NotNovara

Morning expats,

Here's an interesting one.

After submitting my driving licence exhange paperwork 6 months ago I finally heard back from Novara, Piemonte that they are refusing to exchange my driving licence because I obtained it when I was 17 in the UK. This is obviously the legal driving age in the UK as opposed to 18 in Italy. Apparently their system can't cope with obtaining a driving licence before the age of 18!
Colleagues have had no problem in Lombardia, Piemonte apparently do things differently.

Novara say this is their final answer and if I want an Italian driving licence I should take a test here. Having held a valid driving licence for nearly 30 years this seems a little bizarre.

Anyone had an issue with this, any suggestions?

modicasa

Did you present an old paper licence or a photocard modern one?
Basically there is nothing that says they can withhold the conversion because of the age of the driver. I would go to the police, seeing that they issue theguideliens for conversion and see what they say.

NotNovara

I presented a modern valid photo card.
We could ask the local police and see what they say. They are probably the ones who are going to pull me over at some point anyway and fine me or worse as it's approaching 2 years since we took residency.
It's very bizarre, I considered giving up residency and then reapplying for residency at a later date to reset the 2 year validity of my UK driving licence. But with Brexit (!?) coming up this will limit the life of my UK driving licence anyway.

​​​​​I'll try and raise it to a higher level in Piemonte, but as always with these bureaucrats finding someone to talk to who gives a damn is virtually impossible.

​

philat98

This person had the same trouble. You could try a denuncia.
https://forum.enti.it/viewtopic.php?...4d2a028c3699b2

NotNovara

Holding off on the legal route at the moment until I exhaust other options.

It seems other provinces for example Varese just change the licence pass date to the 18th birthday as this is the earliest date the italian system accepts.

Novara however are refusing to do this unless I present them evidence of an old UK licence and the Italian one with the dates changed. Unfortunately the two colleagues in this situation didn't keep a copy of their old UK licence.

philat98

This seems the obvious answer. If you persist you might get someone who will do it.

Did you look at this thread?
Exchanging UK License Problem

NotNovara

Yes I looked at that thread, some useful stuff in there. However my licence is still valid as I have only been resident in Italy for 2 years, the main issue is that I passed my driving test in the UK when I was 17. That combined with a stubborn 'computer says no' bureaucrat at a backwater provincial town is creating the headache.

37100

NotNovara. Have they put it in writing?

tpw21

NotNovara

Yes the agency we're using has shown us the communication from Novara saying that although my licence is valid they can't input my start date into their system because it won't accept 17 as driving test pass age! So they've admitted it's their system issue, but their solution is that I have to take an Italian driving test to get an Italian licence. Crazy I know!
Other provinces just change the start date to the 18th birthday.
We've spoken to the ACI in a town that has definitely exchanged 2 of my colleagues licences obtained when they were 17 and they're checking now whether they can do the exchange for me. Apparently the ACI use a different system to exchange licences so they don't have to deal with provincial offices. I didn't fully understand how they do it but fingers crossed.
To be fair this is probably the first bit of daft bureaucracy we've encountered since buying a house here.

Lorna at Vicenza

You are lucky. I have come across more than I can remember and even now when I was finally starting to see some modernisation and improvements, I still bang my head against an internet/service provider brick wall. The transport company for example accepted my own codice fiscale on their website when paying for my son's school bus pass, but then insisted on my "luogo di nascita" and the drop down menu had every single Italian regione or provincia but nothing at all for people NOT born in Italy. This is a massive oversight that I've found on other Italian websites as well.