Loafing Along

You can get an international licence to go with the temporary piece of paper they issue at Faro. You get it from the Portuguese Automobile Club, also in Faro . One detail when you apply for your licence say you travel a lot outside of Portugal so you need at least 12 months on the temporary licence. You don't have that you can go back to the Faro office and join a different queue ( much shorter ) and they will normally give you a validation stamp without any problem

Pilou

On another forum I read that this international licence is only valid together with a real driving licence. They sell these international licences in Faro, but it has no value outside Pt. I don't know what to believe.

Loafing Along

I travelled to UK with one and the temporary paper, hired a car at the airport when I got there no problem.

Pilou

Thanks for that!

Diddion

...But the fact that it was accepted at the time does not provide robust evidence of its legality, as it could have been accepted in error. A more authoritative source would be needed! As a start, you could contact DVLA, and I found our local driving school to be a good source of information when they arranged a replacement as mine had expired (a whole ‘nother story, but fortunately it was a PT licence, so no test was required)

wellinever

As you say this is very important for some of us.
One of the big issues I have with taking out Portuguese residency is that I don`t want to live here for the whole 12 months, preferring to be in the UK in the summer months (June- October), but that means that I would have to change the UK driving license to Portuguese, and with doing that, come problems with my car in the UK, in that you cannot then get normal car insurance in the UK as you have to declare that:
a) You are a UK resident, and
b) Have a UK driving license.
Without answering yes to both of these companies will not give a quote and you are forced to go to very expensive insurers to get insured.
But if the 6 month ruling has now been extended to 2 years, at least I would have the opportunity to kick the can down road for another 2 years.
For me this would be a big hurdle out of the way. Providing I am understanding it correctly.

Pivobelly

Thank you for that game-changing piece of info. I think I'll opt to delay changing until I have a less hectic travel schedule. I'm not planning to own a vehicle here in the near future, so hopefully, I won't run into any other problems during the extension period.
Many thanks for all the contributions.

mfesharne

At the risk of sounding like the grammar police (which isn't my intent) there is no such thing as an International Driving Licence but rather it's an International Driving Permit & the difference between the two is the real thing permits you to drive BUT (note the big BUT) only when used in conjunction with a National Driving Licence & the temporary licence issued by IMT only covers you for Portugal so in theory at least, you can be prosecuted if you use the temporary IMT licence outside of Portugal even if you have an IDP to go with it.

Whether you actually would be or not is perhaps a different matter.

Pivobelly

Yes that's also my understanding. I also understand the 'brexit effect' is that UK driving licences, used in Portugal, will need to be supported by an IDP from August 2020. Now that I'm planning to retain my UK licence for the foreseeable future, I will be using an IDP here & where required elsewhere until I pull the trigger on exchanging for a PT licence. Do you know if I'm right in saying, as an NHR holder, I can only drive a rental, or foreign plated car, & not a PT private car, under these circumstances?

mfesharne

Current advice from the UK Embassy is to exchange as soon as possible if you can & I for one think that's very good advice.

As for the Brexit effect........ no-one knows what or even when that will be and whilst perhaps unlikey, it not 110% impossible that there might be a clean hard break on the 31st of this month & then everything will change.

Not sure where NHR comes in as NHR is a tax break & nothing to do with driving licences etc but FWIW, the law states that a registered resident of Portugal can only drive a foreign registered car in Portugal if they own it AND it has begun the process of matricultion & also FWIW, the Govt & EU have got the whole foreign registered car thing here sewn up tighter than a duck's bum and there are absolutely no dodges.

Even if you bring in a foreign registered car and don't matriculate it or return it back to the country of registration before the 6 month limit you cannot sell, break, loan, give or donate it so you're stuffed & the only way out is to ship it back to country of registration..................... and penalties for breach of that begin at 2 x (Portuguese) market value of the vehicle.

I appreciate a lot of people do it but it's a helluva expensive mistake if they get caught.

Pilou

This means for us that we need to stop the procedure if we don't receive our Portugese driving licence in May (after 6.5 months). We will ask our 'old' permit back because we have a rental business in France. We need to stay 5 months a year in France to earn our living. I don't see any other solution.

macliam

The whole situation with licenses is a farce..... if you're in Portugal for more than 90 days you're supposed to register, but then you have to deal with your driving license..... yet you might still be in the UK for most of the year!

Herr Flick

indeed,
everything you say is correct

Pivobelly

=13pxAppreciate the advice from the Brit Embassy. However, with the WA receiving parliamentary approval yesterday we are set to leave on the 31st & complete the transition period by the 31.12.2020, unless BJ requests an extension. With the licence exchange period moving from 90days to 2yrs, I'm going to kick the can down the road & hope that UK/Portugal agree a mutual licence recognition agreement, & if not I'll have to find a time slot when I can afford not to be able to drive outside Portugal for several months.

Diddion

But just make sure your UK licence does not expire or (Heaven forfend) you lose your licence, as that would mean a Portuguese driving test.