You can drive in Portugal, as a tourist, with a driving licence issued by a country covered by the agreements mentioned above, for a period of 185 days following your entry into Portugal and providing you are not intending to settle.

If you take up residence in Portugal, you must take into account the following deadlines, which are effective from the date on which your residence document is issued: 
• Up to 90 days. You can continue to drive on a licence issued by a country mentioned above for up to 90 days from the date of
  issue of your residence document, but you must apply to IMT for an exchange during this period
• From 90 days up to 2 years. You can no longer drive on a licence issued by a country mentioned above, but you can still apply
  to IMT for an exchange during this period 
• After 2 years.  You can apply for the exchange of your licence, but you will have to pass a practical driving test

What do I need to do to exchange my driving licence?
Start by asking your doctor for a medical exam.  After the exam, the doctor will issue a medical certificate and send it electronically to IMT via our medical certificate platform. You can then:
• Acess here, fill out and submit with the following documents:
  o Residence permit 
  o ​Certificate of authenticity of the driving license, issued by the issuing entity or consular servisse, indicating the categories obtained
     by examination (and what type of test) and the categories obtained by equivalence 
  o Driving licence 
  o A certified translation of your driving licence, if the content is in any language other than Portuguese, French, English or Spanish.
    The certification must be carried out by the Portuguese Consulate or the consular services of another member state in the respective
    country of origin
  o A psychological assessment certificate, if you are applying to retain vehicle categories C, D and/or E 
 
After submitting the request, you must wait for communication from the services with an indication to go to the IMT service desk.

Note: Upon submission of the request to Exchange a Portuguese driver’s license for a Portuguese, it is accepted the expressions of interest, presented in the 15 days before and after March 9, 2020, being considered to be regular until April 30, 2021.
However, please note that the completion of the exchange request is subject to the presentation of proof of residence in national territory.

Granting temporary protection to displaced persons from Ukraine - Decree-Law No. 24-B/2022, of 11 March.
Recognition and exchange of driving licences and professional certification of drivers (CPC)

Regarding the exchange of driving licences, drivers who are beneficiaries of temporary protection under the Resolution of the Council of Ministers number  29-A/2022 of 01 march are exempted of:
a) Present the certificate of entitlement/ authentication of the driving licence;
b) Be submitted to a driving exam (theoretical and/or practical test)  
2 – Translation of all theory tests, regardless the category, for newly drivers or for adding new categories in their driving licence.
3 - For the purpose of professional driving qualification (CPC) or registration of the code 95 on the driving licence, it is accepted the driver’s certificate provided for in article 5 of Regulation (EC) No. 1072/2009, of the European Parliament and of the Council of October 21, 2009.
4 - Anyone who is unable to provide documentary evidence of the exercise of the profession of driver of transport of goods or passengers in heavy vehicles, can request the annotation of code 95 on the driving license, provided that they attend previously an ongoing training, with a duration of 35 hours and pass the exam.
5 - Training and examination for heavy vehicle drivers qualifications may be carried out before the conclusion of the exchange driving licence request. The code 95 will be register when the Portuguese driving license is issued.
6 - All public fees associated with this procedures are free of charge.


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