Exchanging a foreign driving licence for a Ukrainian one

The request we usually receive is a short one: “translate my driving licence.” Behind it, almost always, sits a procedure in which the translation is one step out of four — and in which the MVS service centre refuses the file for reasons that have nothing to do with translation quality. Files are refused over the form of certification, over a missing document from the issuing authority, and over a deadline that has already run.

Here is how the exchange looks from the service centre’s side: what you actually have to bring, where the line runs between an exam-free exchange and re-examination, and which mistakes cost a second visit.

Who needs the exchange, and when

Exchanging a foreign licence for a Ukrainian one is a distinct administrative service, not “a translation for the traffic police.” Two groups need it:

• Ukrainians returning for permanent residence who hold a licence issued abroad — including those who already swapped their Ukrainian licence for a local one in Poland, Germany, Czechia or elsewhere.
• Foreign nationals and stateless persons who have received permanent-residence documents in Ukraine.

The deadline that matters: service-centre pages state that the foreign licence of a person who has moved to Ukraine permanently is valid in Ukraine for 60 days from the date the State Migration Service (DMS) issues the permanent-residence documents, and must be exchanged after that. The clock does not start when you cross the border, nor when the licence was issued — it starts with the migration-service document. That is the one date worth writing down.

What the service centre asks for

The Main Service Centre’s list, as it stands in 2026, has four items:

1. Proof of identity — a Ukrainian passport or ID card, a travel passport, a temporary citizen’s certificate, or a permanent-residence permit.
2. Taxpayer registration number (RNOKPP).
3. The foreign driving licence with a Ukrainian translation, notarised or certified by a consular office.
4. A document from the competent authority of the issuing state confirming that the licence was issued and that the holder has not been deprived of, or temporarily restricted in, the right to drive. It may not be needed where the exchange runs under an international agreement — in that case the service centre sends the query itself.

The service is provided in person only; a foreign licence cannot be exchanged online.

Item four is the least visible and the most painful. It is usually left out of informal accounts of the procedure, and it is itself a foreign document: if the authority issued it in Polish, German or English, it too has to be translated and certified. So find out whether an agreement covers your country — and whether the service centre will request the data itself — before you order the translation. The answer decides whether you are translating one document or two.

The translation: what “certified in the established manner” means

The official wording is “with a notarised translation” or “certified by a consular office.” In practice it describes a specific physical object: a notary certifies the authenticity of the translator’s signature, the translation is bound to a copy of the licence, and a stamp runs across the binding. A translation agency’s own stamp is not enough for a service centre.

Three details that send a translation back for rework:

• The whole document is translated, reverse side included. On a plastic licence the reverse carries the table of categories with the date each was granted — and that is what the service centre uses to decide which categories to carry over into the Ukrainian document. A front-only translation leaves the file incomplete.
• The spelling of your name must match your Ukrainian documents. On a licence issued abroad your name appears in Latin script, often spelled by that country’s rules rather than as in your travel passport. In the Ukrainian translation the name is rendered as it appears in your Ukrainian passport; a mismatch between translation and passport is a direct invitation to queries.
• Codes and endorsements. Driving restrictions (a code requiring glasses, for instance), experience endorsements, form numbers — all of it is part of the document and belongs in the translation.

No apostille is needed on a driving licence, Ukrainian or foreign. Validity is confirmed through an agreement or a query to the issuing authority, not through an apostille.

Exams: where the line runs

This is the part of the topic where the internet carries the most conflicting lists. The rule the Main Service Centre applies turns on the convention, not on “EU / non-EU”:

Where the licence is from	Basis	Exams
A state party to the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, with a document that meets its requirements	1968 Convention	normally not required
Countries with a bilateral agreement on mutual recognition and exchange of licences — the Main Service Centre names Spain, Italy, Lithuania, Türkiye and the UAE	bilateral agreement	not required; the service centre queries the issuing authority itself
Licences issued under the 1949 Geneva Convention — the USA, Canada and Australia among them	1949 Geneva Convention	re-examination required
The licence cannot be verified, or its authenticity is in doubt	—	required

Where exams are set, a medical fitness certificate is added — and here official statements from different years diverge. Some Main Service Centre pages say the medical certificate is needed when exams are taken and that, for the duration of martial law, it may be omitted for an exam-free exchange; a more general explanation from early 2026 says the medical certificate is not mandatory for an exchange or a replacement while martial law is in force. This is exactly the point to confirm with your own service centre before the visit: the rule is temporary and changes faster than the pages ranking in search.

When the exchange will not happen

A service centre will not exchange a licence if:

• there is information about deprivation of the right to drive, or a temporary restriction of it — whether in Ukraine or in the issuing state (that is what the item-four document checks);
• the person is wanted by the police;
• more than a year has passed since the licence expired.

The last point deserves a second reading from anyone postponing the exchange: a licence more than a year out of date moves the case from an exchange to obtaining a licence from scratch, with training and exams.

Common mistakes

• Leaving the translation for later. A notarised translation takes a day, but the 60-day clock runs from the migration-service document, not from your calendar. Order it in the same week.
• Bringing a translation made abroad. A translation certified by a notary of another state is itself a foreign notarial document and needs legalisation in its own right. Translating the licence in Ukraine, before a Ukrainian notary, is simpler and cheaper.
• Forgetting the second document. The competent authority’s certificate on the absence of any driving ban is also foreign, and also needs translating where no agreement covers the query.
• Trusting old country lists. The “no exams” lists online are often from 2022–2024; status and practice have moved since.
• Waiting for an online service. Exchanging a foreign licence is not processed online — an in-person visit is required.

If you are looking the other way round

The inbound exchange is only one side of this. If you live abroad and are swapping a Ukrainian licence for a local one, we have separate walk-throughs for Poland, Germany, Czechia and Sweden, with the local requirements and the kind of translation each authority accepts.

If other foreign documents are travelling with your licence — certificates, extracts, corporate records — start with the general rule for this direction: who issues the apostille in each country. Unlike a driving licence, most of those documents do need one.

How we handle it

We start with two questions: which state issued the licence, and whether the set includes the certificate on the absence of a driving ban. The answers set the scope — one document or two — and show whether anything still has to be obtained before the service-centre visit.

Then we translate the document in full, reverse side, category table and service codes included, align the spelling of your name with your Ukrainian passport, and have the translation notarised. Notarised translation of a driving licence starts at UAH 300 per document from English, with notarisation at UAH 400; other languages follow the price list. If a passport translation is needed for the migration service, we do the set together.

Send scans of both sides of the licence — you will have a quote within 15 minutes.