Converting your German driver's license in Korea: documents, costs, steps

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Can you drive in Korea with your German license? Here's who should convert it, which documents you need, what it costs and where the pitfalls are. ━━━━━━━━━━ 🚗 Who should convert their license? You can't drive in Korea with your German license alone. Together with an international license, it's only recognized for one year. That's the information from the German Embassy in Seoul. If you stay in Korea longer, you should convert your German license to a Korean one. Important: only the national German license can be converted, not the international one. 👉 For you: If you're staying in Korea for a longer time, plan for the conversion. You can't use the international license for it. Only the national German license can be converted. ━━━━━━━━━━ 📋 Documents you need For the conversion, the Korea Road Traffic Authority (safedriving.or.kr) requires the following: your original license, your passport with entry and exit stamps, and your Residence Card (외국인등록증). You also need three color photos, 3.5 × 4.5 cm, no older than 6 months. In addition, you need an embassy certificate or an apostille for your license, no older than one year, as well as a certificate of your entries and exits. 👉 For you: Watch the age of your documents: photos can be 6 months old at most, the certificate or apostille one year at most. ━━━━━━━━━━ 🏛️ Step 1: Certificate from the embassy You apply for the license certificate in person at the German Embassy, not by mail. Documents are only accepted after payment. In Busan, you can also go through the honorary consulate. 👉 For you: The embassy certificate or apostille is one of the required documents for the conversion. If you're in Busan, you can also submit the application through the honorary consulate. ━━━━━━━━━━ ✅ Step 2: Conversion at the Test Site You do the conversion in person at a Driver's License Test Site, for example in Gangnam or Dobong. Proxies are not allowed. On site, there is a short health check (Aptitude Test). It costs ₩6,000 for regular classes. Issuance costs ₩10,000 for the standard version or ₩15,000 for the Mobile IC. Hand in your documents at least one hour before closing, meaning by 5 p.m. 👉 For you: You have to go yourself, as proxies are not allowed. Hand in your documents by 5 p.m. at the latest. ━━━━━━━━━━ ⚠️ Pitfalls: theory test and the way back For countries with a recognition agreement, the health check is enough. Everyone else also takes a theory test with 40 questions, which is also available in English. Whether such an agreement applies to Germany is not stated in our sources. Check this with the Korea Road Traffic Authority (safedriving.or.kr) before your appointment. Back in Germany, you can have your Korean license converted again at the driver's license office (Führerscheinstelle). 👉 For you: Find out in advance whether you have to take the theory test. If so, it's also available in English. ━━━━━━━━━━ 🔗 Sources Deutsche Botschaft Seoul – FAQ Führerscheinangelegenheiten https://seoul.diplo.de/kr-de/service/2178866-2178866 Korea Road Traffic Authority – Exchange of a foreign driver's license https://www.safedriving.or.kr/enGuide/selectEnGuide22.do ━━━━━━━━━━ 💬 Have you already converted your license in Korea? How did it go at the Test Site, and did you have to take the theory test? 📲 On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lebeninkorea_en/ 📸 Photos: 𝙇𝙪𝙠𝙚 𝘿𝙤𝙤, Ming Han Low, Rina Kemppainen, Niclas Illg, Marek Piwnicki, Marissa Lewis (Unsplash); Seoul Tourism Organization (KOGL Type 1)