Juleskitoo

Hello,

I jumped through the requisite hoops to get a Portuguese driving licence once I'd acquired Portuguese residency, but now find having a Pt licence makes things difficult to insure UK cars when I'm spending time in the UK each year. For various reasons, I don't have my Pt car with me in the UK

So, would it be a good idea to swop back to holding a UK licence (based on the recent ruling that I could keep my UK licence until it expires). And if so, how do I go about it?

Thanks in advance for your help/replies.

Jules

Red Eric

The only way you could go back to holding a UK licence now that it's been exchanged would be to cease being resident in Portugal and resume residence in the UK.

GrahamF

It may depend on how much time is spent in the UK and whether counted as resident. Foreign licenses can be used by UK residents until expiry or until holder reaches the age of 70, I'm 77. Although I have permanent residence in Portugal (obtained as citizen's family member well before Brexit) my main and tax residence is still UK so I still drive on UK license.

toots sweet

Could you explain a bit about this. I'm resident..OH is PT. I havn't driven here,but may in the future,but have no intention of swapping my UK licence. I spend a little more time here than the UK. Have a property there and pay any taxes that are required of me ...Council tax,road tax.

GrahamF

Dual residence seems to be a grey area as to which rules should be followed. I'm not into giving advice as what I do may not be within the law but can say I've had no problems (so far) with Portuguese police when pulled at roadside checks.

Red Eric

All rather a moot point for someone who was obliged to, or opted to, exchange their UK licence and now holds a PT one. They can't get back from the PT authorities the UK licence they surrendered with the request for exchange. And they can't get a UK licence re-issued by DVLA unless they're resident in the UK.

fidobsa

I would agree with what has already been said, you have to have the licence for the country where you live. I can sympathise with the insurance issue as I had the same problem when I visited UK in May. My cousin was going to add me as a named driver on her car insurance but they refused because I have a Croatia licence. I wanted to go to my cottage in northern Scotland and she ended up driving me there instead of lending me the car. Something I will mention in passing is that when I renewed my Croatia licence they initially said I had to go for a medical. I hoped my normal GP could do it but apparently not. They use a private doctor located well over an hours drive from me. I duly drove there to be told " come back tomorrow at 7 am". To do that I would have had to get up about 5 am but it turned out the medical was only required because I had the 7.5 tonne lorry group ( which you automatically got when passing the car test back in 1982 when I took mine). I asked them to remove that group so no medical required.

Juleskitoo

Yeah, its a bit annoying to have had to exchange your UK licence to find out that a UK licence would now be acceptable until it expires.

Thanks for the replies guys.