treemanstu

So if you have dual citizenship can you still keep your UK driving licence and Canadian driving licence.

Also I want to take my D and G licence when I get to Canada any advice on the best route to take.

Cheers in advance

BTJ

You get a Driving Licence for wherever you live. It has nothing to do with citizenship.

DaveLovesDee

There is no such thing as a Canadian driving licence! Each Province and Territory has there own licence system. Requirements for each Province differ, and you'll find most of the useful information in the Wiki.
I think you'll find that you'll have your UK licence taken off you when you get your licence in Canada, as they don't seem to like you having more than one licence.

MarylandNed

Well then, technically speaking, there is no such thing as a UK licence either! There's a GB licence (for England, Scotland & Wales) administered by the DVLA and a separate NI licence administered by the DVA. There is no UK-wide licence. The DVLA and DVA are separate entities e.g. they have their own reciprocity agreements with foreign driving licence agencies.

jimmydean

Only if you are a resident of the UK can you legally have a UK driving licence. Citizenship has nothing to do with it.

As has been said, each province in Canada is different with regard to driving licence issue.......I live in Nova Scotia and you do not have to be a resident to obtain a NS Driving licence....in fact if you are a visitor for longer than 90 days you are obliged to obtain a NS Driving Licence in order to drive here.

FlyingDutchman6666

When an English/Scottish/Welsh driver takes their car abroad, they attach a 'GB' sticker to the back of their vehicle. GB as in Great Britain, that large island off northwestern Europe.

What country code do Northern Irish people use?

BTJ

I'd imagine GB also since that is the UK's country code. This is based on the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic which is a treaty signed by the UK's government and not the devolved parliaments/assemblies in the UK.

Similarly a US car outside of North America would have to display a "USA" sticker despite there being more than 51 licensing authorities within the US.

treemanstu

I can see this thread is not really going anywhere!

I understand that there is a license in each province which is specific to where you live!!

And also I get the fact you need to be a resident to obtain a provincial driving licence.

All in all the answer was no you can't keep both!

Anyone taken there D licence on here

iaink

You can swap a standard UK B car license in most provinces now, however in Ontario at least you will need a regular G license and then to take a test for bus, bike, or HGV licenses

Best bet is to google the licensing authority in the province you are aiming for and see whether you can swap or not.

Many people "loose" their UK license in order to have a duplicate sent out, that way they can keep both. Not sure why its worth the bother myself.

Short answer is citizenship has nothing to do with licenseing, and to drive anything other than a car here you will likely have to take the additional training / tests. My wife has an Ontario B license (School Bus, or any other bus come to that)

The good news is many school bus companies will happily train you and arrange the test. The bad news is that school bus driving is poorly paid with limited hours, and regular bus driving seems to have some serious competition to land a job. Once you have the license though at least its an option...

treemanstu

Now that was a good response! Thankyou for the refreshing post

I only ask as if things don't work out in Canada for me I don't want the hassle over changing it back to GB licence as I heard it can be a pain in the backside.

Cheers for the advice

iaink

The whole duplicate license "lost license" thing has mixed reports, some people report that once they swap here, news of that gets back to the DVLO and the UK license is suspended.

The theoretical main hassle is there is no distinction here between manual and auto tests, so word is that Swansea see a Cdn provincial license as only good for Auto. Im pretty sure though that if you have a copy of your old license its easy enough to straighten out if needs be.

Yandros

I was concerned about this before I left the UK so I contacted the DVLA. They wrote back advising that if I came back to the UK permanently I would be able to get my GB licence back with the same categories as before (eg includes manual).

james.mc

That's sounds right.

Technical/splitting hairs area authorities aside.... If you return, to reside in the UK, you simply request they issue a new licence to your new UK residential address. No need to swap or send in another licence because as a previous licence holder in the UK they already know what you are entitled to drive.

Before leaving the UK, for Canada/overseas, I'd request a letter of entitlement from DVLA. It's Free what what I recall. I've done that already. It is an official record of your driving entitlement as recorded by DVLA, printed on DVLA paper. Should they ever 'lose' your record (by way of a bungled computer system upgrade) you'll still have a a hard copy to throw back at them in 2, 5, 10 years from now if need be.
I'd also take good colour scan of your UK licence before you hand it over in Canada (some provinces will require that) and add that to the DVLA letter before you store it away.

MarylandNed

Firstly, the international vehicle country codes have nothing to do with how many driving licence agencies a country has. For example, Canada has multiple licencing agencies (one for each province) but there is only one country code (CDN). Same for the USA.

Secondly, NI isn't in GB. The official name of the country is the "UK of GB & NI". However, GB is sometimes used as an abbreviation for GB & NI (i.e. the UK). For example, the official name of the Olympic team is GB & NI which is abbreviated to just GB - but it's actually a UK team because it contains athletes from NI.

To answer your question, the following official international vehicle codes exist:

ENG - England
SCO - Scotland
CYM - Wales
NI - Northern Ireland
GB - abbreviation for UK of GB & NI (like in the Olympic example above).

So someone from NI could use GB or NI - and I've seen both. That doesn't change the fact that they have their own driving licence agency. So, like Canada and the US, the UK does not have a national driving licence agency (the function is split between 2 different agencies).

mikelincs

The United Kingdom is usually classed as Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland use the same registration system as the rest of Ireland, and presumably would use the same international letters as Eire. Irish registrations are fully acceptable in the rest of the UK and you can legally own and drive a car with an Eire registration in the rest of the UK without having to change them.