How to get a driving licence in Canada

The process for how to get a driving licence in Canada is normally pretty straightforward. It does vary somewhat by province but generally follows the same approach.

When we moved to Canada we went through the process ourselves so in this guide we’ll cover everything we were confused about so that the process is as easy as possible for you to get your driving licence in Canada as a newcomer.

We’ll give you some context of how licences work in Canada that’s important to understand, and then launch into how to get your driving licence or exchange your foreign one for a Canadian driving licence.

General process for how to get a driving licence in Canada

Driving licences in Canada are managed by the provinces and territories so the rules differ somewhat depending on where in Canada you are. But the licencing process is generally similar so we’ll talk in general terms to give an overview and then will include province/territory specifics further down.

If you’re a newcomer to Canada you will probably be able to drive on your foreign licence for a short time (2 months in Ontario for example) before you need to get a Canadian licence.

To get a Canadian licence the options are:

• If you don’t have a foreign licence you’ll just go through the regular licensing process for that province or territory.
• If you have a licence from a country that has a reciprocal agreement (more on what that means below) with your province you’ll simply be able to swap your foreign licence for a corresponding Canadian one.
• If you have a licence from a country that doesn’t have a reciprocal agreement then you’ll need to sit a test to get the corresponding Canadian one.

Canada has a graduated driving licensing system (more on this below), so we say “corresponding” licence above because the level of licence you’ll get will depend on how long you’ve had your foreign driving licence for, i.e. how much driving experience you’ve got.

How driving licences work in Canada

Driving licences in Canada are administered by each province or territory. The rules and processes for each have slightly differences but are broadly similar.

Graduated licensing

Canada has what’s referred to as a graduated licensing system. Basically that means that what type of licence you have depends on how much driving experience you have.

So if you have no driving experience you need to do a series of tests, with waiting times to gain experience between the tests, before you can get your full driving license.

At each of the levels you’ll get some sort of “non-full” driving licence which will have some limitations on what you can do.

So for example in Ontario:

• You have to do a knowledge test to get a learners licence (called a G1 licence). With this you’re only able to drive with a full qualified driver in the car with you.
• You have to have that licence for at least a year before you can sit a practical test to get the next level of licence called a G2 licence. A G2 licence allows you to drive on your own but with some limitations.
• You then wait another year before you can sit the final practical test to get your full driving licence.

This is important because what level of driving licence you get in Canada, if you already have a foreign driving licence, depends on how long you’ve had your licence.

What is a reciprocal agreement for driving licences

A reciprocal agreement in the case of driving licences is where the province or territory of Canada has an agreement with a country so that they recognise each each other’s driving licences.

So essentially, if you have a driving licence issued by a reciprocal country you’ll just be able to do a like-for-like swap for the Canadian equivalent. Without having to pass any additional driving tests or anything.

But, it’s important to note that Canada has a graduated licensing scheme (as above) so you will only get a Canadian licence that matches the level of experience (i.e. how long you’ve had your licence) in the foreign country.

If you don’t have enough experience to get the full licence then you’ll have to do a Canadian test to get the full licence once you’ve got the required experience.  

You can find lists of which countries your province has reciprocal agreements with on the driving licensing webpages (links below).

What if my country doesn’t have a reciprocal agreement for driving licences.

If your country doesn’t have a reciprocal agreement for driving licences, you’ll still be able to get a Canadian licence but you’ll have to sit the test(s) that corresponds to the level of experience you have in the foreign country i.e. you won’t need to start right at the beginning of the graduated driving licence process.

Let’s explain more about the full process below.

What difference a reciprocal agreement makes in practice

In general, regardless if your country does or doesn’t have a reciprocal agreement with your new province, your driving experience in another country will be taken into account in which licence you can get. The difference is in if you’ll need to sit a test or not to get that licence.

So if your country does have a reciprocal agreement you just get given the Canadian licence; if your country doesn’t have a reciprocal agreement you need to sit the correspond test to get the Canadian licence.

Let’s explain a bit more what that means with an example:

If you are from a country that the province has a reciprocal agreement with then you will get the driving licence that is commensurate with how long you’ve had your foreign drivers licence. So using Ontario as an example, if you’ve had your full foreign drivers licence for less than two years, you’ll get a G2 licence.

If you’re from a country that does not have a reciprocal agreement with your province then you’ll get the credit for the time you’ve been driving in your home country (or wherever you had your licence) but you’ll need to sit the test that’s commensurate with how long you’ve had your foreign licence for.

So for Ontario, if you’ve had your licence for two years or more you can sit the final graduated road test to get a full drivers licence; if you’ve got 12 to 23 months experience you sit the road test to get a G2 licence.

The process for getting a driving licence in Canada: our experience

As we’ve said previously, the process in each province or territory will be slightly different but overall the process is the same for how to actually get your licence in Canada.

If you already have a licence from a foreign country then this is the process you’ll follow (if you don’t have a licence then you just go through the normal licensing process starting from the beginning).

We got our licences in Ontario so we’ll explain the steps we went through but it’s similar for each province.

The first step is you need to go in-person to the service centre in your province or territory that handles driving licences. So for example in Ontario that’s ServiceOntario and in British Columbia it’s ICBC.

Take along the required documentation with you. For us we needed to take ID (showing resident in Ontario) and our foreign driving licence.

The person will then check your documentation and confirm what type of licence you will get depending on your experience and reciprocal agreement – they’ll also confirm what, if any, tests you need to do depending on this.

For us, when we were getting our Ontario licences one of us had over two years driving experience and one of us didn’t. So, the person confirmed the over two years’ experience would get a full G licence, the under two years would get a G2 licence.  

We then had to do a quick eye test to confirm our vision was okay to drive.

You’ll then need to give over your foreign licence – you can’t keep it.

They’ll then give you your new licence.

And that’s it, you’ve got your Canadian drivers licence!

The province and territory specifics of getting your driving licence

Alberta

The process for getting a driving licence in Alberta is very much the same as described above. You can get more details here.

British Columbia

The process for getting a driving licence in BC is very similar as described above. You can get more details here.

Manitoba

The process for getting a driving licence in Manitoba is very much the same as described above. You can get more details here.

New Brunswick

The process for getting a driving licence in New Brunswick quite similar to what’s described above. You can get more details here.

Newfoundland and Labrador

The process for getting a driving licence in Newfoundland and Labrador is very much the same as described above. You can get more details here.

Northwest Territories

The process for getting a driving licence in Northwest Territories is similar as described above. You can get more details here.

Nova Scotia

The process for getting a driving licence in Nova Scotia is similar as described above. You can get more details here.

Ontario

The process for getting a driving licence in Ontario is as described above. You can get more details here.

Prince Edward Island

The process for getting a driving licence in PEI is very much the same as described above. You can get more details here.

Quebec

The process for getting a driving licence in Quebec is similar to what’s described above. You can get more details here.

Saskatchewan

The process for getting a driving licence in Saskatchewan is very much the same as described above. You can get more details here.

Yukon

The process for getting a driving licence in Yukon is similar to described above. But you should note that they have a reciprocal agreement with very few countries (only USA, Germany and Isle of Man). You can get more details here.

I hope you found this guide useful. Let us know if we’ve missed anything in the comments below.