Converting a UK driver's licence into a German one

Sorry for posting this , i tried using the search function , and looked through the 54 listed topics but couldn´t find the answers that i was looking for , so have resorted to posting and hoping .

I want to change my UK driver's licence to a German one , and want to know where exactly i have to go in Munich , and what i need to take with me .

Sorry for asking this , as i know it has been discussed many times , maybe the answers are staring me in the face , but i just cant see them .

Kreisverwaltungsreferat
Kraftfahrzeugzulassung und Fahrerlaubnisbehörde
Eichstätter Str. 2

80686 München

Tel. (089) 233 96090
Fax (089) 233 36275

fuehrerscheine.kvr@muenchen.de

Öffnungszeiten
Montag - Freitag:
07.00 - 12.00 Uhr
Dienstag zusätzlich:
14.30 - 16.30 Uhr

Any particular reason you want to change it over, considering it's perfectly legal for you to drive in Germany with a UK license?

if you wanna change it anyway, change it to an international licance, will have better use seen long term.

what the hell is an "international licance"?

makes your "german licance" valid pretty much all over the world

There is no such thing. An international license is simply a multi-language translation of whatever license you already have. It does not make it any more valid, just easier to be understood by officials in other countries. And it's only good for 2 years itself, despite just being a translation.

and it does not replace your national licence; it is only valid in conjunction with it.

My English adress is on the UK one , and after living here for the last 13 years , i have finally accepted that i aint going back to Blighty , and its time to bring things in order .

What do i need to take with me ? Pass photos , UK licence , anything else ?

Passport ...

It depends on which version of UK driving license you have. If it's one following the EU model then the exchange is a formality. If it's older then you'll need a translation too. If applying for groups C1, C1E, C, CE, D1, D1E, D, and DE you may also need a health and vision test and if you did not originally register your residence in Munich following arrival here you may need confirmation of that original residence. See the online Rathaus for details.

I've just switched my UK photocard licence for a German one, albeit in Munich Land, rather than Munich City. I didn't require my passport (although I had it with me), just fill in a short form and provide a photo. They took my licence off me to be sent away for 'checking' and gave me a temporary permit. Be aware that you cannot hire cars with such a permit, and I wouldn't fancy being stopped outside of Germany with it either. I suspect if I'd argued I needed to hire a car, they may have taken a copy, or accepted a copy and let me keep the licence until the exchange was ready.

I've just received a postcard that my licence is ready to pick up (took about 3 weeks), so I have to get myself out to the Führerscheinstelle again. PITA - my wife got hers posted to her, but that was a different again.

ok then i've been told wrong...been told it wouldbe the better choice to the "just" german licence... oh well whatever

They will provide you with German driving license in the form of a credit-card . We still drive around with the old paper one, but I know places like Austria can be akward about the old ones. Austria also require that a car has a nationality sticker (D) on the car and are not happy with just the D on the number-plate.

Rubbish on both counts!

European Court Judgement c-230/97 from 29.10.1998 states that any driving licence issued by a Member State must be recognised by the other Member States, even if the licence is old and does not correspond to the Community model, provided it is still valid - you no longer have to exchange your original licence if you go to live in another Member State but you can apply to do so if you wish.

EU Directive 2411/98 from 03.11.1998 specifies the number plate extension for national registration and requires it's acceptance in EU states without need for additional stickers. It's not compulsory, but if it is there then you don't need anything else.

Nonetheless, Austrian police have at times wholly ignored these directives under threat of jailing for 24 hours. Whether this is still the case, I do not know. Let's face it, Germany was still demanding EU citizens get a resident permit in the late Nineties, even though the EU and abolished that concept in the early Nineties.

Wrong!

EU Directive 2004/38/EC published on April 29, 2004 allowing freedom of passage and residence of EU passport holders without additional paperwork was speedily implemented by Germany as §5 of the Freizugigkeitsgesetz on January 1st, 2005.

I don't see what is wrong? Guy talks about the 90's and you mention something that was only implemented in 2005?

...The EU didn't "abolish the concept" [of residence permits for EU citizens] until 2004

Not sure if this is any use, but I lost my UK licence a few years ago, since I moved here. I wrote to Swansea and they sent me a print-out of the relevant groups. I took this ( without a translation ) to the office mentioned above by OG, with my passport and a couple of passport photos, and a coüple of weeks later had a new german licance.