Which regime a foreign licence falls under, and what each one asks

The four regimes

• European Union and European Economic Area. The licence may be driven on until the validity date printed on it. Residence must be notified to the IMT within 60 days*, source: Diário da República, Every EU and EEA licence holder taking up residence in Portugal; unamended by Decreto-Lei n.º 40/2016, n.º 102-B/2020 or n.º 114/2026, read August 31, 2026 of taking it up — the Regulamento da Habilitação Legal para Conduzir puts that duty on every EU and EEA holder, not only on some — and the IMT states the registration itself is free. An exchange is otherwise available and optional, at €30*, source: IMT — Instituto da Mobilidade e dos Transportes, EU and EEA licences, read August 29, 2026. The exception is a licence that prints no validity date at all: for those the IMT, I.P.-RAM fixes an administrative validity of two years*, source: Diário da República, EU and EEA licences that print no validity date, read August 31, 2026 from taking up residence, within which the exchange has to be made.
• A named list of OECD and CPLP countries, under Decreto-Lei n.º 46/2022. The IMT names them in three groups: CPLP states signatory to a traffic convention — Brazil and Cabo Verde; CPLP states with a bilateral agreement — Angola, Cabo Verde, Moçambique and São Tomé e Príncipe; and OECD states outside the EU and EEA that signed a convention — Australia, Canada, Chile, South Korea, the United States, Iceland, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Türkiye. For these the IMT states that the licence is accepted for driving even after the holder becomes resident, and that an exchange may be made if the holder wants one. It is not the whole of CPLP: Guiné-Bissau and Timor-Leste are CPLP members and are not in this regime.
• Other countries with a bilateral agreement or party to the traffic conventions. 185 days*, source: Diário da República, Artigo 125.º n.º 3 — non-residents, current lettering (alíneas d, e, g), read August 31, 2026 of driving before residence, and after residence the Código da Estrada requires the exchange within 90 days*, source: Diário da República, Artigo 125.º n.º 4 — after residence is established, read August 29, 2026, with a fine of €300 to €1,500*, source: Diário da República, Artigo 125.º n.º 8 — breach of n.ºs 3 and 5 by the holder of an otherwise valid licence, read August 29, 2026. A direct exchange covers categories AM, A1, A2, B1, B and BE, in the wording of artigo 128.º n.º 2 b) as amended in 2022 — the IMT, I.P.-RAM table omits AM from the same list; anything beyond those requires a theory and a practical test.
• Countries that have not acceded to the conventions. The IMT publishes these titles as not valid for driving in Portugal at all.

The six conditions the OECD and CPLP regime attaches

The IMT states them as cumulative — "se observarem os seguintes requisitos", and there are six:

1. the issuing state has signed one of the traffic conventions (Geneva 1949, Vienna 1968) or holds a bilateral agreement with Portugal;
2. no more than 15 years*, source: IMT — Instituto da Mobilidade e dos Transportes, Decreto-Lei n.º 46/2022 — one of six cumulative requirements, read August 29, 2026 have passed since the licence was issued or last renewed;
3. the holder is under 60*, source: IMT — Instituto da Mobilidade e dos Transportes, Decreto-Lei n.º 46/2022 — one of six cumulative requirements, read August 29, 2026;
4. the foreign licence is valid;
5. the driver meets the Portuguese minimum age for the categories the licence carries;
6. the licence is not seized, suspended, expired or revoked, in Portugal or in the issuing state.

The first condition is why several of these countries also appear in the convention list further down the IMT’s own table — it is a requirement of this regime rather than a competing one. It does not hold for all of them: Angola, Moçambique and São Tomé e Príncipe qualify through a bilateral agreement rather than a convention.

Where the deadline and the fine reach

Artigo 125.º of the Código da Estrada allows 185 days*, source: Diário da República, Artigo 125.º n.º 3 — non-residents, current lettering (alíneas d, e, g), read August 31, 2026 of driving from entering the country while the holder is not resident, requires the exchange within 90 days*, source: Diário da República, Artigo 125.º n.º 4 — after residence is established, read August 29, 2026 of taking up residence, and fines €300 to €1,500*, source: Diário da República, Artigo 125.º n.º 8 — breach of n.ºs 3 and 5 by the holder of an otherwise valid licence, read August 29, 2026 for a breach.

