Recently I started thinking about buying a car, and with that came thoughts of the rules related to my driving license. In other countries I have gone to the commune and switched it over for a local one, but Norway does things a little differently. I have written about the process below. I hope others can learn from my experience!

Trading in your foreign license for a Norwegian license

First things, this really depends on the country you are from, or the country where you currently hold a driving license. For EU-EEA citizens/residents, the procedure is streamlined, with little red tape, and rather simple. From my (limited) understanding, it is more-or-less a matter of trading in your license for a new one.  Please comment below to share your experiences or advice!

From the US, Canada and some other non EU-EEA nations, it is a bit more complicated. You need to pass both a theoretical (written) and  a driving test.It is not as simple as just trading in your license. It involves the mandatory purchase of private services from a driving school, and it is a time-consuming and costly process, replete with a wait-list that can put the driver outside of the time period permitted for acquiring a new license under Norwegian law.

How it works Here is how it works in a nutshell. You first need to make contact with a driving school, as the State requires you to go through a driving school to use their car for the test. Drivers are not allowed to take their license exam in their own vehicle because the law requires that the car have brake pedals for the passenger as well, in order to protect the safety of the instructor. Next, the driver´s school will probably require you purchase a few hours of lessons and driving time behind the wheel. After you have passed these steps, the instructor will schedule a test for you at the testing center which is out in Forus, where you go for a drive with the tester.

Costs

The total cost of trading in your license will cost you approximately 5000 NOK. If you have to go through the entire driver´s education courses, this will cost you +/- 30,000 NOK. At the end of this process, you are then granted a license which expires on your 100th birthday.

Learn from my mistakes…

…and turn your license in before the year is up. If you don´t, you will need to take Driver´s Education all over again. This is an expensive way to learn a lesson!

There have been articles in the local paper about how people take out loans at the bank to pay for this course. I came in 6 months after receiving my residency papers, and was told I had to gather “proof” that I had not been in the country already for one year.

There are various ways to prove this, and most include going back to figures of authority in the place where you moved to Norway from. The agent was either unwilling or unable to use my residency permit date as my settlement date. But I was lucky. The agent was reasonable enough to allow me the opportunity to secure a letter from a previous employer in order to establish that I was indeed not in the country for a full year.

It is possible that the differentiation between “entrance” versus “residency” dates  harken back to the pre-Schengen times when foreigners arrived into the country via ship or plane and had their passports stamped and entry dates were clearly established. Back in those days, foreigners were unlikely to be traveling around or working elsewhere while their paperwork processed. When you arrived, you were here.

So when is a year a year?

Is it time for a new look at those laws? Probably. A reasonable perspective might suggest that the burden of proof should be put on the State, not the individual, when dates are unclear. That would mean starting the one-year clock ticking when residency is granted. That is when foreigners are allowed to work, enter the health care system, open a bank account, and act as real members of society. Why should the clock for driving be any different? It is not unreasonable to think that a new arrival to Norway would assume that the clock starts at acceptance into the country. The Vegvesen webpage does not make this distinction clear, either. I would reckon that this has been a problem for many an expat in Norway! If you want to avoid this extra layer of trouble, it is absolutely necessary to apply for your Norwegian license within one year of moving to Norway. It does not matter which day you receive your residence permit. The date you need to keep in mind is the one when you stepped off of that plane or boat.

Driver’s Schools

You can find a list of “Trafikkskøler” by visiting the Authorised Traffic School website. This is searchable by region or city and lists extra information, such as when the next classes are scheduled to take place. Note that only some schools have automatic transmission cars, so ask if that is important to you. To locate driving schools outside of Stavanger, you can also search from the link above, or use the gulesider webpage with the key phrase “Trafikkskoler + your city name”

Test yourself You can take an online practice test on the theory part of the exam here. The cost is 30 NOK and the test is available to you for 24 hours.

Editor’s note: The rest of this entry is missing due to technical reasons…I am working on resolving the issue.