At a glance

Is a foreign driving licence valid in Greece?

Yes, a foreign driving licence is valid in Greece. An EU licence counts like a Greek one until it expires. A third-country licence is valid only while you do not have your ordinary residence here, then needs conversion. On a licence no longer valid, the insurer pays the third party and can claim the money back from you.

  • A licence from a member state of the European Union, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein: valid like the Greek one, without conversion, until it expires1.
  • A third-country licence: valid only while you do not have your ordinary residence in Greece2. For a foreign national that starts when a residence document is at least 185 days old1. After that it needs conversion, with or without exams depending on the country.
  • A tourist drives on their own licence and, where required, an international driving permit, for as long as the visit lasts2.
  • The insurer asks for four details: country of issue, number, category and date of first issue. The last one shows your driving experience, and insurers price age and experience3.
  • We found no public figures on how much the country of the licence changes the price.
  • A claim on a licence that is no longer valid can mean refusal of the optional covers and recovery of what was paid to the third party34.

The point

A foreign driving licence is two questions in one. The first is whether it lets you drive legally in Greece, and the state answers it. The second is whether your insurer will pay when damage happens, and the policy answers it. The European licence passes both without effort. The third-country licence passes the first only until you become a resident, and the second only if you declared it correctly. This page is for anyone who came to live here, for anyone who married someone who came, and for anyone who lends their car to a colleague from Albania or from Ukraine.

Which licence is valid, plainly

There are three categories and their rules differ a lot.

First, the licences of the European Union, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. They are valid in Greece as they are2. A Bulgarian who works in Kavala drives on his Bulgarian licence for as long as it is valid. He can exchange it for a Greek one if he wants, without exams, once he is normally resident here, but he is not obliged to1.

Second, the licences of third countries with which Greece has an agreement ratified by law, or which are recognised under the international conventions. Driving on them is allowed for drivers who do not have their ordinary residence in Greece2. The licence decree counts a foreign national as normally resident once they hold a public document of lawful residence issued at least 185 days earlier1. In practice, plan on about six months from the date of your residence document, ask the Transport directorate about your own case, and expect a conversion after that. In some cases the conversion is done with a theory and a practical exam, in some only with paperwork.

Third, the licences of countries without recognition. There is no conversion there: you take a Greek licence from the start, with a driving school and exams.

One group has its own rule. Licences from the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, the Crown dependencies and Gibraltar are valid for cars and motorcycles during your stay in Greece2.

For the visitor the rule is simpler. While you are in Greece as a tourist, you drive on your own licence, and where the country of issue is not European, together with an international driving permit issued by your country. If your country does not issue international permits, your licence needs an official translation into Greek or English2. The international permit is not a licence, it is a translation in a standard format, and without the original it is not valid.

What the insurer asks and why

The insurance application has four fields for the licence, and none is decorative.

The country of issue shows whether the licence is recognised. The number allows a check. The category shows whether you have the right to drive the specific vehicle, and this matters for trucks and trailers. The date of first issue gives the years of experience.

The years of experience can be the most expensive field. Hellas Direct, for example, writes in its car terms that age is an important parameter of the premium, asks you to declare every driver under 25, and keeps the right to add to the premium for them3. Each company sets its own scale, and we found no public figure for it. What is certain is that a driver who cannot prove the date of first issue gives the insurer no reason to count their years.

How you prove it. Most European licences and many from third countries write the date of first grant in column 10 of each category. If yours does not, ask for a certificate from the issuing authority, with an official translation. It costs little and it can save money every year.

Which companies accept and which do not

The market is not uniform, and we found no public figures on how companies treat foreign licences. In principle, a company can do one of three things.

It can accept every recognised licence on the same terms, asking for a copy and, if it is not in Latin characters, a translation.

It can accept the licence but limit the optional covers, giving fire and theft but keeping own damage for drivers with a Greek or European licence. If it does, it is written in the terms, not in the quote.

It can ask for a Greek licence or a conversion before it gives a full package, and offer only the compulsory cover until then. That is not illegal. Each company chooses which risks it takes on.

