Photo: Daniel Moqvist via Unsplash
Moving to Sweden with a driving licence from another country raises a practical question fast: can you just keep driving on it, or does it need to become a Swedish one at some point? A licence from an EU or EEA country never has to be exchanged. A licence from anywhere else has a clock running from the day you register as a resident, and only two countries are exempt from it. For a stay with an end date, the Transport Agency can extend that clock by granting an exemption. A rule that took effect on 1 May 2026 added a further condition for EEA licences that started life outside the EEA.
An EU or EEA licence never has to be exchanged in Sweden
If your driving licence was issued in an EU or EEA country, you can simply carry on using it in Sweden. Transportstyrelsen, the Swedish Transport Agency, treats it as valid for as long as it remains valid in the country that issued it, with no requirement to swap it for a Swedish card. Exchanging it is possible if you want a Swedish licence for convenience, but for someone who has moved from Germany, Poland or Ireland, keeping the original card is the simpler route and carries no deadline pressure. If you do exchange, the application asks for the form and your original licence. A vision certificate is needed only for lorry and bus categories, and then only in some cases.
A licence from outside the EEA is valid for one year after registration
A driving licence issued outside the EU and EEA works differently. Once you become folkbokförd, which means registered in the Swedish population register, the foreign licence is valid for at most one year from that date, unless it was issued in the United Kingdom or the Faroe Islands. After the year runs out, the licence stops being valid for driving in Sweden. Unless you have exchanged the licence, obtained a Swedish one or been granted an exemption by then, you lose the right to drive on it.
The clock starts on the day you are registered, not the day you arrive. A coordination number (samordningsnummer) is not a registration, so if that is all you have, you are not yet a registered resident and may still drive on your foreign licence.
For anyone arriving with, say, a Canadian, South Korean or Brazilian licence, the one-year window is the planning horizon. Check the current process on Transportstyrelsen’s own page on foreign driving licences as soon as the move date is set, since a late start can mean missing the window entirely.
Which countries’ licences can be exchanged without a Swedish test?
A licence issued in the United Kingdom, the Faroe Islands, Switzerland or Japan can be swapped straight for a Swedish one, with no Swedish knowledge test and no Swedish driving test. Licences from every other country outside the EEA cannot be exchanged at all, which leaves their holders with the ordinary Swedish route.
The one-year clock does not treat the four the same way. A British or Faroese licence keeps working in Sweden however long you have been registered as a resident, so nothing forces an exchange and you can carry on driving on the original card for as long as it remains valid. A Swiss or Japanese licence stops being valid one year after registration, exactly as any other third-country licence does, and the exchange application has to be in before that year is up.
For car and motorcycle categories the application asks for a health declaration and an eyesight certificate alongside the application form, your original licence and a certificate confirming that the licence is still valid. That last certificate comes from the authority that issued the licence, or from the Japanese embassy in Stockholm for a Japanese one, so a Swiss or Japanese holder should request it months rather than weeks before the year runs out.
What to do when your licence cannot be exchanged in Sweden
A licence from India, Canada, the United States or any other country outside the EEA, apart from the four above, cannot be exchanged. When the year is up, three options remain, and which of them is open to you depends on why you are in Sweden and for how long, not on where the licence was issued.
- An exemption keeps your foreign licence valid beyond the first year. It requires no learner’s permit, only a letter with supporting documents. It is open only if your stay in Sweden is for a limited period, and a yes is never guaranteed.
- A Swedish licence from scratch is open to you provided you meet the residence requirement. A time-limited stay does not meet it on its own, while students qualify instead after six months of studies. It means a learner’s permit, a risk course, a theory test and a practical test.
- Stopping driving is what happens by default when the year ends and neither of the other two is in place.
For someone on a fixed-term contract or a study programme, the exemption is the route to check first. For someone who plans to stay permanently, it is closed, and the Swedish licence is the only way to keep driving.
Who can get an exemption from the one-year rule
The Transport Agency can grant an exemption only if you plan to stay in Sweden for a limited period of time and the exemption does not involve any risks to road safety. Temporary studies and a time-limited job are the agency’s own examples. Its page then sets out what the application must contain in three situations: you study in Sweden, you work in Sweden, or you have come with someone who is studying or working here temporarily.
