Poland overhauls driving licence issuance and foreign licence exchange rules

The Minister of Infrastructure has signed a regulation overhauling the rules for issuing documents certifying the right to drive vehicles, published in the Dziennik Ustaw of 2 September 2026 under position 1162. The measure, dated 29 August 2026, amends the ministerial regulation of 5 August 2025 on the issuance of driving licences and permits, and touches every driver who applies for, renews or exchanges a licence.

Adopted on the basis of Article 20(1)(2) of the Act of 5 January 2011 on vehicle drivers, the new text updates the handling of driver declarations, the exchange of foreign driving licences and the delivery of documents. It enters into force on 3 September 2026, with two exceptions: the provisions on probation periods take effect on 4 September 2026, and the rules on foreign licence exchange codes apply from 1 January 2027.

Declarations and the candidate’s profile

The regulation rewrites how declarations submitted under Article 11(1a)(2) of the drivers’ act are recorded. Depending on how the declaration is filed, the competent authority must log it in the candidate driver’s profile:

• Paper declarations — the issuing authority records, on the day of submission, a confirmation of the declaration and its date in the candidate’s profile.
• Electronic declarations signed with the ePUAP trusted profile, a qualified electronic signature or a personal signature — the information is entered automatically by the IT system.
• Electronic declarations without such a signature — the rules of §15(1)(4) apply.

The list of data recorded in the candidate’s profile gains a new point 28 covering the declaration and its date. Where a person cannot generate a candidate driver profile, only a professional driver profile is created.

Exchange of foreign driving licences

From 1 January 2027, when a Polish licence is issued on the basis of an exchanged foreign licence, the issuing authority must place an annotation with a code identifying the state that issued the licence used for the exchange. The code is attached to each category issued through the exchange, without giving the foreign licence number, and remains with the category even after later changes to the document. The code and the foreign licence number are placed in the common part of field 12 under all categories.

Delivery, withholding and probation periods

The regulation also changes how licences and permits are handed over. Delivery is now made according to the method chosen in the application:

• By postal operator — as a registered item with return receipt, at the applicant’s cost, except where returning the previous document is a condition of receiving the new one.
• Directly — against a receipt of delivery.

For decisions withholding a licence or permit, the authority no longer demands the return of the document, and instead records the withholding in the central register of drivers through the IT system, including the start and end dates of the withholding period. The rules also add the recording of decisions extending the probation period or imposing a supplementary probation period, with the relevant dates.

Transitional provisions

Applications and attachments filed but not yet resolved before the regulation takes effect are deemed to meet the new requirements. The previous application and decision forms may be used until stocks run out, provided the new declaration wording is attached, but no later than 31 December 2026. The regulation was signed on behalf of the Minister of Infrastructure by S. Bukowiec.

For the millions of Polish drivers, the changes mean clearer rules on how declarations are recorded, how foreign licences are exchanged and how documents are delivered, with the foreign-exchange provisions taking full effect at the start of 2027.

Source: Dziennik Ustaw, No. 2026, 2 September 2026, regulations, p. 1162 (official reference: Dz.U. 2026 poz. 1162).