How do you convert a foreign driving licence in Sweden in 2026?

A driving licence issued in an EEA state is valid in Sweden for as long as it remains valid in the issuing country and has not already been exchanged for a Swedish card. That remains true even after you are folkbokförd. You may still exchange it for a Swedish licence if you are permanently resident and meet Swedish personal and medical requirements for the categories you hold.

Send Transportstyrelsen’s exchange application with the original licence. After approval you pay for card manufacture and visit a Trafikverket (Swedish Transport Administration) driver-test office for photo and signature with acceptable ID. If your EEA card was itself obtained by exchanging a non-EEA licence, Transportstyrelsen applies extra origin rules (for example a five-year holding period or listed exceptions). Check the current EEA exchange page before you post the envelope.

Only licences from the United Kingdom, the Faroe Islands, Switzerland, or Japan can be exchanged for a Swedish one. You must hold a valid licence, be permanently resident in Sweden, and meet Swedish medical and personal requirements. Enclose a validity certificate from the issuing authority (the Japanese embassy in Stockholm can certify Japanese licences). For Switzerland or Japan, Transportstyrelsen says the exchange application must arrive within one year of the day you became folkbokförd. UK and Faroese licences may still be used in Sweden after that one-year mark, and those holders can also apply for exchange later under the published exceptions.

Licences from every other non-EEA country generally stop being valid in Sweden one year after folkbokföring. They cannot be swapped for a Swedish card. Plan the full Swedish licensing path (theory and practical tests through Trafikverket) before that clock ends if you need to keep driving. Bring an authorised translation or an international driving permit as a translation aid when the national licence is not readable; an international permit alone is not a Swedish licence.

City life in Stockholm or Gothenburg does not change Transportstyrelsen’s country groups, but it does change how quickly you can live without a car while you wait: Living in Stockholm and Living in Gothenburg. Arrival paperwork still comes first: Paperwork after moving.