Number 4, which carries the deadline, applies to "as licenças referidas no número anterior", and number 3 names alíneas d), e) and g) of number 1 — the lettering left by Decreto-Lei n.º 46/2022, which inserted a new alínea c) for the OECD and CPLP regime and moved the others down. An EU or EEA licence is alínea b), and the OECD and CPLP regime is the new alínea c), which number 3 does not name. The fine at number 8 is written, in the Diário da República text, against numbers 3 and 5 — the public consolidations print "3 to 5", and on the Diário da República reading the ninety-day duty at number 4 is not among the fined provisions, and number 5 refers to the titles in number 1 generally, so it is not exclusive to one regime — but the ninety-day deadline is.

The gov.pt service page for this exact service, updated in March 2026, publishes 185 days*, source: Diário da República, Artigo 125.º n.º 3 — non-residents, current lettering (alíneas d, e, g), read August 31, 2026 and a two years*, source: IMT, I.P.-RAM, Bilateral-agreement and convention countries, after residence, read August 29, 2026 window to request an exchange, and does not mention the 90 days*, source: Diário da República, Artigo 125.º n.º 4 — after residence is established, read August 29, 2026 at all. It also gives 60 days*, source: gov.pt, Average issuing time, 2026, read August 28, 2026 as the average time a Portuguese licence takes to arrive — which is a different sixty days from the registration deadline above.

The RHLC's own exchange procedure does not fully match this. Artigo 14.º n.º 1 of the Regulamento da Habilitação Legal para Conduzir offers an exchange without a driving exam only for a licence under alínea a) or b) (EU/EEA) or under alínea c) or d) of artigo 125.º (OECD/CPLP and the traffic conventions), each on a two-year window measured from taking up residence — not the 90 days*, source: Diário da República, Artigo 125.º n.º 4 — after residence is established, read August 29, 2026 the Código sets. It names no route at all for alínea e) (reciprocity) or alínea g) (an international driving permit), even though the Código's own duty to exchange within 90 days*, source: Diário da República, Artigo 125.º n.º 4 — after residence is established, read August 29, 2026 reaches both.

The United States, the United Kingdom and Switzerland

All three are named by the IMT in the Decreto-Lei n.º 46/2022 group, as OECD states outside the EU and EEA that signed a traffic convention. The United Kingdom also holds a bilateral agreement with Portugal, published as Aviso n.º 6/2024, de 23 de janeiro de 2024, and in force since 31 December 2023; either basis satisfies the first of the six conditions, which asks for a convention or a bilateral agreement. On that page a holder may drive in Portugal after taking up residence without exchanging, provided all six conditions hold.

Earlier versions of this page said four different things about the United States. What the licensing authority publishes is the paragraph above.

This IMT is not the other IMT

IMT here is the Instituto da Mobilidade e dos Transportes, the licensing authority. IMT on a property completion statement is the Imposto Municipal sobre as Transmissões Onerosas de Imóveis, the transfer tax charged on the deed under the CIMT, and in the Autonomous Region the brackets for that tax are not the mainland ones.

The two are easy to confuse. The tax is covered in how a purchase actually runs. Everything on this page is the transport institute.

What is regional about it

The IMT operates a regional branch, IMT, I.P.-RAM, which handles these procedures in Madeira and publishes the country-by-country table of regimes. The rule is national; the counter is regional. That is the same shape as health, where the entitlement is national and the service is SESARAM.

Since 21 January 2026 that counter has stopped taking the exchange application in person: IMT, IP-RAM's own notice says the service "deixou de ser realizado presencialmente" and now runs only through the IMT Services Portal (portal.imt.madeira.gov.pt).

Once the licence is settled, the roads themselves are their own subject — what driving here is actually like is a separate question from what makes it legal.

What this page will not resolve

Decreto-Lei n.º 40/2016, Decreto-Lei n.º 46/2022 and the Regulamento da Habilitação Legal para Conduzir have all been read in the Diário da República, in the official PDFs rather than in the site’s HTML viewer, which serves an empty shell. The regimes are otherwise described here as the IMT publishes them.

Iceland appears in the IMT’s EEA list and again in its OECD group, whose own heading says "OECD states that are not EU or EEA members". That is the authority’s table, not a reading of it, and this page does not resolve it. IMT, I.P.-RAM is the competent authority for these procedures in the Autonomous Region.