Hey guys, I wanna start doing driver’s lessons when I graduate high school next month and I was wondering if anyone knows if it is possible to do my driver’s lessons in one EU member country but take the tests in another? I’m from Bulgaria but I moved to Germany a few years ago, meaning that I no longer fulfill the 180-day requirement. The driver’s license + lessons in Germany cost like >2000 euros so if I can at least do the courses in Bulgaria, that will save me more than half. Thanks
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Kind of? The driving experience itself will carry over, and because of the Vienna Convention most road signs will be similar, but you’d have to learn very specific local laws and regulations to pass the tests.
Language is also likely going to be problematic. In Flanders, for instance, it is possible to take the practical exam in French, German or English, using a sworn interpreter, but not in any other language.
Some countries might also require you to prove that you’ve completed X amount of hours or lessons with a (domestic) driving school before you can even take the exam.
You can convert an EU-licence from one country to another. There was a recent scandal here in Sweden where a lot of people were also able to convert their non-EU licenses (with questionable standards) by faking a Romanian residency and then converting that one to a Swedish one.
If you live in Germany and want to carry over a driver’s licence from another country, you have to have lived in that other country (permanent residence) for at least six months afaik.
A couple of years ago it was possible to just pop over to Belgium, drive an 8 on a parking place in the presence of a driving instructor and you had a valid driver’s license.
However, this led to a kind of drivers-license-tourism where bus companies offered one day trips to Belgium to get a new license. A… “certain demographic” (people who lost their German drivers license due to DUI or other misconduct) abused this, so there’s now the aforementioned requirement.
When I switched my US license over to a Polish one, I had to take the theoretical exams (car and motorcycle), but not the actual driving exam.
I was told it was because I’m an old fuck and had been driving for a couple of decades, so I wasn’t required to take the actual driving portion, and that the the US is one of only a handful of countries that isn’t a signatory to some international driving standards treaty. Had then been, they said I could have just handed over my US and been given a Polish license.
Lessons in one country but tests in another are probably difficult to happen, although it might be allowed under some vague law. However wouldn’t it be easier to do the whole thing in Bulgaria? The bulgarian licence is equivalent to the german one and you could probably convert to german anyway
I don’t think that’s possible. I started doing my license in Germany but then moved to Portugal before I could finish. I had to do all mandatory lessons, both practical and theoretical, again.