Your driving licence in Austria: exchanging is optional, renewing happens there

No, you don't have to exchange your Dutch driving licence in Austria. A licence from an EU or EEA country is recognised there and equals an Austrian licence. Exchanging is allowed, voluntarily, and costs € 90. Two things still make it an item for your diary: the lorry and bus categories C and D stay valid for at most five years after your move, and once your licence expires, you have to renew it in the country where you live. That is then Austria, not the Netherlands.

May I keep driving on my Dutch licence?

Yes. The Austrian government says it without detours: a licence issued by an EEA state does not have to be converted when you move to another EEA state. It stays valid until the date on it. In the EU you may hold only one licence, so there is no reason to add a second one either.

The new country of residence may, however, apply its own rules on validity, medical checks and the tax side. In practice you notice that mainly at the moment your licence expires.

Situation	What applies	Deadline or cost
Category B licence from the Netherlands	recognised, exchange voluntary	valid until the expiry date
Category C, C1, D or D1	valid until the expiry date, but at most five years after your move	exchange before that limit
Voluntary exchange	application at the licensing authority	€ 90, plus passport photo
Licence expired	renew in your country of residence	under Austria's rules
Licence lost or stolen	apply in your country of residence	an Austrian licence

When is exchanging still smart?

If you hold a lorry or bus licence, it isn't a choice: those categories lapse after at most five years in Austria if you haven't had them converted. If you drive professionally, put that date in your diary straight away.

For an ordinary car licence it depends on the expiry date. Your Europe says you must renew an expired licence in the country where you normally live. You then get the new credit-card model, possibly with a different period of validity and with that country's conditions. If your Dutch licence expires in a year or two, you might as well exchange it now, at a moment that suits you.

The same applies with loss, theft or damage: you then no longer get a new Dutch licence, but a licence from your country of residence.

Don't plan the exchange just before a trip. The licensing authority first checks with the Netherlands whether anything stands in the way of issuing, and according to the Austrian government that can take several weeks. The provisional document you can get in that time is not recognised in every EU country.

How does exchanging work?

You submit an application to a licensing authority, and that may be any licensing authority in Austria. In cities with a Landespolizeidirektion and without a Bezirkshauptmannschaft that is the Landespolizeidirektion; in Vienna the Verkehrsamt of the Landespolizeidirektion Wien. Elsewhere you go to the Bezirkshauptmannschaft. At the Landespolizeidirektionen an online appointment is recommended.

For a voluntary exchange of an EU licence you bring:

• your passport or identity card;
• your Dutch driving licence;
• one passport photo of 35 by 45 millimetres;
• possibly an extract from the Dutch driving licence register and your confirmation of registration, the Meldebestätigung; these are not required, but make processing easier.

A medical report is not on the list for an EU licence; for a licence from outside the EU it is. What the authority always does is check with the Netherlands that nothing stands in the way of issuing, such as a suspension, restriction or withdrawal. Only then do you get the Austrian licence. For professional drivers who have to cross borders in those weeks, that is a reason to plan the application with plenty of time.

And the car itself?

The licence is in no hurry, the car is. Anyone with their main residence in Austria may drive on foreign plates for only one month, after which the car must be registered in Austria. How that conversion and the NoVA work is in your car to Austria. And anyone who is going to drive in the mountains does well to know the Austrian traffic rules: the government names the winter tyre obligation as its first example.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey, step 5.7: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Austria or go straight to step 5.7 in the open plan.