Driving license- returning home

Maplespuds

Hi everyone,

I have been living in alberta for almost two years, but will be moving home to Ireland next year.

After 1 year livin in AB I had to give the canadians my Irish driving license and do their driving test to get a canadian license. Now its seems from what Ive looked up online that the Irish authorities haven't worked out a system for people returning who previously had full irish licenses that would otherwise have been valid and had to surrender them, so they are treated like a foreign national and would have to do the Irish test again when they return!! IMO this is a joke, so I think I'll be reporting my license as lost and just getting a replacement. It makes a liar of me, but I couldnt take doing Irish test again, especially as now you require 10 lessons beforehand etc. I'm really confused they haven't a system for it, as there must be 100s of people moving home from Canada each year.

Has anyone gone through this problem recently?

fergusb

If you look at the Driving Licence Application Form, there is a section which says "have you submitted your license to another country", then "if yes, date of permanent return to Ireland". Or something along those lines.

I contacted the RSA earlier this year and they said that as long as your Irish license is still valid, you can get a new one without issue.

Get a copy of the application form and hopefully its obvious enough.

Maplespuds

Thanks Fergusb,

The licensing was moved from the local motor tax people in October and transfered to a new organisation called the NDLS. The form has a "exchanging a license" section and asks if you have a license from another country and if so provide the details. However, Canada is not on the list of countries that licenses can be straight swapped for and it says on the following link that people licensed obtained from countries not on the list will need to have a test. http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/travel_and_recreation/motoring_1/driver_licensing/exchanging_foreign_driving_permit.html

Obviously it would be ridiculous to make someone do test again, maybe I'm wrong, but I felt the same about Albertas rules with Irish license.

fergusb

Well, 3 options I guess... You could submit the form saying you lost your license. Get the Gardai to sign the form and all that and pretend you lost it somehwere.

Alternatively you could fill in Part 3 of the form D401, and in question 19 say it was on foot of exchanging a license from Ireland. Which does seem slightly roundabout.

Or probably the best is fill out Part 2 for replacement and under Other say Submitted to Canadian license authority or something like that.

It is definitely not as straight forward as the old form was. Maybe email/ring NDLS?