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Exchanging a foreign license — department of Maldonado

A reválida — recognition of a foreign license — gets you a Uruguayan license on the basis of the one you hold, without the whole path from scratch. The main condition is an ID from your department’s list.

Facts checked on September 24, 2026

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How the exchange works

There is one rule for the whole country — the PUNC rules, the national license regulation shared by every intendencia. The papers, the fee and the office are set by each intendencia on its own: they are below, by department.

  • The Uruguayan license is issued on the basis of the foreign one, and that one must be valid on the day you apply: an expired license is not exchanged.

  • You keep your foreign license after the exchange: the intendencia does not take it.

  • For a license from outside Mercosur, the documents are legalized in the country that issued it and translated into Spanish.

  • A license from a Mercosur country is backed by a consular certificate; if it is not in Spanish, a Traductor Público — a sworn translator — translates it.

  • A tourist with a license from a Mercosur country does not need to exchange it: for the trip, the license from home is valid.

  • If the license cannot be legalized back home, you explain why to the intendencia in writing. If it accepts, it recognizes the license fully or in part, on condition that you pass the theory test, the practical test and the medical check.

Maldonado: the reválida

Maldonado exchanges only the non-professional categories; a professional one is obtained later, separately, through aumento de categoría — a category upgrade.

  • Categories A (passenger car), G1 and G2 are exchanged. The years of driving shown in the license-history record are counted.

  • ID: a Uruguayan cédula de identidad — the local ID card — or a Uruguayan passport, or an ID card or passport from a Mercosur country, with a photocopy. Passports of other countries are not on the list.

  • A license-history record from the authority that issued the license, apostilled or legalized; a certificate from that country’s consulate or embassy in Uruguay also works. You also bring the licenses themselves — every valid one.

  • You need a constancia de aptitud psicofísica — a certificate of psychophysical fitness — from an institution on the intendencia’s list, and no unpaid fines.

  • From age 75 the practical test is mandatory, in a Uruguayan car: bring a photocopy of its ownership papers and a current SOA, the compulsory car insurance.

  • The fee depends on how long you have driven: over 95 months, 1.25 UR; 72–95, 1 UR; 48–71, 0.75 UR; 24–47, 0.5 UR; under 24, 0.25 UR. You pay on the day of the appointment.

  • The office is the Dirección de Licencias de Conducir, Tribuna Norte of the Domingo Burgueño Miguel stadium, Mon–Fri 09:15–14:45. You book the time online or in person; the whole case lasts 180 days.

  • A Spanish license is exchanged separately — the canje de España, every category from A to G3. There a national ID works: the Documento Nacional de Identidad or a national passport.

If the exchange does not fit you

Without an ID from your department’s list, the exchange will not go through. What remains is getting the license from scratch.