Exchanging a Ukrainian driving licence in Germany

On 18 August 2026 Germany did what the Ukrainian community had been waiting four years for: it added Ukraine to Annex 11 of the FeV, the list of states whose driving licences are exchanged without tests. Until then Ukrainians in Germany sat both the theory and the practical exam, at a cost running from several hundred to several thousand euros.

Here is how the procedure looks now, which documents it takes, and where a translator is genuinely needed.

What changed

Ukraine — together with Montenegro — was added to Annex 11 of the Fahrerlaubnis-Verordnung. The consequence is single but large: holders of Ukrainian licences in the listed classes go through Umschreibung, the conversion to a German licence, without a theory or practical test.

The classes covered: A1, A, B, BE, C1, C1E, C, CE, D1, D1E, D, DE.

Two details that are easy to miss:

• The Ukrainian A1 class maps to the German AM on conversion — not an error at the counter, but how the classes are matched.
• The rule also covers licences that expired after 31 December 2021.

One condition is unchanged: you need a registered residence in Germany. Nothing happens automatically — you file the application yourself at the Führerscheinstelle for your registered address.

For class B, authorities require neither an eyesight test (Sehtest) nor a first-aid course nor any driving-school tuition. For the heavier classes — lorries and buses — those proofs, plus a medical examination, may be required.

The six months everyone overlooks

A licence from a non-EU country is valid in Germany for six months from the day you formally establish residence here. The clock starts at Anmeldung, the address registration, not at the border.

Once those six months are gone, driving on a Ukrainian licence is not a grey area — it is driving without a licence, with the consequences that follow. Hence the simple rule: register your address, then book the Führerscheinstelle appointment straight away.

The document set

Applications go to the Führerscheinstelle for your registered address. The standard set:

Document	Note
The original Ukrainian licence	the card itself, not a photo or a scan
A certified translation of the licence	from an ADAC contract translator or a translator sworn in Germany
A biometric photograph	usually no older than six months
Passport or residence permit	proof of identity
Proof of residence	Meldebescheinigung / Anmeldung

Classes C and D add a medical examination and sometimes an eyesight test and first-aid course. The exact list and the fee differ by federal state: there is no nationwide price, and any “exact figure” found online belongs to somebody else’s Land.

Why it takes so long

The slow part is not producing the card — large cities quote roughly three to four weeks — but the Echtheitsprüfung: the authenticity check, run as a query to the authority that issued your licence. This is where files sit for months, and where the German office depends on someone else entirely.

You cannot speed the check up, but you can avoid complicating it:

• submit a licence in good physical condition, with legible data;
• have the MIA service centre’s confirmation of the licence’s validity ready in case the office asks for it;
• do not submit a document whose surname differs from your passport without the certificate explaining the change.

Costs, and driving while you wait

There is no single nationwide fee: the tariff is set by the federal state, and on top of it come the translation, the photograph and — for lorry and bus classes — medical certificates. Any round number from a forum belongs to another city; ask your own office and build your budget from three parts: the authority’s fee, the translation, the supporting certificates.

As for driving during the process, the six-month rule governs: while it lasts, you drive on your Ukrainian licence. If it expires while your file is still open, the authority decides what happens — some Länder issue an interim confirmation, others do not. One more argument for applying right after Anmeldung rather than a week before the deadline.

A practical point at the end: on conversion the Ukrainian licence normally stays with the authority — the German card replaces it rather than supplementing it. If you need the original for something else, ask in advance how your particular office handles it and whether a certified copy can be left instead.

Where a translator matters, and where one does not

This is the question translation agencies tend to go quiet on, so let us be direct.

The translation of the licence itself is asked for from an ADAC contract translator or from a translator sworn in before a German court. A notarised translation produced in Ukraine is not accepted everywhere in this procedure — so before ordering one, simply ask your office whose translation it recognises. We would rather say that up front than take money for a document that will not work at the counter.

Where a Ukrainian translation does work:

• supporting documents from Ukraine — certificates and extracts from the MIA service centres, medical records, a certificate of a name change;
• insurers, employers, car rental companies, where the requirements are softer and a certified translation is enough;
• the opposite direction — a German licence or German certificates for use in Ukraine.

On the spelling of names: in German documents it must match your international passport. How German practice transliterates Ukrainian names, and why mismatches appear, is covered in Ukrainian names in German and Polish documents.

How Germany differs from Poland and Czechia

The question comes up whenever a family moves on from one country to the next. Briefly: each state sets its own rules, and “the way it works next door” does not transfer.

Germany has exchanged without tests since 18 August 2026, on the basis of Ukraine’s listing in Annex 11. Poland and Czechia run their own procedures with their own conditions on length of stay, certificates and, in some cases, tests. The one thing they share: the clock always starts at formal residence registration, and the authority always verifies the Ukrainian document with the body that issued it.

A practical note for anyone moving on: once your licence is German, it is an EU document, and the next move inside the Union needs no conversion at all. That is a quiet but real argument against postponing the Umschreibung.

If you have no licence, lost it, or hold a very old one

Three common situations:

1. The licence is lost. There is nothing to exchange: start with a duplicate in Ukraine. The MIA service centres issue them, including remotely through Diia, and only then does the German step make sense.
2. An old-format licence. Paper documents of Soviet or early Ukrainian format take longer to verify and draw more queries. The sensible move is to replace it with a current card in Ukraine first.
3. No licence at all. Then it is not an exchange but tuition at a German driving school. The relief here is different: the theory test in Germany can be taken in Ukrainian.

What you definitely do not need

• An apostille on the licence. It plays no part; authenticity is checked by query, not by stamp.
• Notarisation for the Führerscheinstelle. The German office looks at the translator’s status, not at a notary.
• Agents promising to “speed up” the exchange. The pace is set by the appointment queue and by the answer from Ukraine, and neither is for sale.

What we do

We handle the Ukrainian half: German translations of the supporting documents — MIA service centre certificates and extracts, medical records, a name-change certificate — with certification where the recipient needs it. German translation starts at 450 UAH per page and notarisation is 400 UAH per document. Send scans by email or messenger, get a quote in 15 minutes, standard turnaround 1–2 business days.

First step, before anything else: call or email your Führerscheinstelle and get two facts out of them — whose translation they accept, and the complete document list that applies in your Land. Five minutes that save weeks, because the lists differ and “the list from the internet” is the single commonest reason people come back for a second appointment. The licence translation service is on our driver’s licence translation page, and the country overview is on the Germany page. What the notary actually verifies, and what the certification note contains, is explained on our page about notarized translation in Kyiv.