Recognition of Driving experience based on Driving License issued by a country which does not have Driving licence-Exchange agreement with Spain

Recognition of Driving experience based on Driving License issued by a country which does not have DL-Exchange agreement with Spain

I will explain here the process for addition of experience of your Indian Driving License If you have a Spanish Driving License Type-B issued.

First, let’s talk about the benefits of doing this process –

1. Lower Insurance cost : If you buy a car insurance as a new driver, insurance cost is higher compared to when you have driving experience recognized by DGT.

2. Lower cost for renting a car : Low-cost car hiring/sharing APPS like Ubeeqo/Getaround don’t let you hire a car unless you hold the license for at least 2 years.

3. You can start riding a Motorcycle upto 125 cc : You don’t need to wait for 3 years to be able to start riding motorcycles upto 125 cc, which means you can also go to autopista/autovia on a 2-wheeler!

You should also be exempted from need to display the ‘L’ sign and more stringent alcohol consumption limit – but I don’t have confirmation from DGT on this yet.

Now, coming to the documents needed by DGT for this process –

1. A document from Transport Department of India (Certificado de las autoridades que lo expidieron) which has to be Apostiled and then Translated to Spanish by a Sworn Translator.

I downloaded DL extract from Parivahan website, saved in a Pdf and sent it to an agent in India who printed it and got the Apostile of Hague on it. You need this document in Original. I got it done from ICT : +91 9643620215. Paid 1500 for apostile of hague + 2200 for DHL express 48 hour delivery to Spain. Then, I got Swrorn Translation done in Spain from CBLingua as they gave me the best quote, about EUR 60.

2. A letter from Embassy: You need to go to VFS and tell them you need ‘Standard Driving License Certificate’. You need to give them copy of passport and Original Indian DL and pay €52. Within a week you will receive the letter from Embassy along with your Original Indian DL. In case you find VFS not being helpful with this, send an email to cons.madrid@mea.gov.in , this helps.

3. Spanish Driving License in Original – If your application is Okay, they will keep your Original and you will receive a new in 4-5 weeks. They will give you a temporary paper DL valid for 90 days to use until you receive your new Original DL.

4. Original Indian Driving License.

5. TIE (residence Permit card) Original.

6. Passport size photograph (if you want a new photo on the new DL)

7. Book an appointment to submit all the documents at https://sede.dgt.gob.es/es/otros-tramites/cita-previa-jefaturas/  Tramites de oficina  Area : Conductores . Best time to try for appointments at 8 am , 9 am, 1 pm.

8. Tasa/Fee of EUR 20- which you will pay by Card while submitting these documents on the day of your appointment.

A note of caution : My Driving School told me that all I need is a letter from Embassy. So, I went with that (doc mentioned in point 2 above) and the DGT sent me a mail after 1 week that my application has been rejected because they also need a certificate from Transport department of India (which is the doc mentioned in point 1 above – So I got it and went again to DGT after 2 weeks and succeeded this time.) . Probably the Driving School was not wrong and Embassies of some countries are able to get document from the Transport department of their respective countries, but in case of Indian Embassy, that’s is not the case, so the document mentioned in point 1 above is mandatory.

Credits : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankit-goswami-90134a1a/