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If your driving license was issued in a member state of the EU or EFTA (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland), you can drive in the Netherlands on your foreign license for 15 years after the date of issue of the license. This applies to the categories AM, A1, A2, A, B and BE. For the categories C1, C, D1, D, C1E, CE, D1E and DE, the maximum period is 5 years as of the issue date of the driving license.
In any other case if the 15 years has elapsed or if the license expires, you must exchange your foreign license for a Dutch one. The driving license must be valid for this to apply. This is done at the municipality where you registered. Either make an appointment or go during the times when no appointment is necessary (varies per municipality) and bring the following with you to the appointment: valid EU license, passport photo, passport or country ID, and a PIN bank card so you can make the payment for the license. The form will be provided by the Municipality. The municipality will then send the entire application to the Minister of Transport for processing. It will take about one week before the new license is ready to be collected at the Municipality.
If your driving license was not issued in the European Union, you may drive legally for 185 days on your non-EU license after registering as a resident. Thereafter, you must have a Dutch license to drive legally. If you don’t fall under the 30% tax ruling or have a driving license issued from one of the other countries listed below, then you will need to take and pass both a theoretical and a practical driving test. Contact a driving school, as all learning must be done with a qualified instructor. It is worthwhile to shop around as estimates of how many lessons you may need can differ between driving schools. The driving school will handle all paper work for the written and practical tests.
If you work under the 30% tax regulation, you can exchange your non-EU license under a number of conditions: 1. You will need to obtain a copy of the 30% tax statement issued by the tax office. 2. You will also need to purchase an application for a “Certificate of Fitness” before you can exchange your license. For this, you will need to have a DigiD in order to login to the CBR site. The processing time to obtain the Certificate of Fitness is maximally 4 months. 3. The exchange will need to be done within the first 185 days from the date of registration in the Municipality. 4. Your driving license must have been issued in a particular year in which you were a resident in the country of issue for at least 185 days.
If you have a driving license issued in one of the following countries, you can exchange your license under a number of conditions: 1. The license must be valid for the stated categories below.
Gibraltar
Guernsey
All categories
Northern Ireland
2. You will also need to purchase an application for a “Certificate of Fitness” before you can exchange your license. The processing time to obtain the Certificate of Fitness is maximally 4 months. 3. The exchange will need to be done within the first 185 days from the date of registration in the Municipality. 4. Your driving license must have been issued in a particular year in which you were a resident in the country of issue for at least 185 days.
See this RDW link for more information.
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