Driving licence translation for the DVLA
The twelve-month rule, the designated-country list, and what a translation must show (both sides, every category code and first-issue date) for a D1 application.
The DVLA's twelve-month rule, which countries' licences can be exchanged without a test, what the translation must contain, and country-by-country guides for Indian, Nigerian, Pakistani, Brazilian, Filipino, Ukrainian and other licences.
You can drive on a full foreign licence for twelve months after becoming resident in Great Britain. After that, the DVLA divides the world in two: licences from designated countries can be exchanged without a test, everything else needs a provisional licence and a UK test. Which side of that line your licence falls on decides everything that follows, and the translation is what tells the DVLA which categories and dates you hold.
These guides start with the DVLA's rules and the translation it expects, then take the licence formats we see most often by country, and finish with the reverse case: a UK licence used abroad.
Official Translations: certified translations from £29.95 per page, delivered within 24 hours, accepted by the Home Office, UKVI, and UK courts.
Whatever the country, the category first-issue dates are the fields that matter most: they are how the DVLA grants equivalent entitlements and how insurers credit your driving experience.