Apply to Exchange Your For­eign Dri­ving Licence

Are you mov­ing to Ger­many and already have a driver’s license from anoth­er coun­try?
If you plan to live in Ger­many for an extend­ed peri­od — that is, at least 185 days per year for per­son­al or pro­fes­sion­al rea­sons — then your for­eign driver’s license remains valid for up to six months after estab­lish­ing res­i­den­cy.

After that peri­od, you will need to Apply to Exchange Your For­eign Dri­ving Licence (Umschrei­bung ein­er aus­ländis­chen Fahrerlaub­nis) in order to con­tin­ue dri­ving legal­ly in Germany.

⚠️ Please note: The exact require­ments and pro­ce­dures can vary depend­ing on the coun­try that issued your license.

📝 How to Apply to Exchange Your For­eign Dri­ving Licence in Karlsruhe

You must sub­mit your appli­ca­tion to the Führersche­in­stelle (driver’s license office) at the Car and traf­fic ser­vice cen­tre in Karl­sruhe.

Führersche­in­stelle Karl­sruhe (Car and traf­fic ser­vice cen­tre: Dri­ving licence office)
📍 Stein­häuser­str. 22, 76133 Karl­sruhe
📞 115
📧 fuehrerscheinstelle@oa.karlsruhe.de
↗ Online appoint­ment at the dri­ving licence office

Appli­ca­tion for trans­fer of for­eign dri­ving licence (online appli­ca­tion with postal delivery)

The dri­ving licence appli­ca­tion is com­plet­ed online and must then be print­ed out and ✍🏼 signed. This means that at the end of this process, you must print out the gen­er­at­ed appli­ca­tion form and sub­mit it by post 📬 with all the required doc­u­ments or drop it in the let­ter­box (📍Stein­häuser­str. 22).

↗ Online appli­ca­tion

Appli­ca­tion to replace or change a dri­ving licence (EU dri­ving licence) / update per­son­al data (online appli­ca­tion with postal delivery)

The dri­ving licence appli­ca­tion is com­plet­ed online and must then be print­ed out and ✍🏼 signed. This means that at the end of this process, you must print out the gen­er­at­ed appli­ca­tion form and sub­mit it by post 📬 with all the required doc­u­ments or drop it in the let­ter­box (📍Stein­häuser­str. 22).

↗ Online appli­ca­tion

Required doc­u­ments
  • Valid for­eign driver’s license (orig­i­nal) with trans­la­tion (if no EU/EEA)
    Trans­la­tions are pro­vid­ed by recog­nised auto­mo­bile clubs.
  • Valid pass­port or ID card (copy for writ­ten application)
  • Proof of res­i­dence in Karl­sruhe (e.g. Meldebescheini­gung)
  • Bio­met­ric pass­port photo
  • For an EU-EEA dri­ving licence and for a dri­ving licence issued in one of the coun­tries list­ed in the ↗ Annex 11 of the Dri­ving Licence Ordi­nance list­ed states and class­es, in addi­tion:
    ✅ Cer­tifi­cate or expert opin­ion on phys­i­cal and men­tal apti­tude and
    ✅ Cer­tifi­cate or expert opin­ion on eyesight.

You only need to present these cer­tifi­cates or reports if the valid­i­ty of a cat­e­go­ry C or D dri­ving licence (includ­ing trail­er and/or sub­cat­e­gories) needs to be extend­ed at the same time as the exchange.

  • in the case of a non-EU/EEA dri­ving licence not issued in the ↗ Annex 11 of the Dri­ving Licence Ordi­nance is list­ed, depend­ing on the class applied for: addi­tion­al­ly
    ✅ Cer­tifi­cate or expert opin­ion on phys­i­cal and men­tal apti­tude
    ✅ Cer­tifi­cate or expert opin­ion on eye­sight or an eye test cer­tifi­cate
    ✅ Proof of first aid train­ing
    ✅ Details of the dri­ving school, as you also have to take the the­o­ret­i­cal and prac­ti­cal dri­ving test.

🔍 Depend­ing on the issu­ing coun­try, you may also need to take a the­o­ry and/or prac­ti­cal dri­ving test.

Cost

Depend­ing on the city or dis­trict: dif­fer­ent
37.50 € if no the­o­ret­i­cal or prac­ti­cal test is required

oth­er­wise
43.90 € with­out tri­al peri­od,
44.70 € with tri­al period.

💁🏻 Need Help?

If you need assis­tance with the process or trans­la­tion, local inte­gra­tion cen­ters (↗ Migra­tions­ber­atungsstellen) in Karl­sruhe can sup­port you.

This page was last updated: 2025-06-23