DRIVE IQ CANADA · LICENCE EXCHANGE
VERIFIED AGAINST MTO / DRIVETEST · AOÛT 2026
Exchange a foreign driver's licence in Ontario
Do you have to take a road test? It depends entirely on who issued your licence. Here is what MTO / DriveTest publishes.
Ontario runs two completely different paths. If your licence was issued somewhere Ontario has an agreement with, you exchange it. If it was not, a rule that changed on 1 July 2026 gives you up to a year of credit for your experience but still puts you through both road tests.
- Countries it exchanges from
- 19
- Experience you need
- 2 years for a full Class G exchange from an agreement jurisdiction
- How your experience counts
- 12 months, on the non-agreement path
- Waiting period
- 12 months between the G2 and G road tests, which experience cannot reduce
- Time to switch after moving
- 60 days
- Motorcycle licences
- Some motorcycle classes from listed countries are not exchangeable, and foreign commercial classes never are.
If your country has an agreement
Ontario lists 19 international jurisdictions alongside every Canadian and US jurisdiction and the Canadian Armed Forces. A full licence holder with two or more years of experience exchanges for a full Class G with no knowledge or road test; a vision test is always required. With less experience you enter graduated licensing with credit rather than a straight exchange. Some motorcycle classes, and all foreign commercial classes, are not exchangeable.
If it does not
From anywhere without an agreement, O. Reg. 185/26 (in force 1 July 2026) gives you up to 12 months of credit for verified foreign driving experience, no matter how much you can document. That credit only shortens the wait before the G2 road test. You still take the vision test, the knowledge test, the G2 road test and the full G road test, and you still wait 12 months between the G2 and the G, a wait your experience cannot reduce.
The things that catch people out
The 60-day rule, not 12 months
You may drive on your foreign licence for 60 days after moving to Ontario, then you must switch. The 12 months quoted on many sites is a different thing entirely: the cap on how much driving experience a non-agreement applicant can credit toward wait times. It is not a grace period to keep using the foreign licence.
Experience credit never skips a road test
Under the 1 July 2026 rule, even a driver with decades of experience from a non-agreement country credits at most 12 months, takes both the G2 and the G road tests, and waits 12 months between them.
The authentication letter takes time
To claim experience credit you need an official letter from your issuing authority, consulate or embassy, dated within the last six months and confirming when you were first licensed. From overseas this can take weeks, so start it before you need it.
By where your licence was issued
The countries we cover so far. Open one for how it fares across every province.
- Waived:
- Knowledge test and both road tests
- Required:
- Vision test
- Waived:
- None; up to 12 months of experience credit shortens the pre-G2 wait only
- Required:
- Vision test, knowledge test, G2 road test and G road test
- Waived:
- None; up to 12 months of experience credit shortens the pre-G2 wait only
- Required:
- Vision test, knowledge test, G2 road test and G road test
- Waived:
- None; up to 12 months of experience credit shortens the pre-G2 wait only
- Required:
- Vision test, knowledge test, G2 road test and G road test
- Waived:
- None; up to 12 months of experience credit shortens the pre-G2 wait only
- Required:
- Vision test, knowledge test, G2 road test and G road test
What to bring
- Your original, valid foreign licence (expired licences are not accepted)
- Original identity documents establishing your legal name and date of birth
- To claim experience credit: an official letter of authentication, issued within the last six months by your licensing authority, consulate, embassy or high commission, confirming the licence and the date you were first licensed
- A certified translation, if your licence or letter is not in English or French
Other provinces
Sources de ce guide (1 pages officielles de MTO / DriveTest)
- Ontarioontario.ca
Consultées en août 2026. Sources officielles uniquement ; ce que l'autorité ne publie pas est signalé comme non publié plutôt que deviné. Les pages consultées qui ne disent rien sont citées quand même.
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Une erreur, ou une règle qui a changé ? Dites-le-nous, avec le lien officiel, et nous corrigerons la page.