Self-service
Check the validity of your residency in Estonia
Make a request to make sure that You have a place of residence in Estonia registered properly. This is a prerequisite for exchanging a foreign driving licence.
Driving a vehicle
Check the validity of your driving licence
Last modified 27.10.2026
EDriving licences issued outside of Estonia are valid in Estonia if the licence entries are in Latin characters or handwritten or transliterated into Latin script. The licence must include the symbol and description of the category of the motor vehicle, road train or combination of vehicles that the person has the right to drive. The description must include a pictogram of the vehicle or its maximum mass or its permitted number of passengers. Your driving licence issued in a foreign country is usually valid for 12 months from the date of settling in Estonia (receiving a residence permit and registering an address). If you want to continue driving, you must exchange your driving licence during this time. Click the link to the Transport Administration’s website to get an overview of how long and under which conditions the driving licence issued in that country is valid in Estonia and how to exchange it for an Estonian driving licence. After exploring, come back here to continue.
The special and temporary measures applied to driving licences and certificates of competence issued in Ukraine to persons who are recipients of temporary protection are derived from the 18 July 2022 regulation (EU) 2022/1280, which can be seen in the EU Publication Office document. The information about temporary measures is explained on the website of the Transport Administration under the topic of Ukraine.
Important information about foreign driving licences!
The Estonian Transport Administration may refuse to recognise or exchange a foreign driving licence if its authenticity cannot be reliably verified or if the licence lacks sufficient security features. In such cases, it is not possible to confirm that the document is authentic.
Self-service
Check the validity of your residency in Estonia
Make a request to make sure that You have a place of residence in Estonia registered properly. This is a prerequisite for exchanging a foreign driving licence.
Important to know concerning this step
Last modified 27.10.2026
Click the link to the Transport Administration’s website to get an overview of how long and under which conditions the driving licence issued in that country is valid in Estonia and how to exchange it for an Estonian driving licence.
Last modified 27.10.2026
- Exams are usually not required for the EEA and Switzerland licenses and parties to the 1968 Vienna Convention.
- Driving licences which meet the requirements of the 1949 Geneva Convention on Road Traffic are generally exchanged without exams for categories A and B.
- Driving licences from other countries are only exchanged based on exams.
- Exams are necessary if the driving licence expired more than 5 years ago.
- Exams are required if the driving licence or category was obtained while living in Estonia.
All the necessary information by countries can be found on the website of the Transport Administration.
Last modified 27.10.2026
A foreign driving licence is valid in Estonia, if
- it is in accordance with the 1968 Vienna or 1949 Geneva Convention, or a person can present a valid international driving permit (IDP) issued in accordance with the Convention;
- the entries on the driving licence are in Latin script, and the vehicle category is sufficiently described to understand which vehicle can be driven based on that category (maximum permissible mass for cars and trucks, maximum number of passengers for buses).
A foreign driving licence is not valid in Estonia, if
- it’s expired, the category is not sufficiently described, or the driving licence nor the category on it was issued while you lived in Estonia.
Please note that it may still be possible to exchange such a driving licence.
References
Contacts
The Estonian Transport Administration is a competence centre uniting all modes of transport and a developer of a safe, comfortable and fast traffic environment.
+372 620 1200 (EST, ENG, RUS; M, Tu, W, F 9-17; Th 10-17)