Dear friends, I am to be married to my lovely Spanish fianc? in May. Do I need to change over my Arizona driver’s license to a Spanish one? (My guess is yes, but am rather hoping against hope that it’s no).

If I do need to, what would be the procedure? Do I have to take a bunch of expensive classes?

Thanks!

Doubtless having a Spanish fianc? has many advantages but getting a free Spanish driving licence is not one of them! EU persons can get a swop but most others need to take the test. There used to be a few American states that were exemp but I can’t find the list right now. I expect an American will post more….

You are out of luck my friend, you need to get the Spanish drivers liscense, start over from day one, and it is a much more difficult process than in the US. Not to mention a lot more expensive, not to mention in Spainsh, although I hear you can do the test in English, something I would not trust anyways as it is surely badly translated. OOh and the fun part is the cool “L” sign that you hate to stick on your back window for a year to alert people that you are new driver again!

I know that Germany has some agreements with some US states, I believe Arizona is one of them! So you would be able to go to Germany (if you have someone with an address there!!!) get a German Drivers license and then move to Spain which would recognize German Licenses….. That seems crazy though, doesnt it?

By the way, I am an American and I had to go through the whole process. It was good though, they have a lot of signs that I had no idea what they meant. Not to mention the roundabout laws and the intersections with various stop lights (one on the right and a different one on the left)..

Good luck

Thanks! I’ll check out the Germany thing. I’m fluent in Spanish, so taking the test wouldn’t be an issue, and I have been driving with rental cars using my American license so am now pretty familiar with the signage. *sigh* oh well.

Trust me when I tell you that if you wait to get your license here, it will not be as simple as you think. You say you drive here, so did I, and you say you know the signs… that is what I thought. Heck, I bet that is what most Spaniards thought before they started taking driving lessons here.

Most Spaniards fail the test at least once. So again, not as easy as you think.

Let me explain… There are pages and pages of signs that you have never seen in your life, and yes you need to know them all. And no, no “words” appear on them that might help you understand them as they do in the USA. You see, European signs are used in many countries, so there are no indications. And again, trust me, most are not as straight forward as you might think.

Second, there are pages of velocity rules that you have to memorize, and they are at the very least ridiculous. If your have a X type of car and the shoulder of the highway is more than 1.5 meters then the speed limit is X. If the shoulder is less than 1.5 meters then it is X. If you are X car and you have a trailer of X width and X length and you are on a highway with X shoulder, then the speed limit is X.

If it is foggy and slightly raining then you should activate your “luces de cruz” “luces de larga distancia” “las dos” “luces de niebla”.. .. A bunch of different combinations for different weather types…

Seriously, it is ridiculous, and you have to study. If you memorize all the stuff and take all of the practice tests various times, it isnt so bad. In fact, there are so many ridiculous things to memorize that you will forget just about everything the day after you take the test.

What I want to say is, the fact that you already drive here will not help you at all. The fact that you speak Spanish only will help you in the fact that the English test is surely flawed.

Ahh, and I forgot to say that it is pretty darn expensive as well. YOu have to sign up through a driving school and they will require that you take lessons with them. Again, you will be surprised to know that you have to take them and they will make you change a lot of the ways you drive because if you dont, you will flunk the driving test. The way you shift, always two hands on the wheel, basically back to the basics because if not, they will flunk you. Going back to the basics is sometimes harder than starting from zero.

I passed both on my first try, but you will have to study.

Maybe you will get lucky with the Germany thing, but I do recommend learning here, there are a lot of things you dont even know that you dont know 😊

How did it go? Did youg et your license?

Bet he is still taking those tests!

I changed my UK driving licence over ten years ago, have never had an accident, nor ticket from the traffic police. When my wife was taking driving lessons I took a few of the theory tests that are available on the Trafico web site. Needless to say, I failed every time.

To Sheila Translate - Just checking - if you hold an EU licence or certain other countries you can exchange for a Spanish one without taking any tests. If you don’t - good luck!

OK didn’t want you sitting there when it was an easy process! But not in your case….(mind you I thought some American states qualified for an easy swop?)

At least in some areas in can be done in English for those without adequate Spanish.