Italian driving licence in the UK
Few questions reach the consulates more often than the driving licence, and few are answered less often by the consulates themselves, because the licence is a matter for the road authorities of the two countries, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency in Great Britain and the Motorizzazione Civile in Italy. Since 2023 an agreement between Italy and the United Kingdom allows the licence of either country to be exchanged for the licence of the other without a test, and that agreement, with the road traffic rules of each country, decides what a citizen who moves is entitled to drive, for how long and on which document. This page sets out the position of an Italian in Britain, of a British resident in Italy, and of the car which travels with its owner.
The agreement of 2022
The Agreement on the Mutual Recognition of Driving Licences for the Purposes of Exchange was signed at Rome on 23 December 2022 and entered into force on 30 March 2023, for five years renewed automatically for further periods of five, so that it runs at least until 30 March 2028. It covers the United Kingdom, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man, with separate annexes for the Crown dependencies. Under it a valid licence of one country is exchanged for the licence of the other without a theory or a practical test, provided it was issued before the holder took up residence in the exchanging country and was not itself obtained by exchange from a third country with which the exchanging country has no agreement of its own. Provisional licences and the Italian foglio rosa are outside it. A British licence which has expired is still exchanged in Italy if the expiry is not more than five years old, and the surrendered licence is sent back to the authority which issued it within forty days.
An Italian licence in the United Kingdom
A visitor drives in Great Britain on an Italian licence for twelve months from entry, without an international permit and without a translation. A resident keeps the Italian licence, under the agreement, until its expiry date, but the rule which the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency applies, and which is the operative one on British roads, is that the holder of a licence of the European Union drives on it until the age of seventy, or for three years from becoming resident if he was sixty-seven or older on arrival, and must then exchange it for a British licence. The exchange is made by post on form D1, obtained at a Post Office which offers the services of the agency, with the licence, the proof of identity and a fee of forty-three pounds, and the British licence arrives in about three weeks. No medical certificate, no translation and no consular document is required: the consulates in London, Manchester and Edinburgh issue nothing for the purpose, and say so. A licence lost or stolen in Britain is reported directly to the agency by a citizen registered in the AIRE, together with the request for exchange, while a citizen not registered applies for the duplicate to the Italian offices through the portale dell’automobilista. The international driving permit, which the Post Office issues for British licences and the Motorizzazione for Italian ones, is not issued by any consulate and is not needed in either direction.
The certificate of renewal
An Italian licence expires on the date it bears, and a resident whose licence has expired has two courses. The ordinary one is the exchange at the agency, which accepts an expired Italian licence without a time limit. The other, for the holder of a licence which the agency cannot exchange, as one obtained in Italy by conversion of a licence from a country with no agreement with the United Kingdom, is the certificate of renewal of the Italian licence, which the Consulate General in London and the Consulate in Manchester issue to a citizen resident in the district for at least six months, from six months before the expiry to five years after it, after a medical examination at one of the centres the consulate names. The certificate is valid for ten years for a holder under fifty, five years between fifty and seventy and three years after seventy, is kept with the expired licence, and is not transmitted to the Motorizzazione, so that on return to Italy the holder presents it to obtain a duplicate. The Consulate General in Edinburgh does not offer the service and refers the holder to the exchange or to the Motorizzazione.
A British licence in Italy
A person who takes up residence in Italy with a British licence drives on it for one year from the registration of the residence, and within that year applies for the exchange at the Ufficio della Motorizzazione Civile of the province, with the medical certificate which Italian law requires of every applicant. The exchange is open only to a holder who has been resident in Italy for less than six years at the date of the application, with an exception for those resident on or before 31 December 2020, and an application lodged later is refused, after which the licence is obtained again with the Italian tests. A licence lost or stolen in Italy is exchanged on the report made to the Italian police, and a licence expired less than five years is accepted. The Motorizzazione returns the British licence to the British Embassy in Rome. Nothing of this passes through the consulates, and the London consulate limits itself to stating the rule.
The vehicle which follows its owner
A British car driven in Italy is governed by two articles of the Italian Highway Code. Under article 132 a vehicle registered abroad which has completed the customs formalities circulates in Italy for at most one year on its foreign registration. Under article 93-bis a vehicle registered abroad which belongs to a person who has taken up residence in Italy circulates only if it is registered in Italy within three months of the registration of the residence, and a resident who drives a vehicle registered abroad in the name of someone else keeps on board a dated document, signed by the keeper, which states the title and the duration of the availability, recorded in the public vehicle register where the availability exceeds thirty days in the year. The sanction for a vehicle not registered in time ranges from four hundred to one thousand six hundred euro, with the withdrawal of the registration document and the confiscation of the vehicle if the position is not regularised within thirty days.
The export begins in Britain: the owner completes the permanent export section of the V5C registration document, sends it to the agency in Swansea and keeps the rest of the document for the Italian registration, which is requested at the Motorizzazione of the province of residence. The Italian offices verify the British registration online with the agency, and the consulate neither legalises nor translates the document, which is translated, where the office asks for it, before an Italian court or at the comune. A vehicle registered in Italy which leaves for Britain follows the opposite route, and since the amendment of article 103 of the Code the cancellation from the public register for export is no longer made through a consulate: it is made in Italy before the departure, and the vehicle travels to the border with the foglio di via and a temporary plate.
Customs relief on the return
A citizen who moves the residence to Italy after at least twelve months outside the European Union brings in the household goods and the car free of duty and of value added tax, under the European regulation of 2009 on relief from customs duty. The goods must have been owned and used at the former residence for at least six months, the car included, must enter Italy within twelve months of the move, in one or more consignments, and are not sold, lent, hired or pledged for twelve months after the entry without notice to the customs, on pain of the duties becoming due. The application is made to the customs office directly, by the citizen or by the removal firm, on form F-01A after the move or on form F-01B, with a guarantee, where the goods are brought in before it, with the list of the goods, the identity document, the documents of the vehicle, the proof of the residence in Britain and the proof of the residence in Italy, for which the consulate in London recommends the historical certificate of registration in the AIRE issued by the comune. The London consulate issues no certificate of its own for the purpose, unlike some consulates elsewhere, and the application does not pass through it.
A couple registered in the AIRE in London since 2012 move to Perugia in May 2026 with a car bought in 2021. They complete the export section of the V5C in April and post it to Swansea, declare the residence at the comune on 12 May, lodge the customs application on form F-01A in June with the list of the household goods, the registration document, the council tax statements of the last years and the historical AIRE certificate, and register the car at the Motorizzazione of Perugia in July, within the three months of article 93-bis. The wife, whose Italian licence had expired in 2024 and had been exchanged at the agency for a British one, exchanges the British licence at the Motorizzazione within the year, which the agreement allows because the British licence was itself issued in exchange for an Italian one. The husband, who kept his Italian licence, has nothing to exchange.
If you are moving in either direction with a licence or a vehicle, send us the dates of the move, the licences you hold and the documents of the vehicle. We tell you which office is competent, in which order the steps fall and which papers each office will ask for, and we prepare the translations where an office requires them.