Applying for a driving licence in Düsseldorf

For classes AM, A1, A2, A, L, T, B and BE, the Straßenverkehrsamt (driving licence office) in Düsseldorf asks for five things. You need your identity card or passport, a biometric photo, an eye test certificate, proof that you’ve done a first-aid course, and the name and address of your driving school.

Bring everything as originals. If even one sheet is missing, you’ll need a new appointment, and that’s the mistake that costs you the most time.

Yes, you definitely need one. You have to apply in person, and the office only sees you if you’ve booked an appointment in advance. You book it online at termine.duesseldorf.de, and you can’t apply over the phone.

You can hand in your application at the driving licence office at Höherweg 101, or at any Bürgerbüro (local citizens’ office) in Düsseldorf. There’s one exception: applications for the B96 code are only accepted by the driving licence office itself.

The driving licence department is open on Mon, Wed and Fri 7:00–12:30, and on Tue and Thu 13:00–18:00. Your appointment time decides when you’re seen anyway, but give yourself plenty of time to get there, because the office is a little way east of the centre of Oberbilk.

In Düsseldorf, the fee for your first driving licence is €45.90. You can only pay by card or phone, so that means a debit card, credit card, Google Pay or Apple Pay.

There are no discounts and no exemptions. You pay when you apply, and you pay the same however your tests go later on.

This fee has nothing to do with what your driving school charges, because it goes to the city, not to us. Our costs guide goes through the total cost of a licence step by step, including the driving school, the TÜV fees and the office fee.

As early as you can, and no later than about three to four months before the date you’d like to take your practical test. You’re allowed to apply up to six months before the day you reach the minimum age for your class.

That way the waiting time doesn’t hold you up at all. If you apply early, you can do your theory lessons and first practice lessons while the office deals with your application, instead of waiting for paperwork at the end.

For class B, this is how it works. With BF17 you can register with a driving school from the age of 16 and a half, otherwise from 17 and a half. With BF17, you can take the theory test three months before your 17th birthday at the earliest, and the practical test one month before it. Without BF17, the same applies to your 18th birthday. Your application at the office can run at the same time.

The Düsseldorf driving licence office says it takes up to 12 weeks to process a first licence. During that time it makes the checks it’s required to make with the other authorities involved.

Those weeks are the reason why, when people ask how long a licence takes, the answer rarely depends on the driving school. You can be well into your training by then, but you can only take the practical test once your licence is ready to be issued.

The office specifically asks people not to call to check on their application. It won’t speed anything up, and it keeps the phone lines busy.

At any officially recognised eye test centre. In practice, that means an optician, an eye doctor or a company doctor. The test only takes a few minutes.

It checks how well each of your eyes can see. If you don’t pass without glasses, you simply do the test again with your glasses or contact lenses on. That isn’t a fail. It just means your licence will later show that you need to wear them when you drive.

There’s no fixed national price for the eye test, because each eye test centre sets its own. So it’s worth asking what it costs before you go.

At the Düsseldorf driving licence office, your eye test certificate can’t be more than 24 months old on the day you apply. If it is, you’ll have to do the test again.

So do the eye test once you’re actually planning your application, not a year before just to get it done. Doing it too early really can be a problem here, and so can doing it too late.

The course has at least nine lessons of 45 minutes each. In practice that’s one day, usually a Saturday or a long weekday, with the German Red Cross (DRK), the Johanniter, the Malteser, the ASB or a recognised private provider.

The course has to be run by an officially recognised provider or a public authority. An online-only course doesn’t count, because the training includes practical exercises.

Unlike the eye test, the first-aid certificate doesn’t expire. So if you’ve already done the course for another class, you can normally hand in that certificate. Each provider sets its own price, so it’s worth comparing.

A biometric photo, at least 35 × 45 millimetres, without a hat or head covering, and taken within the last two years. The rules are the same as for a German identity card.

If you arrive without a photo, there’s a photo booth run by a private company in the vehicle registration office at Höherweg 101. But it only takes coins, and according to the office it currently costs €10, while the licence fee itself can only be paid by card or phone. So you’d need both with you.

Selfies, holiday snaps and cropped job application photos are turned down. Have your photo taken at a photo studio or in a booth, and say that it needs to be biometric.

For classes B, B197, B78 and BF17, yes, if you want us to. We file the application with the driving licence office for you for an extra charge, which you’ll find on the price list, and you pay the office’s own fee either way. If you apply yourself, you go in person with a booked appointment.

What we do for you is give you the complete list of documents and our driving school details for the application.

If you’re not sure whether you have everything, bring your documents in to us before your appointment and we’ll take a look.

Then your application doesn’t go to Düsseldorf but to the driving licence office in the town where you have your main residence. To apply at Höherweg 101, your main residence has to be registered in Düsseldorf.

For the driving school, it makes no difference. You can learn to drive in Düsseldorf and be registered in Neuss, Ratingen or Hilden. Your application then simply goes through the office there, and its list of documents and its fee may be slightly different.

If that’s your situation, tell us early where you live, so that we can give you the right test centre and the right driving school details for your application.

Register with a driving school first, then book your appointment, then get the three certificates, and then go to the office. Doing it in this order means the least waiting. That’s because your application needs your driving school’s name and address, and the bottleneck is the appointment at the office, not the eye test.

This is how it works in practice: