UK driving licence translation into Turkish

The photocard and what it carries

The UK driving licence (sürücü belgesi, ehliyet) is the DVLA photocard: name, date and place of birth, dates of issue and expiry, the issuing authority (DVLA, or DVA in Northern Ireland), the driver number, the address, and on the back the vehicle categories with their start and end dates and the information codes. Since 2015 there is no paper counterpart; penalty points and entitlements are held online, and a driving record printout or a share code from the DVLA View or share your driving licence service supplements the card when an office wants the full history.

For a Turkish office we translate both sides of the card and, where you supply it, the DVLA driving record. The category table matters most, because the nüfus officer converts each UK category into the Turkish class it corresponds to.

Converting the licence in Türkiye

A Turkish citizen or resident who settles in Türkiye exchanges the UK licence at a nüfus müdürlüğü. A Turkish law firm's summary of the rules states that the foreign licence must have a sworn Turkish translation certified by a notary or a Turkish consulate, that a driver's health report (sürücü olur raporu) must be obtained from an authorised hospital, family health centre or polyclinic, and that Turkish citizens may drive on a licence obtained abroad for at most two years from the date of entry, foreign nationals for at most six months. The file also includes an education certificate showing at least primary schooling, photographs, identity documents and the fee. The nüfus office in practice keeps the UK licence when it issues the Turkish one. Read converting a UK driving licence in Türkiye for the appointment and the categories, and driving in Türkiye on a UK licence for the period before conversion.

Other Turkish readers of the licence

• Insurers. A kasko or traffic insurance claim by a driver holding a UK licence; the insurer checks the category and the date the licence was first obtained.
• Police and courts. After an accident the traffic police record the licence details; a court hearing a claim or a prosecution wants the translation on file.
• Employers. A Turkish employer hiring a driver or issuing a company car.
• Vehicle registration. Registering an imported UK car in your name at the trafik tescil office alongside the V5C. See V5C logbook translation.

Apostille only when demanded

The conversion rule quoted above asks for a notarised or consulate-certified translation, not an apostille, and nüfus offices have accepted the notarised translation alone to date. If an office does ask for legalisation, note that GOV.UK treats copies of documents such as a passport or a driving licence as documents that a UK notary or solicitor must certify before the FCDO will apostille them; the e-Apostille at £35 then applies. For the consulate route, translations are accepted from translators on the consulate's own register; ours is the notary route used inside Türkiye.

Cost and delivery

Both sides of the photocard are one page of 1,000 characters, £6.50; the DVLA driving record adds a page. The Ankara notary tariff at about £13.50 per page plus £5 handling makes a notarised licence translation around £25, and an apostille of the translation is £15 if requested. No UK VAT is charged. Translation is done in one working day and the notary signs the same or the next day. The PDF arrives by e-mail; the nüfus office keeps the wet-sealed original, so it goes by courier for £30 to the UK or to your address in Türkiye. We cannot offer collection in the UK.