The canje: exchanging a foreign driving licence in Spain

The DGT's official page states that un canje de un permiso consiste en la homologación de un permiso de conducir — swapping the licence you hold for an equivalent one issued by the DGT. As a resident in Spain, provided the administrative requirements are met, you can exchange licences from EU and EEA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway included) and from the countries with a canje treaty or convenio, which the DGT lists in a dated table with each agreement's entry into force, the classes you can obtain, and the tests — if any — each country's holders must pass.

Source: DGT — Países con convenio de canjes, read 8 September 2026.

The DGT's official page on driving with a foreign permit states that the permits it covers remain valid only while three conditions hold: no more than six months have passed since you acquired normal residence in Spain, the permit itself is still in force, and you meet the Spanish age requirement for the equivalent class. After that period, in the DGT's words, those permits carecen de validez para conducir en España — they lack validity — and continuing to drive means completing the canje or obtaining a Spanish licence through the exam route.

That six-month window is the real deadline of a move to Spain: it starts at residence, not at arrival, and it runs regardless of how long the plastic in your wallet says it lasts.

Source: DGT — Conducir con un permiso extranjero, read 8 September 2026.

The convenio table (updated 26/06/2026 at the time we read it) names each treaty country with its terms. Two entries worth calling out:

• United Kingdom and Northern Ireland — in force since 16/03/2023: car and motorbike licences exchange sin pruebas (no tests), while truck and bus classes carry test requirements.
• United States — not on the convenio list as of that update. A US licence holder who becomes resident faces the six-month validity limit with no exchange treaty behind them; past the window, the route to driving legally in Spain is the Spanish licence process itself.

Several listed countries carry class-specific tests, and the table also states the fee code per case — check your country's own row on the DGT list rather than a forum thread, and note the DGT updates the table as agreements enter into force.

Source: DGT — listado de países con convenio, fecha actualización 26/06/2026, read 8 September 2026.