Getting a Driver’s License in Germany & Converting a Turkish Driver’s License to a German Driver’s License and All Necessary Documents
We have passed 4 years in Germany! In the last two years, we realized that one of the things that limited us was not being able to drive in Germany, and we started to investigate the conditions for obtaining a license.. After some research, we saw that getting a driver’s license is an event in itself, like every bureaucratic thing in Germany!
We got our driver’s license in September 2019 with a 6-month process in total and we are writing on our blog at the first opportunity.. Here’s to the article ‘Getting a Driver’s License in Germany’ through our eyes and with our experience!
Is a Turkish driver’s license valid in Germany, In the article Getting a Driver’s License in Germany, process of obtaining, Choosing a driving license course in Germany, Theoretical driving license exam in Germany, practical driving license exam in Germany, Required documents for driver’s license in Germany and First aid course in Germany. Good luck everybody.
Is a Turkish Driver’s License valid in Germany?
As such; If you are coming to Germany as a tourist and you are going to rent a car, your Turkish driver’s license is valid in Germany.. However, if you have moved to Germany like us, that is, if you have a residence permit here, it is still valid for 6 months from the moment you get a residence permit.. 6 months later, Germany says to you, “now you are here, now go get a German driver’s license”.. The validity of the new Turkish driver’s license expires after 6 months. This is not only for Germany, but for all European countries.. If you move to a new European country, your old driver’s license expires after 6 months.
If you are caught with the same license (ie without a license according to Germans :D) after your license expires, we are not sure what the penalty is.. Probably thousands of euros. So we do not recommend.
Let’s see what we do in order to get the driver’s license.. We will tell in the order we did. Let’s not forget that we knew how to drive, so we did not learn from scratch in this 6-month period.. Maybe the process will be a little longer for those learning from scratch.. We will also write how much each step costs.
Getting a Driver’s License in Germany Step by Step & Converting a Turkish Driver’s License to a German Driver’s License
All Steps of Getting a Driver’s License in Germany
1-) Going to a first aid course and getting a document
When applying for a driver’s license, they will ask you for a first aid document.. For this, you need to attend a one-day first aid course.. We looked for Munich on this site and attended the English version held on Sundays.. The course lasts about 8 hours with 10 minute breaks in between..
If your German is not very good, we recommend that you join the English one because 8 hours will not pass without understanding what is being said!
The course fee is 40 Euros. You can pay the fee when you go to the exam venue, you do not need to apply in advance.. Since it works on a first come, first served basis, you have to go half an hour before the course starts so that you won’t be left out..
So the first aid job is done.
2-) To have an eye test
They do the eye test at the beginning or end of the first aid course, you don’t need to have it done elsewhere. At the end, they give a small document.. The fee is 10 Euros. So the eye test is complete!
3-) Getting the German translation of the Turkish driver’s license
This is one of the things you will need when applying for your driver’s license.. We also wanted to make it out of the way.. You can have it translated by any sworn translator or at ADAC over Sendlinger Tor (for Munich residents). We paid 40 Euros for translation at ADAC, but there were also those who translated it to a sworn translator for 20 Euros..
4-) Choosing a driver’s license – choosing a driving school
This was the most critical issue for us! Turks in Germany (as you can imagine) mostly prefer Turkish driver’s license courses and this option was warmer to us at first.. Turkish driving instructor, speaking Turkish with the course, we started looking for a Turkish driving school with feelings like one of us..
However, the prices we received from Turkish driving courses were higher than German driving courses, and there were some of our friends here who went to the Turkish driving school and regretted it later.. That’s why we gave up our love of Turkish driving school. Among our own research, the best one was ‘High Driving Course’. If you decide on a Turkish driving school, you can look here (for Munich people).
Anyway, we finally decided on a German driving school with great commute and signed up for Manifaktur Fahrschule, which we were very satisfied with in terms of price-performance..
When registering for the course, you may have to pay in advance for some of the things such as course fee, practical lesson fee.. After paying the registration fee of 300 Euros per person in advance, we also learned that we will pay the following fees in order (:D)
- Course registration fee: 300 Euros (we paid in advance)
- Theoretical (written) exam registration fee: 80 Euros
- Theoretical (written) exam paper fee: 23 Euros
- Practice exam appointment: 180 Euros
- Practical exam entrance TÜV fee: 90 Euros
Where We stayed, so our contract with the course was ready. We could now apply for a driver’s license to KVR.
5-) Making an appointment with KVR for a driver’s license application – Fahrerlaubnisbehörde
As for everything else in Germany, you need to make an appointment for a driver’s license application (what a surprise)! You can also collect your documents and go early in the morning and try to make an appointment there, but there is no guarantee and it may not always be possible for employees to spend half a day waiting for an appointment number at KVR.. If you can’t find a suitable appointment date when you look, keep looking.. They regularly open a place for 1-2 people every day.. Especially every morning, they open appointments for the same day 5 minutes before the KVR starts.. You can also try this way. So you will treat this site as a train ticket to Kars!
After a 1-week trial, we were able to make an appointment for the date we wanted, and all the documents were left to be ready until the appointment day..
6-) Preparing documents for driver’s license application
You can think of this application as a ‘license eligibility application’. Let’s continue to try to apply for a driver’s license anyway.
