Fahrschule S.U.V. in Düsseldorf Oberbilk

Renewing your driving licence in Düsseldorf

When people talk about renewing a licence, they usually mean one of two very different things. Either your licence card has to be exchanged at the driving licence office, or your training contract with us needs extending. We’ll tell you which one applies to you and what you need to do.

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No test: Just paperwork
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Not driven for a while: Refresher lessons, no test

The basics

What actually gets renewed?

Your right to drive class B doesn’t expire. Once you have it, you keep it, and you never need to renew it. What does expire is the document. Licence cards are valid for 15 years, and all older licences, including the grey and pink paper ones, are being swapped for the EU photocard licence on a fixed timetable. This is the compulsory exchange (Pflichtumtausch), and it’s purely an admin matter.

The second case only affects people who are currently learning with us. Your training contract ends after twelve months if you haven’t finished your training by then. If that happens, we extend it and you keep all the progress you’ve made. Apart from the word, the two have nothing to do with each other.

The two cases side by side

Compulsory exchange: about your licence document, handled by the driving licence office, no test
Contract extension: about your training with us, sorted with a phone call
What doesn’t expire: your class B entitlement itself, which has no time limit
What does expire: the card, which lasts 15 years before you need a new one
What we don’t do: lorries and buses. Classes C and D are time-limited and need a medical.
Your deadline: send us the date your licence was issued and we’ll tell you when you need to exchange it.

What you need

What you need for the exchange

Not much, and you won’t have to go and get anything new first. The exchange isn’t an application for a licence. You’re simply swapping one document for another.

Your licence: The original, whether it’s paper or a card. The office keeps it and gives you the new one in its place.
ID: Your identity card or passport. If you bring a passport, you’ll usually need a certificate of registration (Meldebescheinigung) as well.
Passport photo: A recent biometric passport photo, 35 by 45 millimetres. You can get one from a photographer or a photo booth.
No eye test or medical: For class B, the exchange doesn’t need an eye test or a medical report. Those are only for time-limited classes such as lorries and buses.
Where to go: The Straßenverkehrsamt (driving licence office) in Düsseldorf, at Höherweg 101. You can read how things work there on our page about the licence application.

Step by step

How it works

There are three steps, and the first one tells you which of the two things you’re actually dealing with.

Step 01
Tell us what it’s about
Is it your licence card, or your training contract with us? For the card, we only need the date it was issued, and we’ll tell you your deadline. For the contract, your name is enough. The quickest way is WhatsApp or the pre-registration form.
Step 02
We give you the right list
For the exchange, we write down exactly which documents the driving licence office wants to see in your case. That’s really the only thing that saves you time here, because if you turn up with everything, you only have to go once.
Step 03
Done
You hand in your exchange at the office, and the new photocard licence is either posted to you or ready for you to collect. We extend your training contract straight away, so you keep your progress and carry on from where you stopped.

The timetable

Is it your turn yet?

For paper licences, your deadline depends on the year you were born. For cards, it depends on the year the card was issued, which you’ll find in field 4a.

The exchange has been happening in stages since 2022, so that the offices don’t have to process every licence at the same time. The deadlines for paper licences have all passed except one, and so have those for the first years of cards. The exception is for people born before 1953, who have until 19 January 2033. So if you still have an old licence, don’t put the exchange off any longer. If you’re stopped with the old document after your deadline, you could get a warning fine (Verwarnungsgeld). You won’t lose your right to drive, though.

By 19 January 2033 every old licence will have been replaced. After that, the same rule applies to every card: it’s valid for 15 years, and then you get a new one. If you’re not sure which row in the table applies to you, send us the date your licence was issued.

Deadlines by the year your card was issued

Paper licence: Staggered by year of birth. The deadlines have passed for everyone born in 1953 or later, the last one on 19 January 2025. If you were born before 1953, you have until 19 January 2033.
Card from 1999 to 2001: The deadline was 19 January 2026, so it has passed too.
Card from 2002 to 2004: 19 January 2027. This is the group whose turn it is now.
Card from 2005 to 2007: 19 January 2028
Card from 2008 to 2011: a separate deadline for each year, from 19 January 2029 to 19 January 2032
Card from 2012 to 18.01.2013: 19 January 2033, the final deadline
Card from 19.01.2013: 15 years from the date of issue

The other case

Your training contract with us

Your contract ends after twelve months if you haven’t finished your training by then. If you need more time, we simply extend it, and that’s no big deal.

