Double T

I passed my UK driving test back in 1976. I exchanged my UK licence for a Portuguese one and received it a few months ago.

However I notice that the expiry date is 27th Jan 2025 (exactly 5 years after I started the exchange process). I reach 65 years of age next April, and assumed that I need to renew or revalidate my licence when I reach 65 and again at 70.

IMT emails keep referring to renew and revalidate and that I need to revalidate 6 months prior to Jan 2025 when the licence expires. Yet the website shows ages 60/65/70/72 etc BUT depends on when the licence was issued (or test passed perhaps)?
http://www.imt-ip.pt/sites/IMTT/Port...ite_GP%201.pdf

Can anyone shed any light on this please for me?

Red Eric

Yes - it's the rightmost column on that table that applies to you, since your PT licence was issued to you post 30th July 2016.

As you're already over 60, your current renewal interval is every 5 years, which in your case makes it not at age 65, but rather at 5 years after the licence was issued.

Double T

Thanks for the reply.

Each time I received a reply from IMT they referred to renew and revalidate without differentiating between the two.
My original thinking was that renew and revalidate are two seperate things....
1) Renew prior to when the licence itself expires (in my case 27 Jan 2025)
2) Revalidate the licence prior to reaching age 65 (before April 2021 for me). The revalidate requirement sounds like a medical is required due to reaching a certain age (60, 65, 70 etc).

I also thought that on that link showing Revalidação dos Títulos de Condução, I would be in the left-hand column as I passed my (UK) test in 1976, as opposed to when the Portuguese licence was issued.

I just don't want to find out one day that I've missed the boat and I'll need to take a new driving test out here, god forbid!! Oh the wonders of Brexit......​​​​​​​

Red Eric

No, the reason there are 3 separate regimes is due to the timing and application of changes in the PT law regarding renewals. When your UK licence was issued is irrelevant to that - it's only the date of exchange that matters as to which regime you fall under (ie what PT law applied at the time of exchange or was made retroactive since).

I'm almost certain* I'm right in saying that any licence issued 2013 onwards will always have the correct next renewal date on it and that only pre 2013 licences still to be renewed for the first time might be showing anything different - a matter which would be corrected on effecting that renewal.

By the way, sites other than IMT which list out the renewal dates in similar fashion may be in error in that third column - most seem to have overlooked the possibility of licences obtained or exchanged between the ages of 60 and 65 and appear to insist on renewal at 65 no matter what. IMT has a subtle difference in wording which caters for the possibility and the practical proof is in your licence having a 5 year validity.

* I would say absolutely certain but I've had to eat a couple of helpings of humble pie recently, so I'm couching this in get-out clause mode just in case there's some rare circumstance which hasn't occurred to me.

Double T

Hi thanks Eric,
It does make sense now that you've explained it in that way. IMT email replies kept saying "renew" on the 5th anniversary of the UK exchange to PT, but also used the grid to imply renew "at age 65". The last email I had yesterday from them was a categorical one-liner "revalidate on 27 Jan 2025"

Many thanks again for your responses.
Matthew