DVLA-accepted certified translation of foreign driving licences. £12.99 per licence, 24-hour turnaround.
Foreign driving licences — also written 'drivers license' in US English — come up in two situations: exchanging your overseas licence for a UK one through DVLA, and using your overseas licence in the UK during the 12-month transition window after becoming a resident. Both routes need a certified translation if the licence isn't in English, and DVLA is specific about what the translation must include — issuing authority, dates, categories, restrictions, and the photograph reference.
We translate driving licences from any country at £12.99 per licence (most fit on one page), in the certified format DVLA accepts directly. The most common we handle are Polish, Romanian, Pakistani, Indian, and Filipino. The translation drivers license workflow is identical whether you ordered it under the UK or US spelling.
DVLA requires a certified translation when you're exchanging a foreign driving licence for a UK licence and the original isn't in English, or when the police request to verify your licence during the 12-month transition window after becoming a UK resident. The translation must include the issuing authority, all dates, categories, and any restrictions.
The exchange route depends on the country. Designated countries (Australia, Canada, Singapore, South Korea, and a few others) get a straight exchange without a UK driving test. Most other countries need a UK provisional licence and the standard driving test, but DVLA still wants the original licence translated as part of the application file.
The translation captures the licence categories (B for car, BE for car with trailer, A for motorbike, C for HGV, D for bus, etc.), restriction codes (lenses required, automatic-only, etc.), and the issue and expiry dates. Photograph references and signatures are noted but not transliterated.
Driving licence translation costs £12.99 per licence — most foreign licences fit on a single page. The certified PDF is delivered within 24 business hours by email, with statement of accuracy and translator credentials included. Same-day rush is available for £24.99.
A single licence at £12.99 covers the certified format DVLA accepts directly: front and back of the licence translated, all categories and restrictions captured, issuing authority rendered, and dates in the unambiguous DD MMM YYYY format DVLA prefers. Statement of accuracy is on a separate page.
A few licences run to two pages — older Pakistani and Indian licences, multi-page Romanian licences with extensive category endorsements — at £25.98 total in those cases.
The most-translated foreign driving licences for UK exchange are Polish, Romanian, Pakistani, Indian, Filipino, Nigerian, Albanian, and Brazilian. We translate from any country in the world at the same per-licence rate.
Eastern European licences dominate the volume — Polish and Romanian especially, given the size of those communities in the UK and the licence renewal cycles that bring people through DVLA each year. Pakistani and Indian licences come up regularly through the spouse-visa and family-route immigration pipeline.
Filipino and Nigerian licences appear most often when someone is moving to the UK on a Skilled Worker visa and wants to drive while they go through the UK test process. Albanian and Brazilian licences come up frequently in the asylum and humanitarian protection routes.
The two most common mistakes are translating only the front of the licence (missing the back, where the categories and restrictions usually live) and skipping the issuing authority block, which DVLA needs to verify the licence's origin. Both result in DVLA returning the application.
We see returned applications most often because of single-side translations — most foreign licences carry the practical detail (categories, restrictions, issue date, expiry, photograph reference) on the back, in a numbered field structure. Without that, DVLA can't validate the application and the file goes back.
The second pattern is the issuing authority — DVLA needs to confirm the licence comes from a recognised national or regional traffic authority. Translations that render the issuer as 'Government Office' or similar generic English fail this check. We render the full authority name (Ministerstwo Infrastruktury for Poland, Direcţia Regim Permise de Conducere for Romania) and add the corresponding English description in parentheses.
Yes. Our certified translations meet DVLA's stated requirements — issuing authority, dates, categories, and restrictions all captured, with statement of accuracy and translator credentials. DVLA processes applications using the certified format directly.
Standard turnaround is 24 business hours from order to certified PDF in your inbox. Same-day rush (8-hour guarantee) is available at £24.99 for urgent applications.
Yes — most foreign licences carry the categories and restrictions on the back, and DVLA needs both sides to validate the application. We translate front and back as standard, no extra charge.
Yes. Polish prawo jazdy is one of our most-translated documents. We capture the categories (Kategoria), restrictions, issue date (Data wydania), expiry, and the issuing authority in full.
Yes. Romanian permis de conducere translations are issued daily, with all categories, restrictions, and the Direcţia Regim Permise de Conducere issuing authority rendered correctly for DVLA exchange.
International driving permits are usually multilingual and include English, so don't typically need separate translation. If yours doesn't, we translate at the same £12.99 per page rate.
Both. Internally we use 'driving licence' (UK spelling) because the document is going to DVLA, but the translation work for a foreign drivers license (US spelling) is identical — categories, restrictions, issuing authority, dates, all rendered in DVLA-accepted certified format. Order under either term and you'll get the same certified translation driving licence product at the same £12.99 per licence rate.
Yes. Our certified driving licence translation services are the official translation of driving licence that DVLA accepts directly for exchange and verification. Both sides of the licence are translated, categories and restrictions captured, and the statement of accuracy is included — no extra charge for the certification.
UKVI-accepted certified translations from £12.99 per licence. Statement of accuracy included. 24-hour delivery.
Trusted by over 150,000 clients across the UK. Statement of accuracy, translator credentials and digital delivery — all included from £12.99 per page.
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