non resident but applying for residency prior to 31st decree. Potentially they could have registered “intent” though would have required an NIE. If NIE was held the implication was “surrender UK licence for temporary “Spain only” document. 

4. New arrivals post Brexit. 

Category 2 people may feel discriminated against as the process “as was” should have been allowed to stand. 

Category 3 people may feel they couldn’t have registered because of the implications regarding their licence being replaced (temp & timeline). The view that regardless of knowing your residency outcome you should have registered “intent” is very harsh. Additionally these people are now residents with specific rights under article 50 yet the UK (I haven’t read Spanish site yet) are saying you’ll be treated as a 3rd country person. That needs to be tested. 

Alternatively just agree that existing residents and those granted residency under article 50 can exchange their licences without a test. 

My last observation - we’ve cancelled 4 trips back to UK awaiting residency outcome, I hope to collect the TIE next week & 2nd jab then after 14 days return to UK to see my kids. If I surrender my drivers licence to Spain and it’s not done on the day what’s likely to happen to me if I get stopped and fail to produce a licence in the UK? 14days to report to a police station with the licence from memory. 🤣

Hi Ed,

I broadly agree with your categorisation of applicants for driving licence exchanges, although category 3. people would have needed a "Resguardo" (confirmation of residency granted, prior to receiving their TIE) to register their intent to exchange, an NIE would not have been sufficient.

However, I don't believe there is any discrimination, even unintentional.  The UK chose to leave the EU more than 5 years ago.  When it left on 31 January 2021, there was a further 11 months transition period.  Despite this, many people left it to the last quarter, even the last month, to apply for residency.  Combined with those who had been living illegally in Spain and who finally realised that they had to regularise their position or leave, the numbers completely overwhelmed the Spanish authorities.  In response to this, the Spanish government made special arrangements for UK citizens to have a further 6 months to complete their residency applications and exchange their driving licences, and have since further extended the deadline for driving licence exchange to 31 October 2021.  I'm not aware of any other Third Country that has been granted the latitude afforded by Spain to UK citizens.  

I understand that it's frustrating because, as members of the EU resident in Spain, we used to have up to 2 years to exchange our driving licences whereas Third Country Nationals, who become resident in Spain, have only 6 months to do so.  But these rules, along with many others, have existed for decades and it didn't stop a small majority of UK citizens choosing Third Country status for us all.  The UK and France have already agreed ongoing exchange of driving licences and, hopefully, the UK can agree something similar with Spain, but in the meantime, we have to comply with Spain's laws.

Regarding your proposed trip to the UK, if you surrender your driving licence in Spain, it definitely won't be exchanged on the same day.  I exchanged mine 4 years ago and, even then, it took 5 weeks for my Spanish licence to arrive.

Kind regards,

Kim  

Hi Kim thank you again for taking the time to respond and with a very balanced perspective. People all over the world are having to cope with much more serious issues so this is really just a minor inconvenience that I’ll have to work around. 
Best regards