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How To Exchange Your Licence For A NI Licence

To exchange your licence for a full NI one, you should complete a DL1 application form (available from most Post Offices, Local Vehicle Licensing Offices or directly from DVA by calling 0845 402 4000 and return it to Driver Licensing Division, DVA, County Hall, Castlerock Road, Coleraine, BT51 3TB, with your licence and the correct fee if applicable (see DL1 for details).

If the licence being exchanged is vocational, and the original was issued in Jersey or the Isle of Man, you must also provide a medical report form DLM1 completed by a doctor. If your vocational licence was issued in an EEA country you need only submit a medical report form if, on exchange, you are 45 years of age or over. This applies even if your vocational licence is still current.

DL1 application forms are available from most Post Offices, Local Vehicle Licensing Offices or directly from DVA by calling 0845 402 4000.

DLM1 medical forms are available from either Local Vehicle Licensing Offices, Driver and Vehicle Agency Testing Offices or directly from DVA by calling 0845 402 4000.

List of Local Vehicle Licensing Offices and addresses
List of Driving and Vehicle Agency Testing Offices and addresses

Rules for exchange

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

• you must be normally resident in Northern Ireland and have a permanent address here;
• if you are a Community licence holder applying for a Northern Ireland test at the same time as exchanging your licence and you have moved to NI having recently been permanently resident in another state of the EEA, you must have been normally resident in NI 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 DVA. Licences issued in Great Britain must have been issued after 1.1.76. Licences from the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands are acceptable for exchange if valid within the last 10 years. Those issued in any 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 Great Britain 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 W1V 9FN or 2 Melville Crescent, Edinburgh, EH3 7HW.