A residence permit or a work permit does not guarantee an exemption: the agency writes that “we cannot guarantee that you will be granted an exemption” even then. And an exemption cannot be granted because it is hard to get an appointment for the driving test.
The application is a letter sent by post
There is no e-service and no form for an exemption. The agency’s instruction is to “Write your application as a regular letter” and to send it to Transportstyrelsen, 701 97 Örebro.
The letter describes the purpose of your stay and how long you plan to remain, and it comes with your personal identity number and contact details, a copy of your foreign licence and a copy of your Swedish residence permit. It also needs a certificate from your university or employer showing the total period you will study or work in Sweden. A list of the courses you are registered on does not count as a study certificate. If your licence is not in English, German, French, Swedish, Norwegian or Danish, add a certified translation or an international driving permit. The exact list for each of the three situations is on the agency’s English page on exemptions.
You do not need a Swedish learner’s permit to apply. You can apply at any time, but the agency recommends doing it a few months before the end of your first year as a registered resident. Because the application travels by post, the safe plan is to count backwards from your registration date and send the letter well before the year runs out.
A Swedish licence requires residence, a risk course and two tests
If the exemption does not fit your situation, the alternative is the ordinary Swedish licence. A driving licence may only be issued to someone who has a learner’s permit, has passed the theory and practical tests and is a permanent resident in Sweden or has been studying here for at least six months. Permanent residence in this sense is not a residence permit: the agency counts you as permanently resident in the country where you live for at least 185 days each calendar year because of personal and occupational ties or, without work ties, personal ties alone. Someone who lives here to carry out a time-limited task counts as resident in the country of their personal ties (in Swedish), so a fixed-term job in Sweden does not on its own make you resident here.
The route starts with the learner’s permit, which needs a vision certificate on the agency’s own form, and an eye test taken abroad does not stand in for it. A car licence requires a completed and valid risk course before both the theory test and the practical test. The agency’s English page on learning how to drive covers the training itself, and our guide to booking and passing the practical driving test covers the last step.
How the 1 May 2026 rule limits exchanging EEA licences first issued outside the EEA
Some people held a driving licence from outside the EEA, moved to another EEA country long enough to exchange it there for an EEA licence, and then used that EEA licence to get a Swedish one without ever sitting a Swedish test, a pattern Transportstyrelsen and the Swedish government describe as körkortsturism, or driving licence tourism. Since 1 May 2026, such a licence can no longer be exchanged for a Swedish one as a matter of course.
An EEA licence first issued outside the EEA can still be exchanged for a Swedish licence, but only if one of three conditions is met.
- The licence was issued after the holder passed both the knowledge test and the practical driving test in an EEA country, rather than simply being swapped in.
- The original licence, before any EEA exchange, was issued in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Japan or the Faroe Islands, the same four countries covered by Sweden’s direct-exchange agreements above.
- The holder had held a licence with the equivalent category, issued in one or more EEA states, for at least five years before becoming permanently resident in Sweden. Five years on the original third-country licence does not count.
If none of the three applies, the licence cannot be exchanged, and the holder is referred back to the ordinary Swedish process instead: booking the theory test and the practical test through Trafikverket like any other new applicant. The rule is in force, not a proposal. It took legal effect after a government bill on the issue passed through the Riksdag.
Sitting the tests in English rather than Swedish
Anyone who ends up needing to take a Swedish test, whether because the one-year window on a third-country licence has closed or because none of the three May 2026 conditions apply, does not have to sit it in Swedish. The knowledge test is available in English at Trafikverket’s own test centres. The format, question count and pass mark are covered in our separate guide to taking the driving theory test in English, which also explains how to book the theory test. A Swedish-language guide to the same situation, Körkort för nyanlända, is on our sister site körskola.nu.
Which licences have a deadline in Sweden
For anyone moving to Sweden with an EU or EEA licence, none of this changes daily life: the licence keeps working with no exchange and no deadline. It is specifically the smaller group holding an EEA licence that itself began life as a third-country licence, or a genuinely non-EEA licence past its one-year mark, where the rules above decide what happens next.
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Last fact-checked: 10 October 2026