A year sounds like a long time, but it isn’t always enough. You might move house, start an apprenticeship, be ill for a while, or just have a summer when other things came first. There are lots of reasons why training takes longer, and we’re familiar with all of them. Just get in touch and we’ll keep your contract going.

You keep everything you’ve already done: the theory topics you’ve attended, the practice lessons you’ve driven and your mandatory drives (Sonderfahrten). You don’t have to register again, and anything we charge is on the price list. There’s just one thing to keep an eye on. A theory test pass is valid for twelve months, and after that you have to take the test again. If you’re getting close to that limit, let us know and we’ll plan your driving lessons around it.

What you keep and what you don’t

Theory lessons: you keep them and don’t have to repeat any topic.
Practice lessons and mandatory drives: you keep all of them.
Base fee: anything we charge is on the price list
Theory test: valid for twelve months, after which you have to take it again.

How long

How long does it take?

The exchange takes as long as the office needs. For a contract extension, just get in touch with us.

Exchanging your card: up to 12 weeks; That’s how long the Düsseldorf driving licence office allows from your application to the finished document. Your new licence is produced and then posted to you or kept ready for you to collect.
Contract extension: Just get in touch.; After that you carry on as before, and you keep all your progress.

Start the exchange well before your deadline, not after it. It can take up to twelve weeks from your appointment at the office to the finished document, and that time counts towards your deadline.

Costs

How much does it cost?

Anything we charge is on our price list. The fee at the office is set by the office.

What you pay us

Working out your deadline: Send us the date your licence was issued and we’ll tell you your deadline. Anything we charge is on the price list.
Contract extension: anything we charge is on the price list
Driving lessons: only the ones you still take afterwards

What you pay elsewhere

Office fee: for the exchange and your new photocard licence
Passport photo: biometric, from a photographer or a photo booth
Copy of your licence record (Karteikartenabschrift): from the authority that issued your old licence
Eye test and medical: not needed for class B

If you’ve lost your licence, you’ll also need to report the loss and make a sworn statement (Versicherung an Eides statt). That’s handled by the office too, and we’ll tell you beforehand what to bring.

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Who can help

Our team

For the exchange you don’t need a driving instructor, just someone who knows the list. If you want to get back behind the wheel afterwards, Cobain, Santana and Marzouk are here, and they speak German, English and Arabic.

Cobain
Driving instructor
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Santana
Driving instructor
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Marzouk
Driving instructor

Fahrschule S.U.V. GmbH, Mindenerstraße 106 in Düsseldorf Oberbilk, open since May 2026. The authority that supervises us is the Fahrlehrerstelle, the driving instructor office at the Straßenverkehrsamt Düsseldorf. More about us.

Reviews

What our learners say

5.0out of 5 on Google

60 people have rated us on Google, and 32 of them also wrote down what it was like. You can read every one of them here, word for word and with the reviewer's name. See the reviews on Google.

Source: Google, as of 15/09/2026.

Lakeisha A.

25/08/2026

Ich bin echt super zufrieden mit der Fahrschule und kann sie nur weiterempfehlen! Besonders mein Fahrlehrer Santana ist einfach top – für mich einer der besten Fahrlehrer überhaupt! 🙌🏽 Er nimmt sich wirklich Zeit, erklärt alles geduldig und verständlich und geht auf seine Fahrschüler ein. Dadurch fühlt man sich während der Fahrstunden direkt wohl und sicher. Auch bei Fragen ist er immer geduldig und hilft weiter. Vielen Dank für die tolle Unterstützung und die schöne Zeit!❤️

Renewing your driving licence in Düsseldorf

What actually gets renewed?

What you need for the exchange

How it works

Tell us what it’s about

We give you the right list

Done

Is it your turn yet?

Your training contract with us

How long does it take?

How much does it cost?

Our team

What our learners say

Questions about renewing your licence

Will I lose my licence if I miss the deadline?

Do I need to take a test or an eye test for the exchange?

When does my card need exchanging?

Do you also renew licences for lorries or buses?

What do I need to take to the driving licence office?

My training contract is running out, but I haven’t finished yet.

I’ve lost my licence. What should I do?

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