Certified Translation
Certified English translation of your foreign driving licence, priced per page and normally ready the next working day.
A certified driving licence translation costs £35 to £60 per page, certification included, and is normally ready the next working day. The DVLA and UK courts accept it because it carries a signed statement of accuracy on our letterhead, and it's the evidence insurers and employers ask to see. Send a photo of both sides and we'll quote within one working hour.
We've been translating licences into English from our Warrington head office since 2013, across more than 300 languages. Every licence goes to a native-speaker translator and is read by a second linguist before it leaves us. How certification works, and who accepts it, is explained in full on our certified translation page.
Nobody translates a driving licence for fun. Something official has asked for it: the DVLA, an insurer working out your no-claims discount, or an employer who wants proof you can legally drive a 7.5-tonne truck. Each of those readers looks at a different part of the licence, which is why we translate all of it rather than just the name and date of birth.
Whether you can swap a foreign licence for a UK one without retaking a test depends entirely on where it was issued. Licences from the countries the DVLA lists for exchange (the designated countries) can be swapped without a retest. Licences from everywhere else cannot, however long you've held them. In that second case the translation still earns its keep: it supports your provisional licence application, shows an insurer what you've been driving and for how long, and answers an employer's checks before they hand over keys. And if the licence is part of a wider Home Office application, our immigration document translation page covers the rest of the bundle.
Many UK insurers will consider a no-claims history earned abroad, but only if the underwriter can actually read the evidence. That evidence is usually a letter from your previous insurer or an official driving-history extract, written in the original language. We translate the letter and the licence together, so the dates, vehicle categories and claim-free years all line up in English. Sending one without the other tends to trigger another round of questions, so it's worth doing both at once.
Delivery firms, haulage operators and driving agencies check licences before anyone gets near a vehicle. When the licence is Romanian, Polish or Portuguese, the transport manager needs the category table in English to see what the driver is entitled to drive, and from what date. A certified Romanian translation of a licence and driving-history letter is a regular job for us, often several drivers at a time for logistics firms across the North West. Tell us how many are coming: the turnaround may change with volume, and we'll quote the batch as one job.
No original required, and please don't post your licence to anyone, us included. A phone photo of both sides of the photocard is enough, provided every word, number and date is legible. The back matters as much as the front; that's where the category table and validity dates sit on most modern licences, and it's the part a caseworker scrutinises.
Paper licences are fine too, handwritten entries and all. Older licences from some countries mix printed text, stamps and handwriting, and we translate or note every entry so nothing on the original goes unexplained. The finished translation mirrors the layout of the licence, categories and dates in the same order as the source, so whoever reads it can compare the two line by line instead of hunting for the matching field.
If the licence is going in with other identity documents, our passport translation and birth certificate translation pages explain how those are handled. Same process, same per-page pricing.
No account, no minimum spend. Most licence jobs start and finish by email.
Upload a clear scan or phone photo of the front and back of the licence through the online quote form, or email it over. Tell us which organisation will receive the translation and when you need it.
We reply within one working hour during office hours with a fixed per-page price, certification included, and a delivery time. For a standard licence that is normally the next working day.
A native-speaker translator does the work, a second linguist checks it, and we send the certified PDF with the signed statement of accuracy. A stamped hard copy follows by tracked Royal Mail if you need one.
The value in a licence translation is the category table: B, BE, C1 and the dates each entitlement started. A professionally qualified native speaker translates it, a second linguist checks every category and date against the original, and the layout mirrors the card so a DVLA caseworker or transport manager can compare the two at a glance.
Between £35 and £60 per page, with the certification statement included in the price. Both sides of a photocard licence normally fit on one page, so most jobs land at the lower end of that range. Rare languages cost a little more than common European ones, simply because fewer qualified translators cover them. There's no extra charge for the second-linguist review or the signed statement; those are part of the job, not add-ons.
A no-claims letter or driving-history extract sent with the licence is priced per page if it's short, per word if it runs longer. Our pricing page publishes the full ranges. If the deadline is today, same day translation is sometimes possible for a document this short, subject to capacity, so call rather than email. Solicitors instructing us on Legal Aid Agency funded matters are quoted at the published LAA rates.
For UK use, the certified translation on its own is enough. Authorities overseas sometimes want more: a notarised translation, or an apostille on top of that. We don't arrange notarisation or apostilles ourselves, but we prepare the certified translation in exactly the form your notary public needs to complete the job, and the detail is on our notarised translation page. Tell us which country and which body will receive it, and we'll set the paperwork up accordingly. Everything else we translate, from contracts to medical records, is on the translation services page.
Photograph both sides, tell us where it's going, and a fixed quote comes back within one working hour during office hours.