Hello again its been a while.

I am English but I have duel English/Canadian citizenship.

I am planning on moving to BC for a while.
If I went to AB 1st and stayed with relatives to get my English driving licence swapped for a AB one.

THEN

Go to BC and get the AB one swapped for a BC one without doing the test etc that they want from English drivers??

Does anybody know if this is possible?

Thank you.

Looks like its possible in other provinces. http://britishexpats.com/forum/showp...3&postcount=16

It may apply to BC/Alberta too.

You can do what you propose -- in theory. In reality, in order to get an Alberta driver's licence, you have to provide a fair bit of documentation that demonstrates that you're a bona fide resident of Alberta. It would not be that easy to assemble that documentation if you were just visiting relatives.

See the Wiki called Alberta - Driving licence.
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not sure if it really works... in addition to judy's point bc has restrictions for swapping licences from canada too:

the icbc-site about newcomers to bc states: which would mean to me that if you've had an alberta license which is less than 2 years old you have to do your test(s)... but there might be someone around who has done the gb - short term ab - bc swap?

The quote you have given is fron the section "Any other type of driver's licence?"

I have been a AB resident in the past this may help.

Unlikely to work, as ICBC will see when it was issued, unless you plan on staying with your relatives for a couple of years. It seems an awful lot of agro to avoid taking a simple drivers test, which you may end up doing anyway.

If you have doubts about passing the test, perhaps for your own safety and other road users a few lessons might be the best way to proceed.

No, it won't help. I have been an Alberta resident twice. When I returned to Alberta after a period abroad, I had to show documentation that I was a bona fide Alberta resident all over again.

I agree with what Surrey Expat said about lessons. When we moved to Australia we had to take driver's tests again. It was the same thing that you'll be going through, in that it involved driving on the other side of the road and learning a few, slightly different driving rules. I took some lessons, and found them helpful.

Also, on a few occasions, in advance of the test, I went to the office from which the examiner and I would be setting out. Using that as the starting point, I drove in different directions. That made me somewhat familiar with the areas to the north, south, east and west of that spot. Consequently I had some familiarity with the idiosyncracies of the surrounding streets.
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and? i was looking for pitfalls you might encounter in bc and have read the whole page i linked to. the quote with the highlighted parts refers to what i think would be the answer to your question.

if you are only looking for a "yes, of course, dear murphy, you can do it!" from people who are not pros in licensing in either province (i am not, and if i'm not very much mistaken the other posters aren't either), and don't want to hear warnings that it is possibly or even probably not working... why do you ask?

good luck!