Which Foreign Driving Licence Can Be Exchanged Without an Exam. The 2025 Change

Since 17 December 2025 one convention instead of two decides whether you exchange your driving licence without an exam. The change was quiet but costly: countries that spent years on the exempt lists now sit in the group that has to take the test. Below are both lists and what they mean for your document. Check your country and order the exchange.

What changed on 17 December 2025

Until that date article 14(1) of the Act on Drivers spoke of a licence defined in the conventions on road traffic — the plural covered Geneva 1949 and Vienna 1968. The amendment of 17 October 2025 (Journal of Laws 2025, item 1676) replaced those words with a requirement that the document match the model and data scope of the Vienna Convention. Geneva dropped out of the provision.

The consequence is simple and painful: if your document does not match the Vienna model, you will only obtain a Polish licence after passing the theory part of the state exam and filing a certified translation. The Regional Administrative Court in Lublin had already read it that way in its judgment of 23 January 2025 (III SA/Lu 718/24): the Geneva Convention describes the model of an international driving permit, not a domestic one, so a domestic licence from such a state is not a document defined in the convention.

Countries whose licence is exchanged without an exam

These are the states party to the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, outside the European Union. We verified the list on 17 September 2026 with the depositary, the UN Secretariat:

• Eastern Europe and the Caucasus: Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan
• Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Mongolia
• Middle East and North Africa: Turkey, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia
• South and South-East Asia: Pakistan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar, the Maldives
• Sub-Saharan Africa: South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, Niger, Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Uganda, Seychelles
• The Americas and non-EU Europe: Brazil, Peru, Uruguay, Guyana, Honduras, El Salvador, Cuba, the United Kingdom, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, North Macedonia

Countries where a theory exam awaits you

After the amendment both groups below are treated alike: the exchange remains possible, but only after passing the theory part of the exam and with a certified translation of the document:

• states party to the 1949 Geneva Convention only — India, the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Chile, Ghana, Argentina, Ecuador
• states that merely signed the Vienna Convention and never ratified it — Mexico, Indonesia, Costa Rica, Venezuela; a signatory is not a party and the offices read that literally
• states outside both conventions — China, Nepal, Colombia, Afghanistan, Yemen and most countries absent from the list above
• documents that do not match the Vienna model despite the right country of issue — usually old paper licences without the required category markings

The EU, EFTA and Switzerland — nothing to do here

A licence issued in an EU state, in Switzerland or in an EFTA state belonging to the European Economic Area is valid in Poland for its entire validity period (article 94(1)(1) of the Road Traffic Act). The six-month limit does not apply and there is no duty to exchange. An exchange may still be useful — after losing the document, or when an employer requires a Polish licence for professional categories — and it then takes place without an exam.

The country is only half the answer

The office checks two things separately: whether the state is a party to the Vienna Convention and whether the specific document matches its model and data scope. The second condition is usually failed by older documents without category markings in the convention format. The whole procedure — the documents, the fees and the timescale — is described in our text on how the licence exchange works. That is why, before you pay anything, a lawyer looks at a scan of both sides of your licence: it is the only moment when changing the plan is still cheap.

A licence past its expiry date

The same amendment added article 14(1a), which expressly allows exchanging a document whose validity has expired. The authority then has the data confirmed in the issuing country and the applicant supplies the documents needed to extend the validity; professional categories add a medical certificate, and categories C and D a psychological one. Previously such cases usually ended in a refusal and an exam from scratch.

How we run such a case

We start by assessing the document and the country of issue, then order the certified translation, assemble the application, file it as your attorney and finally collect the licence. Our fee is 1000 PLN; the 100 PLN official fee and the translation are settled separately. For professional drivers and people working in deliveries a Polish licence is often a condition of employment, so we run it together with the matters described in our text on working legally in Poland. If your country falls into the exam group, we will say so at once and will not sell you a service that cannot be delivered.

We handle foreigners' cases remotely across Poland — the full scope is described on foreigners' cases in Warsaw.