Well after I dealt with Audi all day on Wednesday (I want a very specific car and the leasing agreement is a bit complicated) I took it upon me to exchange my driver's license today. One of the main reasons being that Audi Finance requires you to have a full Ontario Driver's License when you wish to lease or be a co-signatory on a lease.

Because I have a German Driver's License I had to have it translated. I did this in the UK, along with the translation of my degree for CIC, however that was not good enough for Services Canada and the MOT. I had to have it redone using an ATIO certified translator. It cost me another 75$ as the lady had to officially redo the whole translation and it took roughly a day to do.

I went to a combined Services Canada centre (not a drivetest centre) and after waiting around 50 minutes the exchange itself is very painless.

You need to read out 6 numbers with _both_ eyes open. So if you are concerned about a weakness in one eye, do not be if you can see 20/50 with both eyes open. After that the machine tests your peripheral vision, all in all that takes about 5 minutes.

After that you fill out a little form and pay 75$. They will then issue you with a temporary license and within 6 weeks your real license should arrive. Complete with a mug-shot they will take right there and then.

They also take your past driving experience into account. So while the license will be "issued" on the day you request it, the computer itself will show a record for whenever your license was first issued. This is helpful when a car insurance looks up your data and checks for how long you have held a license.

I opted out of going to the OHIP people, because I will have my address changed once I move into my place. I will admit that having a place to live with a permanent residence would have made many of these things much easier, but that is just a minor ripple in the system.

Next we will tackle the lease of the car and then I will look around for houses. I will report back on how that went, once I get there. Monday is the first day at work, I will happily report about that as well should it be of interest.

Brilliant, thanks for letting us know. I was wondering how to go about doing the licence thing in Ontario.

Good luck for Monday and yes, please keep us posted

Thanks for that, I thought we had to retake the test - and it took me six attempts to pass first time, I certainly wasn't looking forward to that one!

Although I've now been driving 20 years without incident so am not a horrendous driver I just didn't do the tests well.

Just to reiterate and make sure that people understand that everything I am writing is only applicable to Ontario. The web-site for the Motor Vehicle Licensing states:

Drivers from other Canadian provinces, Canadian Forces-Europe, U.S.A., Japan, Korea, Switzerland, Germany, France, Great Britain, Austria and Belgium. are eligible for a 1:1 exchange. You _will_ have to surrender your foreign driver's license.

The original text is here: http://www.drivetest.ca/en/license/ExchangeOutProv.aspx

Again, this only applies to Ontario, other provinces may require you to go through the full process.

Thanks for the link, I've book marked it. We are (hopefully) heading for GTA so that would apply to us.

If you thought MTO was fun, wait till you get to OHIP