i looked the police website but could not find correction to information what i need my wife has been driving in Thailand for 3 years now so if she moves to Finland can she change her licence to Finnish one or she need to go to school to drive a new one? that would be a bummer extra 1500e or so to get a damn license...any experiences on that Non-EU country?
Jukka
changing of drivers licence?
I hope I understood your question correctly. EEA stands for the European Economic Area. Roughly speaking, the EEA includes all the EU member states and a few other European countries. A list of all the EEA countries can be found on Google quite swiftly.jukkak wrote:sorry to sound stupid but what is short for EEA countries? and i didnt read clearly that can or no?
In other words, I'm afraid it doesn't really look like you can simply exchange a Thai licence for a Finnish one. It might be worth phoning up your local police station and asking, though, but I'm quite doubtful it would work.
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Hank W.
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Yes you can change (don't know about the simply part) - with certain prerequisites. Thailand is a Geneva convention country as you can see on the poliisi pages in the link on those convention drivers' licence exchanges.
As a general rule of thumb - only if you are from some country that has neither the Geneva nor the Vienna convention signed you are in for a driving school automatically (or if you miss the deadlines).
Non-signatory countries would be some like China, Mongolia or North Korea IIRC. (Its by far easier to find what countries have signed the agreements than who have not, theres lists all over and one on the police site).
From the Geneva and Vienna convention countries you need to drive in Finland for 6 months and then go do the exchange. But note this applies only for a regular car (B) or motorcycle (A) licence. Not buses, trucks or special vehicles. So in other words a teamster from the USA can't change his rig licence 1:1 for a Finnish one. He can get a Finnish B-licence, and then needs to cough up the few thousand go to to drive his CE.
As a general rule of thumb - only if you are from some country that has neither the Geneva nor the Vienna convention signed you are in for a driving school automatically (or if you miss the deadlines).
Non-signatory countries would be some like China, Mongolia or North Korea IIRC. (Its by far easier to find what countries have signed the agreements than who have not, theres lists all over and one on the police site).
From the Geneva and Vienna convention countries you need to drive in Finland for 6 months and then go do the exchange. But note this applies only for a regular car (B) or motorcycle (A) licence. Not buses, trucks or special vehicles. So in other words a teamster from the USA can't change his rig licence 1:1 for a Finnish one. He can get a Finnish B-licence, and then needs to cough up the few thousand go to to drive his CE.
Cheers, Hank W.
sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin.
sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin.
check situation of your country on UN's website and not with Finnish Ministry of Interior 
))
When, I was trying to change my license, they refused to do and tried to send me to driving and theory test, because my country is not in the list of Vienna or Geneve convention.
I've downloaded a bunch of documents from UN's website stating that my country signed convention and sent to ministry...
Finally, they admitted that their last update on countries was more than 1 year ago!!!!!!!!!!!
Sometimes, you have to do their job... otherwise no one in traffic police interested in updating their information...
))When, I was trying to change my license, they refused to do and tried to send me to driving and theory test, because my country is not in the list of Vienna or Geneve convention.
I've downloaded a bunch of documents from UN's website stating that my country signed convention and sent to ministry...
Finally, they admitted that their last update on countries was more than 1 year ago!!!!!!!!!!!
Sometimes, you have to do their job... otherwise no one in traffic police interested in updating their information...
My Chinese friends came to Finland with Chinese driving licences and they could use it for half an year. Then I think they had to pass the driving and theory test to get the Finnish one. Well at least they avoided going to expensive driving school here
Reality is when you stop believing, it will not vanish.