If you hold a foreign driving licence in Luxembourg, here's all you need to know before you hit the road.

Is my foreign licence valid here?

If you obtained your licence in an EU or EEA country, then it remains legally valid in Luxembourg. You can register your foreign licence with the SNCA driving license office. Send a form (PDF in French here) to them by post, alongside a copy of both sides of your driving licence and a copy of valid ID such as a passport. Find the address here.

However, under certain circumstances permanent residents in the Grand Duchy must exchange their EU/EEA licence for a Luxembourgish one:

  • If you wish to extend the right to drive to other categories, such as lorries or more powerful motorbikes.
  • If your right to drive has been restricted due to a court or administrative order.
  • If your right to drive has been revoked or temporarily banned due to a court or administrative order.

To exchange your licence, you need to send a copy of it and your ID alongside a form, recent photo, tax stamp, bulletin no. 4 from the Luxembourg criminal records, to the SNCA driving licence office. Full details on the requirements here.

What about if my licence is from outside of the EU/EEA?

Holders of non-EEA licences are strongly advised to have their licences converted when they are written in languages that are little known, or not at all known, in Luxembourg.

When you first move to the Grand Duchy, you can continue to use your licence as you settle in. However, if Luxembourg will be your place of residence, you must convert your licence. You have a maximum of one year to do so (while you can apply early, licences won't be converted until you've spent at least six months here).

Conversion is relatively straightforward but does require some document prep-work. As well as the documents required to exchange (see above), you also need a criminal record check from whichever country or countries in which you lived covering the last five years, and a medical certificate from a local doctor.

An important note here: while the official information on Guichet/SNCA currently reads declares that you need "a criminal record extract (no more than 3 months old) from the country of origin covering the last 5 years," we have confirmed with SNCA that this is in fact not correct.

It should be from your country of origin if that is where you spent the last five years, but if you are from country Y and lived in country X for, say, 5 years before moving to Luxembourg, the criminal record should be from country X. Thanks to one of our readers for getting in touch about this!

As above, you send the documents off to the SNCA driving licence office, alongside your foreign licence, which will be held for the duration of your residence in the Grand Duchy.

Conversion does not work for lorry or bus drivers. In these instances, you'll need to take a practical and theory test and apply for a new licence (see below for more details).

LALUX Car Guide Series

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