If you want to use your foreign driving license in Germany or your German driving license abroad, there are two options:
a) Obtain an international driving license or
b) You get a certified translation of your foreign driver's license.
As a rule, you can drive with a foreign driving license for up to six months after entering Germany. If the driver's license is issued in a foreign language, you need a certified translation, which you must show at a check.
However, if you want to permanently reside in Germany, i.e. longer than half a year, and have a permanent residence here, you are not allowed to drive with the foreign driving license. In this case, you must have your foreign driver's license rewritten. This means that you hand in the foreign driver's license and in return receive a German driver's license from the driver's license office. In Germany, the requirements vary from country to country and also greatly from one driving license office to another.
You can find out how to have your foreign driving license rewritten at the responsible driving license office near your place of residence.
The translation must be created by an approved translator in the form of a "certified translation". Otherwise you run the risk that the translation will not be recognized by the authorities.
You can easily order a certified translation of your driving license via our online shop. The finished translation will be sent to you in a few days by post to the desired address in Germany. It is sufficient for us if you upload the scanned driver's license or send it to us by e-mail after completing the order.
Attention: The original must be presented to the authorities for a transfer or crediting. If you are allowed to drive in Germany with your foreign driver's license, you must carry the original driver's license with you in addition to the certified translation.
Other advantages of a driver's license translation:
1) By submitting a certified translation, if you get a German driver's license, you can be relieved of many driving lessons if you present a foreign driver's license.
2) If you can prove that you already have a foreign driver's license, the probationary period of two years is often waved.
3) Submitting a foreign driver's license and a certified translation will almost always get you a cheaper car insurance rate. If your insurance company does not offer this to you, urgently ask another insurance company.
Order a certified driver's license translation online now
Further information on the use of foreign driving licenses in the Federal Republic of Germany can be found in the leaflet of the Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI). More