The documents you need to take with you for a driver’s license application are as follows; Your Turkish driver’s license, German translation of your Turkish driver’s license, Anmeldung document (all if there is more than one Anmeldung document), your driving school registration document, your passport, 1 biometric picture, your first aid course document, your eye examination document, 45 Euro application fee.
With all these documents, you go to KVR-Fahrerlaubnisbehörde on the day and time of your appointment (here’s the address of the one in Munich) and apply for your driver’s license. Here, they take your Turkish driver’s license when you apply and your driver’s license stays there until your application is approved.. This process took about 4 weeks for us.. After 4 weeks our application was approved and we went and got our driver’s license back!
This waiting period, which takes 4 weeks for us, takes between 2 and 6 weeks depending on the intensity..
7-) When the license application is approved, taking a day for the theoretical exam
When your documents are reviewed and your eligibility for a driving license is approved, they call your driving school and let you know.. The course also calls you to give you the good news and says you can now make an appointment for the written exam (theoretical exam).
Because we want to get our driver’s license immediately, we made an appointment for 1 month later.. If you want to prepare for the theoretical exam more easily, you can give yourself at least 2-3 months.. So, how to prepare for this exam;
8) Preparing for the theoretical exam – Downloading the theoretical exam APP
There are 30 questions in total in the theoretical exam. When you go to the exam center, there are tablets on the table and you solve the questions here.. Each question has a value (such as 2 points, 3 points) and you have the right to make a total of 10 mistakes in 30 questions.. You can’t just make two 5-point mistakes. Hmm..:!
Here you need to download a paid App to prepare for this theoretical exam, you can think of this app like a huge question bank. There are about 1200-1300 questions in it and the real theoretical exam comes out of these questions.. In other words, if you solve enough questions and complete all the questions, you will see the questions you have solved before in the theoretical exam.. Just like in Turkey.
Here, if you want, you can download the paid application that your driver’s license will offer you (between 40-50 Euros) and work from there, or you can work there by becoming a member of this site (approximately 25 euros).. After all, the questions are the same and both have Turkish options..
When you take the exam, they ask you in which language you want to solve the questions and of course Turkish is one of these options.. So, you can prepare for the theoretical exam questions in Turkish and solve the exam in Turkish.. Since we decided beforehand that we wanted to enter Turkish, we also solved the questions in Turkish in practice.. However, the translation of the questions is very bad and the Turkish is strange.. you will have to get used to it now.
We studied this way for about 4 weeks, 2-3 days a week and passed the exam on the first try.. Good luck to everyone in this section, because the most frustrating part is preparing for this exam!
You go to the exam center on the day of the theoretical exam and pay the exam fee of 23 Euros and sit in the desk you are told.. After you solve the exam on the tablet, you send the answers for approval and you get your result immediately.. If you passed, your document is ready there.. Best wishes! This part is also over.
If you fail the exam at this stage, it’s okay, you can make an appointment again and enter the second one.. Of course, you have to pay 80 Euros + 23 Euros again for this..
9-) Taking a day for the practice exam and preparing for the practice exam
After passing the theoretical exam, you go to your driving school with the paper given to you that day and now you say that you want to prepare for the last step, namely the practical exam. .
Here, the driving course gives you a day for the practice exam and gives you an appointment for the practical lessons you will take as much as the time you agreed while registering for the course so that you can prepare for the practice exam..
Practical lessons are just like driving lessons in Turkey.. While you are driving, the teacher sits next to you and warns you.. Germany has very different traffic rules compared to Turkey.. That’s why it’s very important that you take these practical lessons and memorize those rules well.. We took a 90-minute lesson in total.. If you say is it enough, we wrote our opinion in the next article..
10-) Practice Exam (driving exam) and driver’s license!
You are meeting with your instructor and officer at your driving school on the day of the exam. Then the 45-minute driving test begins.. The teacher sits next to you and the attendant sits in the back.. Unlike the written exam, the driving exam does not have a Turkish option.. Staff generally speak German, but they can also speak English..
During the driving test, commands such as driving on the normal road, turning left and right at the lights, entering side streets, parallel parking and sudden braking are given..
And guess which blog failed the first driving test! You guessed it right, we! The reason for staying is to go too slow and make a rule mistake..
If you fail the first driving test in this way, you can pay another 180 Euros and take the test a second time.
At the end of the driving test, the officer immediately tells you whether you passed or not, and if you do, he gives you the confirmation paper there.
With this confirmation sheet, you will go to Fahrerlaubnisbehörde after 3-4 days. you go and get your german driver’s license. Best wishes!
Let’s write down how much this whole license process cost us;
- Course registration fee: 300 Euro (paid in advance)
- Theoretical (written) exam registration fee: 80 Euro
- Theoretical (written) exam paper fee: 23 Euros
- Practice exam appointment: 180 Euros (we do this twice we paid :D)
- Practical exam entrance TÜV fee: 90 Euro
- 90 minute practical lesson: 120 Euro
- Driver’s license translation ADAC: 50 Euros
- First aid: 40 Euros
- Eye examination: 10 Euros
- Driver’s license application fee: 43 Euros
- Theoretical (written) exam online application: 25 Euros
- So total: 911 Euros
Bi on the way’ Blog wishes everyone success!
Living in Germany we have many articles. We leave the link in case you want to take a look.
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