Exchanging an EU driving licence in Helsinki

Donpeblo · Post by **Donpeblo** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 8:17 pm

Hi All,

Just wanted to post on this subject as I have just exchanged my UK licence for a Finnish one.

Other posts on this have most things covered. The only thing that is maybe not 110% clear is that there is only one police station in Helsinki that will exchange your EU licence and that is this one in the centre of Helsinki known as

Kaarti Police Station, Punanotkonkatu 2, 00130 Helsinki

They were helpful and spoke english. As others on this forum (and their website) have stated they want the completed form, the licence to be exchanged, a passport, 2 suitable photos and the 40€ fee in cash. They return your original licence to you while the new finnish one is being processed.

The processing time is about 5 weeks.

I hope that saves some of you some time.

Cheers
Donpeblo

**Sponsor:**

antstar · Post by **antstar** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 8:36 pm

hi Donpeblo, thanks for the info, i'm still... getting this done, been in the process of changing mine for a year now, and now i know more details i just thought it was a case of going to the nearest cop shop throwing my old one at them and them tossing me a knew one back. hmmmm as most thing sin life nothing is so simple

SteveS · Post by **SteveS** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 9:15 pm

There is no requirement for you to change your UK license for a Finnish one. Both the DVLA website and the Finnish police websites will tell you that.

A word of caution if you do. Caught speeding anywhere 30km over the limit and they will take away your Finnish license. The UK one they will not, you will just get the fine to pay.

The other thing is that the UK license covers you to drive vans up to 7500kg, minibuses and pull trailers and such like. The Finnish ones do not, so you may well lose these catagories when you swap.

I'll be sticking with my UK one (even if I live here till I die)

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 9:54 pm

just a point, they won't renew it in the uk necessarily as you don't live there, and as its not a local one they don't have to here either, so someone might be slightly peeved at age 45 with an expired lorry licence - or a grumpy old man in the bus at 65 on his way to car school

Karhunkoski · Post by **Karhunkoski** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 10:20 pm

Pursuivant wrote:just a point, they won't renew it in the uk necessarily as you don't live there, and as its not a local one they don't have to here either, so someone might be slightly peeved at age 45 with an expired lorry licence - or a grumpy old man in the bus at 65 on his way to car school

True, although my British licence is valid until my 70th birthday, and I (currently) have the right to change it at age of 69, if I so wish, at which point I can happily switch to the Finnish system, or whatever EU country I may be living in.

Rick1 · Post by **Rick1** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 10:24 pm

SteveS wrote:There is no requirement for you to change your UK license for a Finnish one. Both the DVLA website and the Finnish police websites will tell you that.

A word of caution if you do. Caught speeding anywhere 30km over the limit and they will take away your Finnish license. The UK one they will not, you will just get the fine to pay.

The other thing is that the UK license covers you to drive vans up to 7500kg, minibuses and pull trailers and such like. The Finnish ones do not, so you may well lose these catagories when you swap.

I'll be sticking with my UK one (even if I live here till I die)

That speeding I would not try it, they can take even your Zimbabwe license and minimum is one month over 30 km plus fine.

which I think is not more than fair because I know countries where the foreigner gets away with a fine and the local idiot will lose his/her license.

Donpeblo · Post by **Donpeblo** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 11:14 pm

Hmmm look what I started!

I "needed" to exchange mine because the photo part of my licence is about to expire. I understand from researching these things that when you move to Finland you have to be here six months and then you have 12 months to exchange the licence "easily" (i.e. no new driving test). I didn't particularly want to then find myself in a situation where I had to produce some kind of indentity document and someone clever saying that was expired

Donpeblo

Rick1 · Post by **Rick1** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 11:19 pm

Donpeblo wrote:Hmmm look what I started!

I "needed" to exchange mine because the photo part of my licence is about to expire. Donpeblo

Would a facelift help

?
I heard that the finns also have to do a winter test, see how you drive in the snow or ice.

Karhunkoski · Post by **Karhunkoski** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 7:00 am

Donpeblo wrote:I "needed" to exchange mine because the photo part of my licence is about to expire. I understand from researching these things that when you move to Finland you have to be here six months and then you have 12 months to exchange the licence "easily" (i.e. no new driving test).

This is true if you have a non-EU Driving Licence. If you have an EU one, you can change it anytime, or not at all, up to you.

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