How to exchange a Northern Irish Driving Licence for an English Licence?

Iceweasel

I find it offensive that some anonymous non-accountable person deems that a NI licence is a 'foreign' Licence.

It should be non-GB.

Anyhow all you need to do is follow the steps here - on the exchange a foreign licence pages:

https://www.gov.uk/exchange-foreign-driving-licence

I wouldn't be changing it if I had a serviceable address of a relative in NI where I could be contacted.

Thank goodness I didn't have to change my NI registration plate.

Northern Ireland plates are still dateless.

RIP Coleraine - although I believe it still handles the LGV and Bus licencing.

AdrianC

BigBopper wrote: »

It's only possible to have one EU Licence.

The EU don't issue driver's licences.

BigBopper

AdrianC wrote: »

The EU don't issue driver's licences.

Ok, just for you.

You can only hold one licence issued in an EU country.

Everyone else knows what I meant but there's always one.

AdrianC

BigBopper wrote: »

Ok, just for you.

You can only hold one licence issued in an EU country.

Everyone else knows what I meant but there's always one.

<sigh> Clearly I was a bit too subtle.

NI and GB licences are issued by the same authority - so there will certainly be checks carried out as to whether one individual has more than one licence issued.

Are you really suggesting that, every time somebody applies for a new UK licence, DVLA check all records from every single one of the 27 other EU member states, in case the applicant might have another licence somewhere...? Don't be daft. It is eminently possible to have licences from more than one EU member state. Everybody who has ever been prosecuted in the UK, and produced a licence from any other country, has a shadow licence with DVLA that is separate from their actual licence - it's how they track bans and points for foreign licence holders - so they could easily be said to have "two licences".

It'd be interesting to find out what happens when somebody from a non-EU country exchanges their licence for a UK one. I doubt DVLA inform the issuing authority of the original licence, so it's eminently possible for somebody to exchange <say> an Aussie or NZ ("designated country") licence for a UK one, then for a French one, then for a German one - and still have their original in their possession or be able to get one reissued if it's physically destroyed or defaced.

AdrianC

Iceweasel wrote: »

Thank goodness I didn't have to change my NI registration plate.

Well, quite. You could make a whole £50 by flogging it on eBay to some pub landlord or CorsaBoi.

Northern Ireland plates are still dateless.

Not quite. They do indicate the time and place of their original issue, albeit in a subtler way than GB ones.

lampard

Thanks everyone

I was a passenger in a NI car in england when the driver with a NI licence was stopped and told by the english police that the licence needs to be an english one if you reside here.

This was repeated to another NI driver in a car with NI plates who lives in england in 2015. The licence must be english if living here.

I will get mine changed over. It also offers the advantage of not needing R plates if I return to NI within the first year of passing as dont need plates in england

Iceweasel

lampard wrote: »

Thanks everyone

I was a passenger in a NI car in england when the driver with a NI licence was stopped and told by the english police that the licence needs to be an english one if you reside here.

This was repeated to another NI driver in a car with NI plates who lives in england in 2015. The licence must be english if living here.

I will get mine changed over. It also offers the advantage of not needing R plates if I return to NI within the first year of passing as dont need plates in england

Dear, dear - this why some of us are considered to make pedantic corrections. And saying - Oh. but you know what I mean doesn't help.

If a policeman told me I needed to have an English licence if I lived in England, he'd be told in no uncertain term to 'Go forth and multiply.'

Where exactly do you think that you are going to get an English licence? Swansea?

There is no such thing as an English driving licence.

No-one I know has an English driving licence - and if you follow the steps on the DVLA web site you won't get an English driving licence either.

You will get a GB (British) driving licence like all the other folks who live on the island of Great Britain.

Personally I would prefer that it was a UK driving licence, valid and applicable to the whole of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but like many other things in this 'United Kingdom' trying to decide when things are national or regional is very convoluted.

Edit: - for the really picky - I am well aware that a GB Licence has UK in the middle of the EU flag in the top left corner - but it does not mean the UK - it means GB. It ought to be like our GB numberplates with the EU logo on them - but I'm sure that 'You know what I mean'.

What an apology for a 'joined-up' country - no wonder some folks don't even know it's name.

irishjohn

Iceweasel wrote: »

Dear, dear - this why some of us are considered to make pedantic corrections. And saying - Oh. but you know what I mean doesn't help.

If a policeman told me I needed to have an English licence if I lived in England, he'd be told in no uncertain term to 'Go forth and multiply.'

Where exactly do you think that you are going to get an English licence? Swansea?

There is no such thing as an English driving licence.

No-one I know has an English driving licence - and if you follow the steps on the DVLA web site you won't get an English driving licence either.

You will get a GB (British) driving licence like all the other folks who live on the island of Great Britain.

Personally I would prefer that it was a UK driving licence, valid and applicable to the whole of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but like many other things in this 'United Kingdom' trying to decide when things are national or regional is very convoluted.

Edit: - for the really picky - I am well aware that a GB Licence has UK in the middle of the EU flag in the top left corner - but it does not mean the UK - it means GB. It ought to be like our GB numberplates with the EU logo on them - but I'm sure that 'You know what I mean'.

What an apology for a 'joined-up' country - no wonder some folks don't even know it's name.

And regrettably - even though all administration is carried out at Swansea - a member of our mickey mouse devolved administration in his position as Minister in charge of a department has dictated that the Northern Ireland Licence must not have the Union Flag displayed in the way it is on the GB licence - just in case we offend those residents who deem themselves as Irish not British.