Exchanging a foreign driving licence in Warsaw 2026 — where to apply, 100 zł fee, how long it takes

In Warsaw a foreign driving licence is exchanged by the Mayor of Warsaw, and the application is filed at the district office of the Administration and Civic Affairs Bureau (BAiSO) of the district where you live — not at a transport department and not at the voivodeship office. The fee is 100 zł and the document should be ready within 9 working days, but for a licence issued outside the EU the office first confirms the data with the authority that issued it — and that stage decides whether the case takes two weeks or six months. Below are the addresses of all eighteen offices, the list of documents and the deadlines, checked on 6 October 2026 against the City of Warsaw pages and the Act on Vehicle Drivers. If you would rather have a representative file and follow the application, see the driving licence exchange handled by the firm.

Who exchanges driving licences in Warsaw and where to apply

A driving licence is issued by the district governor (starosta) by administrative decision (Article 10(1) of the Act on Vehicle Drivers), and in Warsaw the starosta's tasks are performed by the Mayor of Warsaw. The service is run by the Administration and Civic Affairs Bureau, BAiSO for short, which has an office in each of the eighteen districts. You apply at the office of the district where you live. The office checks your permanent or temporary registration (meldunek) in the system, but registration is not a condition: anyone without it presents another document confirming residence at the address given, for example a lease.

District offices are open on Mondays 8:00–18:00 and Tuesday to Friday 8:00–16:00. You can book a visit in the City of Warsaw booking system, but booking is not mandatory. Who can exchange a licence at all, how long it takes in other cities and how exchange differs from obtaining a new licence is described in our article exchanging a foreign driving licence for a Polish one — who can, what it costs and how long it takes.

BAiSO district offices in Warsaw — addresses (as of October 2026)

• Bemowo — ul. Powstańców Śląskich 70
• Białołęka — ul. Modlińska 197
• Bielany — ul. Żeromskiego 29
• Mokotów — ul. Wiktorska 91a
• Ochota — ul. Grójecka 17a
• Praga-Południe — ul. Grochowska 274
• Praga-Północ — ul. Kłopotowskiego 15
• Rembertów — al. gen. Chruściela 28
• Śródmieście — ul. Kruczkowskiego 2
• Targówek — ul. Kondratowicza 20
• Ursus — pl. Czerwca 1976 r. nr 1
• Ursynów — al. KEN 61
• Wawer — ul. Żegańska 1
• Wesoła — ul. 1 Praskiego Pułku 33
• Wilanów — ul. Klimczaka 2
• Włochy — al. Krakowska 257
• Wola — al. „Solidarności” 90
• Żoliborz — ul. Słowackiego 6/8

The addresses come from the City of Warsaw list of district offices updated on 26 January 2026. In a few districts driver and registration matters are handled at different addresses (in Mokotów driving licences are handled at ul. Wiktorska and registrations at ul. Rakowiecka), so confirm the address for driver matters before your visit. A representative may file the application under a power of attorney with a 17 zł stamp duty; the document itself is collected in person, because its issue is conditional on returning the foreign licence.

Documents for the exchange application

The full set of documents is defined in § 14 of the Regulation of the Minister of Infrastructure of 5 August 2025 (Dz.U. 2025 poz. 1073) and the City of Warsaw service card. You bring to the district office:

• the completed application for a driving licence (the form from the service card);
• a colour photograph 35×45 mm, as for an ID card;
• your residence card, visa or another document confirming the right of residence in Poland; students without such a document — a certificate that they have been studying in Poland for at least six months;
• a photocopy of the foreign driving licence and the original for inspection;
• a translation of the licence made or certified by a sworn translator or a Polish consul — only a licence in the EU format is exempt;
• a declaration of residence in Poland (at least 185 days a year) and a declaration of awareness of criminal liability for false data;
• a medical certificate — only if the foreign licence has already expired; proof of payment of the fee.

The condition of 185 days of residence in a calendar year follows from Article 11(1)(5) of the Act on Vehicle Drivers. Since 3 September 2026 the declaration of residence is filed no later than on the day the licence is collected (Article 11(1a)). A sworn translation is the most common missing item in these cases — the office will not accept an ordinary translation or an app printout.

The 100 zł fee and the deadlines the office keeps

Issuing a driving licence costs 100 zł — this follows from the regulation on fees (Dz.U. 2025 poz. 953). The amount of 100.50 zł still repeated by many websites is outdated: the records fee no longer exists. The fee is paid at the district office cash desk, at a payment machine or by transfer to the district account; a power of attorney costs an additional 17 zł stamp duty.

According to the service card the document is ready within 9 working days of a complete application. Cases requiring explanatory proceedings take up to a month, particularly complex ones up to two months, under the Code of Administrative Procedure. You can check the production status on the info-kierowca.pl portal. A refusal is an administrative decision that can be appealed to the Self-Government Board of Appeal in Warsaw at ul. Obozowa 57 within 14 days.

Verification abroad and the exam after the change of 17 December 2025

If the licence was issued by a country outside the European Union, before the exchange the office asks the issuing authority or that country's diplomatic mission to confirm the data (§ 14(8) of the regulation). The nine-day term runs only from a complete file, and a reply from abroad can fail to arrive for months. The applicant may deliver the confirmation personally, and a document from that country's embassy is also accepted. Without confirmed data the exchange is impossible (Article 14(2e) of the Act) — and this is where a representative's work, not the office's, is most often needed.

Since 17 December 2025 (Act of 17 October 2025, Dz.U. 2025 poz. 1676) only a licence conforming to the 1968 Vienna Convention model, plus documents from the EU, Switzerland and EFTA, is exchanged without an exam. A licence from a country bound only by the Geneva Convention or by no convention requires passing the theory part of the state exam at a WORD centre. The City of Warsaw service cards have not caught up with this change yet, so the exam is decided by the Act, not by the description on the office website. Which country is in which group is explained in our article which countries' driving licences you can exchange without an exam.

How long you may drive on a foreign licence

A licence from outside the EU entitles you to drive in Poland for 6 months from the day your permanent or temporary residence begins (Article 5(4) of the Act on Vehicle Drivers). After that, driving is driving without a licence, even if the exchange application is already at the office. An EU document needs no exchange for its whole validity. The Polish licence is issued after the foreign one is returned (Article 14(1)), and the office sends it back to the issuing authority — which is why collection is in person only.

For drivers from Ukraine, Belarus and the United Kingdom the procedure has its own details — document formats, translations and deadlines — which we describe separately in our article exchanging a Ukrainian, Belarusian or British driving licence for a Polish one.

How we handle driving licence exchange in Warsaw and what it costs

The law firm of Bartosz Krajewski handles the exchange as your representative: we check whether the document qualifies for exchange without an exam, arrange the sworn translation, file the application at the office competent for your place of residence and watch the verification stage abroad, delivering confirmation of the data when the office is waiting for it. The service costs 1000 zł; the 100 zł document fee and the 17 zł power of attorney duty are paid separately. The condition is a place of residence in Poland — that cannot be arranged for a client. You collect the Polish document at the district office in person, because the foreign one must be handed over.

You hold a licence from outside the EU and already have your residence card? The six-month clock runs from the first day of your stay. Send us a photo of the document — we will tell you whether an exam awaits you and file the application. The full scope of our help for foreigners is described on the page foreigners' cases in Warsaw.