florabundi

Hi, have read 2 conflicting articles ~ I hold UK driver's licence and have done for many years. Do I need to sit a theory test in NZ or a practical test to change my licence? If it's a practical, do you have to reverse park . You can laugh if you like, I live in the middle of nowhere and the smallest space I usually have to park in would fit a combine harvester! Thanks Flora

Jan n Neil

no test - go to the AA with your UK licence and they will give you a NZ licence for the same class of vehicles (car, bike) as you have.

Truck licences are a bit more complicated but guess you don't have one of those?

Jan

florabundi

Thanks Jan! No truck licence required!

coffeeaddict

Do we know what happens if we have penalty points?

I picked up some today hopefully licence will be back before we fly? they say about 6 weeks thats like 5 days before we depart

sirplug

When I swapped license, I only gave them the photocard for reference. In the UK, the points are placed on the paper part of the license, so hopefully it shouldn't matter......

janeyk

anyway you have 12 months to exchange

BevK

Hi,

I've just gone through this process!! Thought I could walk in and just get a new one, but you have to provide passport, UK photo driving licence and proof of current address in NZ, Once you have all this, you have an eye test and pay a fee of $53. You are issued with a temporary paper licence and your photo licence arrives in the post about a week later. Quite straight forward, as long as you have the proof of address, which I didn't because I hadn't opened any bank accounts prior to leaving the UK. Luckily, I received a letter to my NZ address from the Nursing Council in the UK.

But as Janeyk says, you do have 12 months, so no worries.

johnht

Hi Bev, do you know if they accept the older paper only UK licence?
John.

BevK

Hi John,

If that's all you have, I'm sure they would have to accept it. I photocopied both just in case and although she looked at the paper one, she only wanted the photocard licence. Thats another thing, make sure you take photocopies of the originals beforehand, otherwise you get stung for a dollar a copy

Bev

clairewa

i failed the eye test part last week as my left eye is slightly short sighted and so i couldnt see the left hand row of letters, had to go to optometrist and pay to have them tested and buy glasses so i could get a certificate to drive, claire

Jan n Neil

Jan went in with the old paper one no problem

Neil