How long you may drive in Cyprus on a foreign licence
Checked: no change to the rule has been established since the check
In short
- Who it applies to
- Anyone who arrived in Cyprus with their own licence and plans to drive for longer than a couple of weeks. The answer depends not on your passport but on which state issued the licence.
- What it costs
- Driving on a recognised foreign licence costs nothing. You pay only if the exchange is compulsory: €40 for issuing the Cypriot licence, plus a translation if the licence is not in English or Greek.
- How long it takes
- The clock is a six-month stay in the Republic. After it, a holder of a licence from a notified country must exchange it; a holder of an EU licence need not, then or later.
- Where to apply
- Whether your country is in the Commissioner's notification can be established only at a District Driver Examiner Office: the list is not on the department's site. The same office later approves the exchange.
- If your case differs
- An international driving permit does not solve this: the department issues one to holders of CYPRIOT licences for travel abroad; it is not a way of having a foreign licence recognised here.
Deadlines and conditions
| Condition | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| the duty to exchange arises after a 6-month stay | The licence exchange page of the Road Transport Department: holders of a licence from a notified country must exchange it after a six-month stay; holders of an EU licence may do so if they wish. |
| the exchange itself requires at least 185 days of residence in Cyprus | The same page, the note on «συνήθη διαμονή»: for the exchange itself a foreign applicant must have lived in Cyprus for at least this long. |
| the Cypriot licence costs €40 | The document accompanying application ΤΟΜ 7Δ, point 1 — the fee for issuing the Cypriot licence. |
Your case
If the licence was issued by an EU country
You may keep driving: there is no duty to exchange, neither after six months nor later. The exchange stays your own choice — for instance, to hold a Cypriot document.
If the licence was issued by a country named in the Commissioner's notification
For the first six months the licence is recognised as equivalent to the Cypriot one; after that it must be exchanged. The exchange is a separate procedure: in person, with documents, €40 — and the old licence goes back to the issuing state.
If the country is neither in the EU nor in the notification
The department says nothing about this case: no conversion is provided for such licences, and whether and for how long you may drive on them is not stated on the RTD pages. Ask at a district examiner's office; we have not verified it and will not invent it.
Six months and 185 days sit on one page and mean different things
What is measured by what:
- a six-month stay is the moment the duty to exchange arises
- 185 days of residence is the condition without which the exchange is not accepted at all
- the figures are close, but they are not the same requirement and are met differently
- which country falls under the Commissioner's notification is not stated on the department's site
- an international permit has nothing to do with this: it is issued to holders of Cypriot licences for use abroad
Sources
- Road Transport Department, “Foreign Driving Licence Conversion”www.mcw.gov.cyBoth rules verbatim: the duty to exchange after six months for notified countries and the option to exchange for EU countries. Plus the 185-day residence condition.
- Road Transport Department, “International Driving Licence”www.mcw.gov.cyWhat an international permit actually is: issued against a Cypriot licence, valid for a year, usable in non-European countries party to the 1948 Geneva Convention.
- Road Transport Department, contact pagewww.mcw.gov.cyAddresses and phone numbers of the five district offices, including separate numbers for driving examiners, and the explicit statement that citizens are served only there.