This guide was originally created by Mahek Rathore
If you have a valid driving licence issued in India, you can use it up to 185 days after you moved to the Netherlands. After that, you are required to have a Dutch driving licence. Obtaining a Driving Licence in the Netherlands is a lengthly and costly process. If you are lucky enough, and are an experienced driver, you can exchange your Driver’s License easily if:
- You or your spouse benefit from 30% ruling.
- You hold a valid driving license from India which was obtained more than 2 years ago.
- You are registered at a municipality.
How to Exchange your Driving License:
- Open CBR Website : https://www.cbr.nl/nl.htm and Simply Login using DigiID and start the application for Certificate for Driving License.
- Fill in all the details and once completed it will ask you to pay 41 Euro to generate the certificate which will be called as CBR Certificate. If you have 2 Wheeler and 4 Wheeler license in India, then only select Category A and B ( Excluding Trailor ) and If you have only 4 Wheerlers License then select only Car i.e. B.
- Take the Appointment in Municipality for “Exchange of Driving License / Foreign License”. Carry the followind documents:
- 30% Ruling Certificate Print mast wala.
- CBR Certificate
- Passport Photo as per Dutch License.
- Check the requirement: https://www.government.nl/topics/identification-documents/requirements-for-photos
- 41 Euro Fees, payable by card at the counter.
- Gemmente will provide you the application photocopy and receipt ( Keep them safe ). Once your License is Granted in 2-4 Weeks you should get an Invite Letter in the Mail.
- Take an appointment from the Gemmente to pick up your License.
- Take the Documents provided by Gemeente and the Letter which you have received from RDW.
Please ensure you keep every document that you get from gemmente or RDW at your address. This will be required to get back the license in Future. If you have 30% ruling, irrespective of the nationality, you can exchange your foreign license (original license, not IDP) to a Dutch license. You will have to surrender your original Indian license in exchange for a Dutch license. In about a month, your original Indian license will be sent to the Indian embassy. You can collect it from there if you go in the afternoon. You can collect personally or authorize someone with a handwritten letter.
In some cases, you might receive a letter from RDW that you need to submit the “Original statement of authenticity of your Indian driving license”. In such cases, you have to ask the issuing RTO office in India to provide an “extract of driving licence”. You will have to find somebody in India who can go to the RTO office with a copy of your DL and ask them for the “Extract of Driving License”, where they have to fill in your details in a form. They will stamp the form and give you a part of the form that can be submitted to RDW.
Good to Know:
You are permitted to drive after you have successfully made a request for exchanging the license and are waiting to receive one without having your original license in hand. If you are asked at a traffic stop, the police can check with us to see if an exchange request was made and if you turned in a valid driving licence. However RDW advices that “it is up to you whether or not to take this risk.”
We strongly advice you to study the Dutch traffic rules and hire a driving instructor to gain first-hand feedback on your understanding and keep our streets safe. Several rules might be different than what you are used to. See our post to understand common scenarios that you might intuitively ignore: __________.
