I didn´t realise they had come in already! I´ve been waiting ages to get rid of my horrible paper one. I shall be contacting trafico this week!

The law changed a few months ago. It is no longer even compulsory to register your licence but you can still do so if you wish to. They emboss your NIE number on it so that keeps the Guardia happy if you are stopped.

If you do, you will be reminded by post to renew it in due time (which in most cases will be after 5 years) and it will be renewed as a Spanish licence and a medical certificate will be required at the time of renewal.

As has been said before, the simplest option is to exchange your licence in the first place.

I know this post was from a little while back but I have been looking through to find out about driving licences.

You say that the UK one only lasts 5 years and then we have to have a medical. Is that even if we are only in our 50's? Here they finish at 70 and they just ask you to sign a declaration to say you are fit.

Also where do we have to go to register our UK licences?

Spanish licences have to be renewed after 5 years if you are over 50. After 70 it is every 2 years.

At renewal you need a medical - you don't need one when you first exchange it.

You go to your nearest Traffico office to exchange it - or get a gestor to do it for you.

Read the top thread, scroll down, there is a bit about them there.

I maintain that to be legal, you licence must have your permanent address on it. I have read the regulations, and my interpretation is that all Euro licences are legal in all countries for holiday makers, but until the 2012 licence is adopted, you must have a licence for the country you are resident in. For all those people with a residencia card, and a UK licence, dont show your residencia and don't say you live in Spain. Dave

My answer refers to the top thread and a quote from the DVLA saying the licence is valid in EU until expiry date, despite having the wrong address on it.

" It is accepted that drivers who move to another part of the EC/EEA could be holding driving licences showing an incorrect address. This is permissible under the terms of the EC Directive on Driving Licences."

The full directive is included in the thread also.

The new Spanish licence does not have an address on it. Does that make it illegal?

I have not yet been able to persuade anyone to show it to me but I understand that the address is included on the licence but that it can only be read with special equipment.

They claim it is a security measure but I suspect that it is just a sneaky way of catching people out!

I've heard so many conflicting stories about this I'm not really sure, seems best bet if you live here is to exchange your DL for a Spanish one. If your American/Canadian than have to do the test in Spanish.

Has anyone been fined for being a resident of Spain and carrying a British DL?

There is a guy that runs a fully legal Decorating company in my area, he told me that he was fined 1,000 €`s by the Guardia.
But the guy who works for him is Spanish and is a relation to a high ranking G C officer who checked it out and found out it was legal to use a UK licence if you move to Spain and phoned the local Guardia stn. and got the ticket rescinded.

We know people still driving around here with old UK paper licences - the local police seem to say 'no no no' or words to that effect every time they are stopped, but I don't know anyone who's actually been arrested or fined even though technically those licences AREN'T valid any more.

Still, it's a small community around here, and if you've got kids at the local school you'll know all the local police anyway from lollipop duty