Driving License Exchange | Portugal | Guide for foreigners

Driving Licence Exchange – Applying for exchanging | Guide for foreigners

Introduction

If you have a residence permit in Portugal or wish to have one, start exchanging your driving license as soon as possible. Do not delay in starting the process. Unfortunately, the process is quite bureaucratic and you may have some difficulties.

One of the biggest difficulties is getting all the documents together, in the form required by the IMT. Also, you will need some documents that are issued in your home country, with the apostille.

Remember that a document from another country, without an apostille, is not valid in Portugal. Therefore, arranging the documents will require more time. Make a schedule.

There is a practical tip about a peculiarity of American driving licenses. Read the text to the end, carefully, please.

Who can change their driving license?

In this text we will talk about the exchange of driving licenses for citizens of countries where Portugal has a bilateral agreement or recognition of reciprocity.

Examples of countries: United States and Brazil. We will offer a list with the other countries.

As a tourist

You can drive in Portugal, as a tourist, with a driving license issued by a country covered by the agreements mentioned above, for a period of about six months (185 days) following your entry into Portugal and providing you are not intending to settle.

Deadlines

If you take up residence in Portugal, you must pay attention to the following deadlines, which are effective from the date on which your residence document is issued:

• Up to 90 days:
You can continue to drive on a license issued by a country mentioned above for up to 90 days from the date of issue of your residence document, but you must apply to IMT for an exchange during this period;

• From 90 days up to 2 years:
You can no longer drive on a licence issued by a country mentioned above, but you can still apply to IMT for an exchange during this period;

• After 2 years:
You can apply for the exchange of your license, but you will have to pass a practical driving test.

What do I need to do to exchange my driving license?

Start by asking your doctor for a medical certificate. This medical certificate must be specific to the driving license. In Portugal it is called an “atestado médico eletrônico” (digital medical certificate).

After the exam, the doctor will issue a medical certificate and send it electronically to IMT via our medical certificate platform.

You can then scan the following documents:

• Residence permit
• Certificate of authenticity of the driving license, issued by the issuing entity or consular servisse, indicating the categories obtained by examination (and what type of test) and the categories obtained by equivalence. (This document has been a problem for Americans. More information at the end).
• Driving license
• Fill out the form (link below)

A certified translation of your driving licence, if the content is in any language other than Portuguese, French, English or Spanish.

After submitting the request, you must wait for communication from the services with an indication to go to the IMT service desk.

Psychological Assessment Certificate

A psychological assessment certificate, if you are applying to retain vehicle categories C, D and/or E.

Certificate of authenticity of the driving license | US

Please note that the IMT requires: “Certificate of authenticity of the driving license, issued by the issuing body OR consular service.”

But, there is a problem. Often the “consular service” in the United States does not issue the driver’s license certificate in the manner required by the IMT.

The problem is that the IMT requires the certificate of authenticity of the driving license to indicate the categories obtained by examination (and what type of proof) and the categories obtained by equivalence. However, often the “consular service” does not meet these requirements. So, the document is rejected and the process can be dismissed.

Most of the time, the best certificate is issued by the entity that issued the driver’s license in the United States, such as the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) (The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is equivalent to the IMT in Portugal).

In the United States, there may be different procedures in each state. This confuses the IMT in Portugal.

The best thing to do is to verify that the certificate contains all the information required by the IMT: indicate the categories obtained by exam (and what type of test) and the categories obtained by equivalence.

U.S. citizens need to present the following document issued in the USA to the local authorities:

Here is the contact info for the DMV The Abstract must attest the authenticity of the driving license, date of issue and expiration date, class of vehicles that you may drive and any suspension and revocation.

Apostille

Do not forget! Documents issued by other countries must be apostilled. Therefore, if a document was issued in the United States, but does not have an apostille, it will not be valid in Portugal.

The Abstract must be authenticated. The authentication process called an “Apostille” is requested from the State authority. Please follow the link to the US States Designated authorities for authentications.

Payment

After sending the documentation, you will receive an email requesting the payment and, where appropriate, giving you further information on the collection of your biometric data.

Adriano Martins Pinheiro is a lawyer in Portugal

I’m here to help you. If you have any questions or suggestions about this text, please contact me.

For online contact: +351 91 543 1234 (Telegram, Whatsapp and SMS)

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Text written based on information from Institute of Mobility and Transport (IMT) Portugal.

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