Are you Canadian, or better yet, Nova Scotian? Even if you´re not, believe me, this post will be useful to you to some extent. If you are from somewhere in the world and you live in Spain, keep reading. This is a sequel to my last post, “10 steps to make the process of obtaining a Spanish driver’s license easier for foreigners”.
After acquiring your Spanish driver’s license, you now have the option of validating it. What does that mean and why would you want to do that? A validated license recognizes and respects that you already have a driver’s license from your home country. If you do not validate it, the government recognizes you as a novice driver. So, if you want to avoid excessive insurance prices when you purchase a car, or you want to rent a car within the first three years of having your new license, you must validate your Spanish license. This process can only be done after obtaining your Spanish driver´s license (going through the written and driving tests).
Step 1: You will have to contact the Canadian Embassy by email which is on its website here. The embassy is located a 2 minute walk from Begoña metro (Madrid). This link will direct you the “consular services” fees for the services I outline below. Before you email the embassy, read the rest of the steps below to see what you’re getting yourself into.
Step 2: The embassy will tell you to request a “driving abstract“, or otherwise known as a “client record abstract” from your province, which outlines your driving history. It costs 18.65 Canadian dollars. Note: Specifically request that the letter date the day, month and year that you obtained your Canadian license (not when you renewed it), because that’s the whole point of giving that letter to DGT, which is equivalent to the Registry of Motor Vehicles in Canada. DGT wants to know the day you obtained your Canadian license (the day you passed your driving test). The embassy will write up a letter for you explaining the classification of the vehicle(s) which you are permitted to drive. The embassy will need your Canadian license to attach it to the back of the letter as an annex. They will also write another letter. These two documents are for the DGT.
Step 3: The embassy will issue two letters for you: a “statuary declaration”and a “statement letter”. The former is a statuary declaration regarding your Canadian license, and the latter explains the information indicated on that license, which is the classification of the vehicles which you are permitted to drive. DGT needs to see these two letters in order to validate your license. I got away with not obtaining a client record abstract. Instead, I just gave my current Nova Scotian license (yes, the actual card and no, not a photocopy of it) to the embassy, which attached it to both its letters as an annex. My Nova Scotian license was going to expire 5 months and I was heading back to Nova Scotia the following month anyway.
Step 4: Pay around 100 Euros to the Embassy for the issuance of those two letters. Refer to the embassy website again.
Step 5: You must get both embassy-issued letters and your driver’s license (or the client record abstract), translated into Spanish, which costs around 115 Euros. The company I used has not given me the best service (that’s an understatement, service was terrible), but they work for the ministry of justice department in Spain and they got the translation done, even if it took them longer than anticipated. This is why I will not disclose the translation company name here. Working for the ministry of justice means that the translation company can officially translate legal documents and you would not need to have the translated documents certified by the ministry of justice. If you don´t understand this gibberish, it just means that it boils down to less work for you to do.
Step 6: As I mentioned earlier, the Canadian embassy initially told me that I needed to request for and receive the driving abstract in the mail from my province, which is Nova Scotia. I would have needed to take the abstract to the embassy myself and make a sworn declaration. I telephoned Access NS and they had no idea what I was talking about. I didn’t know that I was really supposed to ask for a document to show my track record driving history, so they printed out something else. It was a waste of $20. Besides, someone had to go physically on my behalf and pick it up for me, send it to me (another $20 through registered mail). In the end, the document from the Registry of Motor Vehicles which had printed out for me made no sense and was a bunch of numbers all over the place. As I explained earlier, the other option is to use your current Canadian driver’s license and the Canadian embassy attaches it to the two letters it issues. This was the most convenient and economical option for me, personally. When I gave those documents, including my newly obtained Spanish driver’s license, to DGT in Spain, it was sufficient. Spain loves seeing official and authorized Canadian stamps on papers handed into them. I thought DGT would keep that license for their records, but surprise, surprise, they gave it back. There’s no way I could guarantee they would do the same to you, so be prepared to be detached (emotionally) from your license.
Here’s the “client record abstract” I requested looks like so you know NOT to ask for it:
I went to great lengths to hide my height as I touched up on it in the picture above. Aside from that, as you can see there’s not much going on in this document. It does not state the day I actually got my license. It’s very…abstract.
Step 7: Three weeks later you will receive a brand new Spanish license in the mail with the only difference being a code in tiny print on the back. When you rent or purchase a car that code is what will open up your options as opposed to the original Spanish license you received when you passed your driving test.
Step 8: Meanwhile, make the appointment with DGT online here, because it the dates are usually booked up a couple of weeks in advance. On the website, in the drop-down button choose “Madrid” as the city and in the second button click on “Renovación de premises de conducción (solo UE/EEE)”. See box below. Book the appointment.
Step 9: With the original (English) and translated documents, go to DGT, which is at this address: Calle de Arturo Soria, 125, 28043 Madrid, and fork over 25 Euros by credit or debit card only. No cash. Aside from the documents from the Embassy, you will need to show your NIE (ID card) and its photocopy and your Canadian driver’s license as well as its photocopy. In three weeks’ time you should receive your new Spanish driver’s license in the mail!
Question: Will you get your Canadian license back from DGT? I did, but there´s no guarantee that everyone will. From first and second-hand experience, the way bureaucracy works in Spain is that there is no hard and fast rule. On the contrary, it usually depends on who the person working behind the desk is. Unfortunately.
The quote below from our distinguished Scottish philosopher, Thomas Carlyle, sums it up for me:
Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak
I wouldn’t say I have a strong soul now, and I admit, perhaps it’s a little dramatic considering that I’m talking about something as mundane as a driver’s license, but it’s more than that. It’s about putting in a whole lot of dedication, time and patience to figure it all out while running around in a big city, communicating in a language and culture that isn’t mine. It would have been less of a headache if I had steps like the ones listed above to serve as my guide. I now have a Spanish driver´s licence and its validation to show for what I went through.
Signing off –
Shamim Sobhani
My world 