Glossary
Provisional licence — explained for Turkish readers
The licence a learner driver in Great Britain must hold before taking lessons and tests. It allows supervised driving only and becomes a full licence after the tests.
A provisional licence is issued by the DVLA to anyone aged seventeen or over who wants to learn to drive. It is a photocard like a full licence but permits driving only with L plates and a qualified supervising driver aged at least twenty-one. Holders book the theory test and the practical test on it, and once both are passed the DVLA issues the full licence.
Türkiye does not have this stage. A learner attends a sürücü kursu, practises with an instructor, and receives a sürücü adayı sertifikası after the course exams, which is then exchanged for a sürücü belgesi. The Turkish learner is never a licence holder in their own right, so there is no direct term; we translate provisional licence descriptively.
For a Turkish resident whose twelve months of driving on a Turkish licence are ending, the provisional licence is the next step. Our guide to driving in the UK on a Turkish licence sets out the timeline.