The practical conclusion: ask before you pay, in specific words. “I have an Albanian licence from 2012, recognised, and I want a full package with own damage. Do you accept it?” The answer in a message is worth as much as the price.

Conversion: when, how much, what you need

Conversion is done at the Transport directorate of your place of residence. The basic documents are the foreign licence with an official translation, an application, photographs, health certificates from doctors, fees and proof of residence, that is a residence permit issued under Law 5038/2023, the Migration Code5. The licence decree asks for a residence document issued at least 185 days before the application1.

The cost is the fees and the doctors, and it goes up if exams are needed, when lessons at a driving school are added. The time can be weeks or months, depending on the office and the availability of exam slots.

Keep three things in mind. First, the count starts from your residence document, not from your entry into the country. Second, when you hand in the foreign licence for conversion, you may be left for some weeks without a document in your hand. Ask for a receipt of submission and ask explicitly whether you are allowed to drive in the meantime. Third, tell your insurer when you get the Greek licence, with the new number. The date of first issue carries over and you do not lose your years.

What happens in a claim

This is where the matter is decided, and here the stories are harsh.

If the licence is valid and declared, nothing special happens. The claim is handled like any other.

If the licence is valid but the driver was not declared, the compulsory cover pays the third party as normal. The optional covers are at the mercy of the terms. In the car terms of Hellas Direct, for example, an undeclared driver under 25 who causes damage means a 30% penalty on what is paid to the third party, and no benefit from the optional covers3. Our guide to the second driver, so far only in Greek, explains this in detail.

If the licence is no longer valid, because you became a resident or because it expired, the driver is treated as driving without a licence. The same terms exclude damage caused by a driver without the licence the law requires, even when the licence had expired at the time of the accident and was renewed later3. The third party is still paid, because compulsory insurance exists to protect the victim and not the one at fault. But then the company can turn against the policyholder, the insured and the driver4. In bodily injury the amount can be very large.

And there is also the case nobody thinks of: the owner who gave the car to someone without checking their licence. The Road Traffic Code forbids handing over a vehicle to a person without a valid licence2, and the owner does not escape by saying they did not know.

The tourist, the rental car and foreign plates

If you came on holiday and rent a car, the insurance is that of the rental company. Check the excess and decide whether you will buy a reduction of it. Our guide to rental car insurance abroad, so far only in Greek, applies in reverse to the visitor to Greece too.

If you came with your own car from a country of the European Union, your insurance applies automatically. From a country outside the common system, you need a green card, and the green card guide says where you get it and what it covers.

If you live permanently in Greece with a car on foreign plates, the matter is more serious than an insurance one: there are customs rules on how long the vehicle may stay. On the insurance side, ask first, because an insurer may not take on such a vehicle.

What the law says

Presidential Decree 237/1986 requires third-party liability insurance for every vehicle in circulation, with minimum amounts of €1,300,000 per injured person for bodily injury and €1,300,000 per accident for damage to property, since 1 January 20226. The insurer cannot use the exceptions of the contract against the victim, and keeps a right to sue the policyholder, the insured and the driver4. That is why the victim is paid even when the driver had no valid licence.

Law 2496/1997, in article 3, requires you to declare every material fact of the risk when the contract is made. Who drives and on what licence is material. Negligence leads to a reduction of the compensation, and intent gives the insurer the right to terminate the contract7.

The Road Traffic Code, Law 5209/2025, sets in article 98 who may drive on a foreign licence, and in article 102 it forbids letting someone drive without a valid licence2. Presidential Decree 51/2012 sets the exchange of licences and when a foreign national counts as normally resident1. The residence permit insurance comparison covers the other side of the same file.

What the public figures show

We found no public figures on how the country of a licence changes the price. What is public is the average cost of each cover for private cars, from the yearbook of the Hellenic Association of Insurance Companies for 20248.

Cover, private cars 2024 Claims per 100 cars Average claim Loss ratio Average net price
Third-party liability 7.55 €1,421 73.23% about €147
Own damage 4.18 €2,217 70.48% about €131
Theft 0.53 €4,733 63.04% about €40
Fire 0.03 €5,580 16.75% about €10
Glass 3.39 €329 57.12% about €20

The average net price is claims per car, times the average claim, divided by the loss ratio9. The premium tax of 15% comes on top10. It is an average of all private cars, not the price of your own.

