If I've lost my UK driving licence

[BecauseItsBedtime]

and I live in Germany, what can I do? Can I get a new one?

Have some more searching to do, maybe it will turn up, but the toddler had my purse (he is at the stage where suddenly he can reach things that were definitely well out of his reach 30 seconds ago...) and when I gathered everything up the driving licence picture card was nowhere to be found... I don't know if it was already missing or is somewhere in the house...

Does anyone know if I can get a new UK licence or will I have to apply for a German one?

Many thanks!

To have a new UK one you need to have a UK address - they won't let you have one with an overseas address. They will automatically send the replacement to the address on your license. Dh lost his and managed to get a replacement sent here by speaking to the dvla and claiming he was overseas on business and needed his license to hire a car - they did buy his story and sent the license here but not strictly truthful!

We both still have our house in the UK as the address even though it's rented out. Depending on the address on yours you could have the new one sent there and then forwarded?

Thanks Merlion - unfortunately the address on licence is our old house in the UK, which we sold!

I don't mind exchanging for a German one at all, it's just the hassle factor, especially as ironically I am pretty sure the exchange will involve more paperwork and hassle now I don't have the photocard to exchange (still have the counterpart but suspect that's almost useless, as it doesn't look like the German idea of a licence, plus it says on the top "The photocard and paper counterpart should be kept together" so I can't claim it is an ancient pre photocard one...)

I just rung the DVLA and they are going to send me a "letter of entitlement" which hopefully I will be able to use to get a German one - has anyone done that? The DVLA said I would have to check with "local authorities" as they didn't keep lists of countries that accepted the letter...

Ah I see! Can't help you with Germany I'm afraid. Hopefully someone will be along shortly.

I had to do a theory test here to get a Singaporean license.

I had the same issue in France and it worked...otherwise do you have a UK address you could "borrow" (friends, parents...?)

I renewed mine to get a photo card and at the same time changed my registered address to my parents' house.
They sent the new licence to my parents who then forwarded it to me.

There is a company which can be used as a mailbox and forwarding address for expats in London. It's not expensive. You can use that if you need a uk address and do not have handy family and friends happy to be your postman. It's a secure location too.

Thanks everybody. They sent out the 'letter of entitlement' very quickly - arrived yesterday. Just have to see how easy it is to swap for a German one now. I could change the registered address on my UK one to my parents address, but I don't really want to for various reasons (one being my mother likes to keep my mail "for when you visit" - which tends to be less than once a year! :o

Lol! I have the opposite my Mum sends us everything that arrives for us at her address including junk mail that we've repeatedly asked her not to send us.

I'm in Germany and went to the local driving licence office as I had contemplated changing my British licence to a German one. It didnt seem like too much of a hassle - just had to fill out one form & provide a current photo but I cant remember if she asked to see both parts of my British licence - sorry.

I didnt change it in the end as the woman said I was eligible to drive on my British licence here till it expired (2019) so not sure how long it takes to get one.

Hope you get it all sorted fairly quickly.

I have changed to a German licence. I called DVLA because my UK licence was in my maiden name and I wanted to change it to married name. They said I was not entitled to have a UK licence since I no longer live there and would have to change it to a German one.

It wasn't much hassle at all and I think it cost about 30 Euros for the German licence. It took a matter of days and was done at my local Landratsamt which is where the driving licence place is.

BUT and this is a big but ... I had to pay an offical translator for a translation of my UK licence. This riled me because I could have translated it myself (grrr) but needed the official stamp on it and because they charge per line and because there is quite a lot of preprinted crap on a UK paper licence, the whole thing cost me 160 Euros. Maybe yours would be cheaper since you already have the photo card. Good luck!

Thats interesting that we got conflicting advice. Might think about changing it but the cost of the translation puts me off.

Yep it was a total rip off. I did this three years ago and the letter of entitlement was never mentioned to me by DVLA, but maybe that was because I still had a copy of my maiden name licence and I wasn't replacing a lost licence iyswim.

I got my UK licence transferred to a German one about 10 years ago. One of the reasons I did so was because I had one of the old-style pink licences with no picture, which confused the Germans, and even more confusingly, it was a Welsh licence which had the entire text in Welsh first. It caused so many problems!

However, getting the German licence was relatively easy, and I didn't have to get an official translation, so it cost a lot less than fruitscone had to pay. The official is not obliged to ask for a translation if they think they can understand the original, and some Beamten like to show off about their level of English - I was lucky on the day in question and got a guy who made a big thing about being able to read it all (though not the Welsh bit, obviously).

I do remember that on the day I went to pick up my German licence, I had to hand in the UK one first. They were very insistent on that. So you'd better check in advance that they're preapred to accept the letter of entitlement as an alternative to the licence.

Oh, and I had to take a eyesight test in order to get the German licence too. Did you not need to do so, fruitscone? Perhaps the rules have changed more recently.

I got a german licence last year as my Uk had expired and i also had no uk address, it was very easy, filled out form, had to drop a couple of entitlements (can't drive a heffing great truck anymore :( ) as they weren't compatible but otherwise it was straight forward, went back few days later to pick up new licence. I thought i would have problem as my old licence had expired by quite a bit but i just glossed over that a bit and it was ok, i didn't need a translation, some areas ask for it, some don't. i was in Konstanz. Technically, you should exchange it if you aren't resident in UK anymore.

oh i didn't need to do eye test either

Interesting thread!

I've bookmarked it cos I lost my licence due to not being residential. ;-(

That letter of entitlement looks interesting. Will have to look into that. The postbox is handy to know too ;-)

Darrowby I must have had a thicko Beamter who didn't dare to try to translate the very tricky English on my paper licence. Or it could be because I am in Bavaria - they are apparently the rottweilers of German bureacracy.

When I got married to my German DH (in UK I may add!) I had such a nightmare with the Bavarian authorities. DH needed one piddly document but they would not issue it without me providing form upon form upon beglaubigtes this and that to prove to them my elligibility for him to marry me. Spoke to the German consulate in Edinburgh in the end and the German said oh Bavaria is a such a nightmare! When I picked up the licence in Scotland they suggested I should have married a Greek as that is far less complicated! But I digress...

No I didn't have to do the eye test and so my licence doesn't say anything on it about my eyesight. I had to hand in my UK paper licence when I applied and I could have got it back, albeit with the corner cut off or summat, but because I had gone abroad for a longer period, they destroyed the UK one since i couldn't pick it up within two weeks.