Exchanging a Ukrainian, Belarusian or UK driving licence for a Polish one (2026)

Ukrainian, Belarusian and British driving licences are exchanged for Polish ones without a test — Ukraine, Belarus and the United Kingdom are parties to the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic. That is where the similarities end. A Ukrainian under temporary protection is covered by a separate EU regulation and the 4 March 2028 deadline, a Belarusian most often gets stuck on data confirmation in their home country, and a UK licence holder first has to check whether the document needs exchanging at all. We handle the whole exchange, from assessing the document to collecting the Polish licence — order your licence exchange online.

What the three countries have in common: the Vienna Convention and 185 days in Poland

Since 17 December 2025, Article 14(1) of the Act on Vehicle Drivers (as amended by Dz.U. 2025 item 1676) exempts from the test only licences that match the model and data set of the 1968 Vienna Convention. Ukraine, Belarus and the United Kingdom are parties to it, so you do not sit the theory test when exchanging — provided the office accepts the document itself as matching the model. A Polish licence is issued to a person whose place of residence is in Poland, meaning they stay here at least 185 days per calendar year because of personal and occupational ties (Article 11(1)(5)).

A non-EU licence lets you drive in Poland for 6 months from the start of permanent or temporary residence (Article 94(1)(2) of the Road Traffic Act). After that, driving on the old document is treated as driving without a licence — including by an insurer after an accident. Ukrainians under temporary protection are the exception, see below. The full list of exempt countries is in our article on which countries' licences are exchanged without a test.

Ukraine: temporary protection moves the deadline but does not remove it

Ukrainian licences held by people under temporary protection are governed by Regulation (EU) 2022/1280 of the European Parliament and of the Council. Its Article 3 requires valid Ukrainian licences to be recognised across the EU until temporary protection ends and bans demands for a certified translation or an international driving permit. Protection currently runs until 4 March 2028. In practice:

• your UKR status is active — you drive on your valid Ukrainian licence without a translation, and the six-month deadline from the Road Traffic Act does not apply while protection lasts
• your status was changed to NUE or you are not under temporary protection — the general rule applies: 6 months from the start of residence, then exchange
• your licence has expired — the EU regulation does not cover it, because it speaks only of valid licences; exchange is possible under Article 14(1a) of the Act on Vehicle Drivers, after the data are confirmed in Ukraine and with a medical certificate
• you are staying in Poland longer or work as a driver — after 4 March 2028 offices will face a wave of applications, and data confirmation in Ukraine is the longest stage anyway, so exchanging before that date saves months

What happens to UKR status and how to move to a residence card is covered in our article on how long UKR status lasts.

Belarus: data confirmation is the bottleneck

For a non-EU licence, the starosta confirms the document's data with the authority that issued it (§ 9(7) of the regulation on issuing driving documents). If confirmation cannot be obtained, exchange is ruled out — that is what Article 14(2e) of the Act on Vehicle Drivers says. With Belarusian licences this very stage has repeatedly blocked cases, and the Polish Ombudsman intervened with the Minister of Infrastructure.

Since March 2025 some Belarusians are exempt from this requirement. The regulation of 28 January 2025 (Dz.U. 2025 item 212) removed data confirmation and the return of the document to Belarus for the licence of a Belarusian citizen who holds a visa issued on humanitarian grounds, in the national interest or under international obligations (Article 60(1)(23) of the Act on Foreigners) or a temporary residence permit under Article 186(1)(9). Licences of people with refugee status, asylum, subsidiary protection, humanitarian or tolerated stay are also exchanged without verification in the issuing country. So before we file, we establish which group you are in — that decides whether the case takes a few weeks or gets stuck.

United Kingdom: a UK licence after Brexit — the issue date decides

After Brexit, Poland treats UK licences in two ways. A document issued before 1 January 2021 is treated like an EU licence: it is valid for its whole validity period and does not need exchanging. A document issued from 1 January 2021 is a third-country licence — it lets you drive for 6 months from the start of residence, after which it must be exchanged. Because the United Kingdom is a party to the Vienna Convention, the exchange takes place without a test.

A trap for people who have lived in Poland for years: what counts is the issue date of the document in your wallet, not the date you passed your test. Anyone who received a new UK photocard after 2021 — for example when the old one expired — holds a third-country document and has the six-month deadline. The data are confirmed by the UK authority, so here too the application must be complete from day one.

What the office requires and where cases fall apart

The set is short, but every gap means a request for documents and weeks of delay:

• a copy of the licence with a sworn translation — no translation is required for documents in the EU format, including UK licences issued before 2021
• a photograph meeting the requirements for identity document photos
• a PESEL number and a Trusted Profile — we file the application electronically, with no queue at the vehicle registration office; if you do not have them, you can add them to your order
• registered address (zameldowanie) in Poland — the address decides which starosta handles the case
• for an expired document, a medical certificate, and for categories C and D also a psychological one

Cases most often fail on three things: a translation by someone without sworn translator status, an old paper document the office considers inconsistent with the convention model, and codes and pictograms the Polish model does not provide for. Fees and the whole procedure are described in our article on exchanging a foreign driving licence.

Will you get a temporary licence while the exchange is pending

No. A temporary electronic driving licence under Article 5b of the Act on Vehicle Drivers is given only to a person who has passed the state driving test, and only for up to 30 days — there is no such solution for exchanging a foreign document. Until you collect the Polish licence you drive on your own document, but only while it entitles you to drive in Poland: for 6 months of residence or until temporary protection ends. The rules do not extend that period for the duration of the exchange, and you hand in the foreign document in return for the Polish one (Article 14(1)). So the application has to be filed so that the Polish licence is ready before the old document stops being enough.

What it costs and how we handle the case

Kancelaria Radców Prawnych Bartosz Krajewski handles the exchange of licences from Ukraine, Belarus and the United Kingdom for a fee of 1000 PLN. The official fee of 100 PLN for issuing the licence and the sworn translation, which we quote before you pay, are paid separately. We start by assessing a scan of both sides of the document: we check conformity with the model, the issue and expiry dates and, for Belarusians, whether the exemption from data confirmation applies. If the document cannot be exchanged without a test, we say so before you pay and do not sell a service that cannot be delivered. Then we assemble the application, file it electronically and handle the case until you collect the Polish licence.

If your residence case is running at the same time, we handle it together with the exchange — the full scope is described on the page foreigners' cases in Warsaw.