If you need to convert your licence, briefly, this is what you need to do
You will need to go to your local Borgerservice who now handle licencing instead of the Police. Here you can apply for the conversion licence and they will issue you a temporary 3-month licence while you do the theory and driving tests (if you fail any of these tests your temporary licence will be revoked). This costs 260 kr. You are required to bring your passport ID, passport photos and your dirvers licence which you will be required to relinquish (but can get back if you hand over your Danish licence) and a medical certificate from your doctor. The medical certificate needs to be on a special form (your doctor should have these) and will cost you around 500 kr. The doctor will carry out a simple eye, hearing, reflex and urine tests, plus ask questions regarding your health and any medications you are taking etc. The Borgerservice will issue you with a temporary (hand written) 3-month licence and the form you filled out will go to their main office in Valby for verification, after which you will receive it back in the mail (if you didn't go directly to the Valby office). You need to take this form to your chosen driving school so you can register and then go on to do the tests.
Register with a Driving school
You will need to register with a driving school who will provide an interpreter and the car for the test, materials and at least minimum number of lessons (see my page on "The Traffic School Package"). I would not recommended the school I chose (for its convenient location), however I suggest you try this school where you can (and should at least) purchase a Danish Road Laws book in English which was translated by the owner of this business.
Copenhagen International Driving School (www.learn2drive.dk): This English guy seems to be on the ball and has a good 200 page book of the Danish road laws he translated into English which I would highly recommend (see website; 475 kr + postage). The book is very thorough as you might expect from a 200 page book. Some sections are probably unnecessary for the experienced driver (i.e. the components of a car and how to drive a car), and the English has not been proof-read very well so it has many grammatical errors, however that does not diminish its usefulness. If you choose this school, he requires that that you attend all the 28 lessons (the same as required for the full licence but not required by the authorities for the conversion licence) because in his experience it is required for you to pass the tests.
Tips
- In order to pass the theory test you will definitely need to become familiar with the type of questions and the answers they require as you simply will not pass on your knowledge of the road laws alone! You will especially need to understand the terms "type, condition, course, use, equipment and surroundings of the road" (see my page "The Traffic School Package" for a further explanation of these terms), as these are common questions in the test and once you understand exactly what they mean and what answers they want from you, you'll be 50% on your way! Explanations of these terms are in the book.
- The questions are deliberately tricky and you will need to understand the terminology and the way they phrase the questions. In addition to the Road Laws book, I would strongly suggest you practise these tests (also available in English) at: http://www.teoriundervisning.dk This is probably one of the most useful tools you can use to help you prepare for the test, but a word of warning, this site (at least when I published this posting) has not taken the time to proof read their own questions and answers, so that there are several errors (take a look at my page on "Some examples of the theory test"), the most obvious example is where the exact same question is asked twice for the same picture but the "correct" answer for each question is different, however I have come across other errors such as having a give way duty at an intersection where traffic light are operational, and where the driver in the roundabout should give way to you entering the roundabout! So learn as much as you can from this site, but be aware that there are errors!
- The road laws are very similar to other countries, but there are a few differences and a few different Danish/EU road signs you can easily become familiar with (these are in the book I recommended). A few road laws that were different for me was a give way right duty at T-intersections even if you are on the main (continuing) road, the requirement to drive with lights on during the daytime (daylights or dipped headlights) and a few other things.
- It is also worth knowing that it is a requirement that if you are a resident here and want to drive a car, you must convert your licence within 14 days. If you are a temporary tourist you may of course drive using your foreign licence.