The place matters more than the licence. In third-party liability, 8.69 vehicles in 100 had a claim in Attica in 2024, against 4.14 in Larissa and 6.87 for the whole country8. A driver with a foreign licence in Larissa starts from a lower risk than one in Athens, whatever the licence says.

What your licence changes is the part the insurer prices for you: age, years of driving and who else drives. Prove the years, declare every driver, and ask in writing.

An example

Artem is 34, came to Greece in 2023 from a country outside the European Union and lives in Larissa with his family. He has held his licence since 2011 and works for a delivery company. He bought a 2014 Skoda Fabia of 1,400 cc. The amounts that follow are assumptions.

First move, checking the time. He got his residence permit in March 2023. About six months later, in September, the permit was 185 days old, he counted as normally resident, and his licence stopped being valid for him in Greece. Since then he has been driving on a licence that is no longer valid here, without knowing it. He starts the conversion procedure at once.

Second move, insurance in the meantime. Suppose his company issues a compulsory policy based on his licence and the 2011 date, at €200 a year. It does not give him own damage until the conversion, and it writes this on the policy.

Third move, the risk he takes on. Until the conversion, he should not drive at all. He chooses not to drive for four weeks, and his wife uses the car; she has a Greek licence and he declares her as a driver.

Fourth move, after the conversion. The Greek licence shows a date of first grant of 2011. Artem sends it to the company. Suppose it adds own damage for €150 a year, with a €500 excess.

In all, the delay cost him months of driving without a valid licence, the loss of own-damage cover and a risk he did not need to take.

A second example: the colleague who borrowed the car

Katerina, 41, in Nea Ionia, has a Toyota Yaris with a full package. One Saturday she lends the car to Rajiv, her colleague from Bangladesh, so he can move house. Rajiv has a licence from his country, which is not valid for him in Greece, and he has no Greek one.

He hits a parked car in Filadelfeia. Suppose the damage to the third party is €2,500 and to the Yaris €2,000.

What is paid. The third party gets the €2,500 from Katerina’s insurance, because the law does not leave the victim uncovered. The €2,000 of her own damage is not paid, because her policy excludes driving without a valid licence, as the car terms of Hellas Direct do3. And the company can send a letter of recovery, asking for the €2,500 back4.

Katerina pays €4,500 for a two-hour favour, and the Road Traffic Code counts the loan itself as an offence2. She could have avoided it with one question: “do you have a licence that is valid here?”

The lesson is not about nationalities. It is about a habit. Whoever lends a car looks at the licence first, as they look at the fuel.

When you move permanently

The difference between the visitor and the resident is the point that confuses most people, and it is the point that interests the insurer.

While you are a visitor, the licence of your country covers you under the rules that apply to the country of issue. From the moment you count as normally resident in Greece, the state expects you to hold a licence that is valid for residents. For a licence from another country of the Union, nothing changes, and an exchange is your choice. For a third-country licence, you need a conversion, and an exam is often required.

Why it concerns you for insurance. A policy asks for a valid driving licence. If the licence stops being valid for a resident of Greece, the company gains an argument in a serious claim. On third-party liability the third party will be compensated anyway, because the law protects them. But the company can turn against you and ask back what it paid.

Three practical moves. Start the procedure as soon as you can, not after the licence stops being valid. Keep the receipt of submission of the documents, because it proves you were in the procedure. And inform the insurer in writing about your status, so that it does not learn of it for the first time on the day of the accident.

The mistakes that cost money

You assume the count starts from your last entry into the country. It starts from your residence document. Instead: find the date on your residence permit and set a reminder four months later.

You do not prove the years of your licence. You may pay like a new driver while you have been driving for fifteen years. How to fix it: a certificate from the country of issue with an official translation, once, for good.

You buy a full package without asking whether it covers the driver. You pay for own damage that is excluded in the terms. Do this: written confirmation before payment.

You lend the car without a check. The liability stays with you and your own-damage cover is lost. The fix: see the licence with your own eyes, and if it is from a third country, ask when they came to Greece.

