Where to exchange a foreign driving licence in the Netherlands

Applications start at your municipality, so pick your city

Only your municipality can send an exchange application to the RDW, so you apply where you are registered. Where you book, whether you phone first and when you collect the new licence once the RDW has checked your application all depend on the municipality.

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1 office in Almere

  • Almere

    Stadhuis Almere — Burgerzaken

    Stadhuisplein 1, 1315 HR Almere

    Apply in person by appointment at citizens’ services, as the town hall passes your documents on to the driving licence authority.

    Book an appointmentOffice website+31 36 539 99 11

    Bring valid ID, the original foreign licence, a compliant colour photograph and any old Dutch licence. RDW (Dutch vehicle and driving licence authority) requires a CBR (Dutch driving test and medical fitness assessor) health declaration for non-EU/EFTA licences and sometimes for EU/EFTA licences. Bring an applicable valid expat-tax decision and a translation if the licence uses unfamiliar characters. Check country-specific exceptions with RDW. If your licence was issued outside the EU/EFTA and is nearing expiry, start the exchange process with the municipality before it expires. RDW says supplementary documents such as CBR health clearance can follow later; confirm submission arrangements with the municipality. If relying on the Ukrainian temporary-protection driving exception, check your status and RDW’s current guidance before applying ordinary driving deadlines. For an exchange, check the tax ruling and document-validity requirements separately: permission to drive with an expired Ukrainian licence does not guarantee that it can be exchanged.

Guides

Guides that help with this

Netherlands

Driving license

Netherlands Foreign Licence Exchange

Validity, RDW exchange, and CBR tests

Find out if you can exchange your foreign driving licence in the Netherlands, calculate your validity deadlines, and prepare your municipal application.

Driving LicenceRDWCBR
14 min readRead guide

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Exchange a foreign driving licence

For newcomers with a licence from another country: who can exchange, what to bring and what happens if an exchange is not possible.

Exchange a licence in the Netherlands

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