You hand in the foreign licence and keep driving. During the conversion you may not have the right to drive. What to do: ask explicitly at the office and get a written answer.

You forget to tell the company when you get the Greek licence. You lose covers you are now entitled to. The fix: one message with the new licence number the same week.

The Greek market has learned to work with drivers from everywhere, but its procedures stay paper-based and slow. The way not to pay more and not to be left uncovered is a folder with four documents and two questions before every signature. To see the companies and the prices they print for your car, start from car insurance.

Frequently asked questions

Is my German or Bulgarian licence valid in Greece?

Yes, without any formality. Licences of the member states of the European Union, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein are valid in Greece as they are. You drive as normal and you are insured as normal. If you move here permanently, you can exchange it for a Greek one without exams, but you are not obliged to before it expires.

How long can I drive on a third-country licence?

While you do not have your ordinary residence in Greece. The Road Traffic Code, Law 5209/2025, article 98, allows third-country licences for drivers without ordinary residence here, and the licence decree counts a foreign national as normally resident once a residence document is at least 185 days old. In practice, count about six months from your residence document. Licences from the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom are valid during your stay.

Will a company give me a policy if I do not have a Greek licence?

We found no public figures on how many companies accept a foreign licence, and each one sets its own rules. Ask before you pay, in writing: give the country of issue, the category and the date of first issue, and ask whether the optional covers apply to you. The answer in a message is worth as much as the price.

Do the years I held the licence in my country count?

They count if you can prove them. The date of first issue is usually written on the licence itself, in the column of the category. If it does not show, ask for a certificate from the country of issue. The difference is real, because insurers price age and driving experience, and a missing date can leave you priced like a new driver.

What happens if I crash on a licence that is no longer valid for me in Greece?

The victim is paid, because that is what the law sets for compulsory insurance. But then the company can ask you to pay back what it paid, because you were driving without a valid licence. Your own damage is usually excluded too: the car terms of Hellas Direct, for example, exclude damage caused by a driver without the licence the law requires. It is the most expensive oversight in this guide.

Can I declare a second driver with a foreign licence?

Yes, and you should, if they drive regularly. Give the licence number, the country of issue, the category and the date of first issue. If you do not declare a driver the insurer asked about and they cause damage, the company may refuse the optional covers. In the car terms of Hellas Direct, an undeclared driver under 25 means a 30% penalty on what is paid to the third party and no optional covers.

Can a car with foreign plates be insured in Greece?

Ask first, because an insurer may not take on a vehicle with foreign plates. The vehicle is covered by the insurance of its own country, and for countries outside the common system a green card is needed. If you live here permanently, the way forward is registration with Greek plates.

Laws the article cites: Presidential Decree 237/1986 · Presidential Decree 51/2012 · Law 2496/1997 art. 3 · Law 5038/2023 · Law 5209/2025 art. 98 and 102

Sources

  1. ↑Presidential Decree 51/2012 (Government Gazette A 101/2012), driving licences, articles 2 and 8, 2012
  2. ↑Law 5209/2025 (Government Gazette A 100/13.06.2025), Road Traffic Code, articles 98 and 102, June 2025
  3. ↑Hellas Direct, car insurance terms (in Greek): section 3.5 on age and driving experience, and the exclusions, 2025
  4. ↑Law 3557/2007 (Government Gazette A 100/14.05.2007), article 8: article 11 of Presidential Decree 237/1986, 2007
  5. ↑Law 5038/2023, Migration Code, 2023, as in force
  6. ↑Law 5113/2024 (Government Gazette A 96/21.06.2024), article 5: minimum amounts of cover in Presidential Decree 237/1986, 2024
  7. ↑Law 2496/1997 on the insurance contract, article 3, 1997
  8. ↑Hellenic Association of Insurance Companies (ΕΑΕΕ), Motor Insurance Statistical Yearbook 2024: tables 3A, 3B and 7A, and section B table 6, November 2025
  9. ↑How the comparison works: where every number comes from, October 2026
  10. ↑Law 5177/2025 (Government Gazette A 21/14.02.2025), Code of Indirect Taxes, article 43: the premium tax, 2025