Before you start

A carte de résident or its receipt
A valid foreign licence
An international driving permit as a bridge, obtained before you leave home
An official translation of the licence where it is not in Arabic or French

Step-by-step

1
Get an international driving permit before you leave home
It is issued by your home motoring authority, takes minutes, and covers you while you work out the Algerian position. Doing it after arrival is far harder. Note that Algeria's own international permits are issued through the Touring Club d'Algérie.
In personWho: YouBefore departure
2
Ask your employer's HR what other foreign staff actually did
In a country where the published procedural detail is thin, the reliable source is the last three people who went through it at your own company. Ask specifically which wilaya office, which documents, and how long it took.
Via employerWho: You
3
Check whether a bilateral agreement covers your licence
Exchange rests on an agreement between Algeria and the issuing state — France is the clearest case. If no agreement covers you, expect to take Algerian tests. Confirm with the wilaya rather than with a forum.
In personWho: You
4
Understand where the traffic actually is
The heights — Hydra, El Biar, Ben Aknoun, Dely Ibrahim — connect to the centre and to Bab Ezzouar by a small number of congested roads. A journey that looks like fifteen minutes on a map is routinely three times that at peak. Look at the commute before you look at the flat.
In personWho: You
5
Use the metro and tramway where they help, and accept that they do not go everywhere
Algiers has one metro line with extensions under construction — including toward Baraki and the airport — plus a tramway, suburban rail, ETUSA buses and cable cars up the slopes. It is a real network and it does not yet serve the hillside communes where most foreign residents live.
In personWho: You
6
If your employer provides a car and driver, take it seriously as part of the package
For many expatriate contracts in Algiers this is standard, and it removes the licence question, the traffic question and the parking question at once. It is worth asking about explicitly at offer stage rather than discovering it is available six months in.
Via employerWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Valid foreign driving licence
International driving permit
Official translation into Arabic or French, where required
Carte de résident or its receipt
Identity photographs

Things most newcomers don’t know

An international driving permit obtained before you leave is the cheapest insurance available.

It takes minutes at home and it bridges whatever gap exists between arriving and resolving the Algerian licence question — a question whose answer depends on a bilateral agreement and on wilaya practice that is not well published. Getting one after you have already arrived is significantly harder, because it must generally be issued by the authority that issued your licence.

Source: community-reported

Algiers is built on hills, and the commute is the housing decision.

The communes where foreign residents concentrate — Hydra, El Biar, Ben Aknoun, Dely Ibrahim — sit above the centre on slopes served by a limited number of roads. Traffic between the heights and the coast, and out toward Bab Ezzouar and the airport, is heavy for long stretches of the day. Distance on a map is a poor guide, and people who chose a flat on price find they chose a two-hour daily commute.

Source: community-reported

The metro is expanding toward the airport and Baraki, which will change some of this.

Algiers has a single metro line with extensions under construction, including a link from El Harrach toward the international airport and a branch toward Baraki, alongside an existing tramway and cable cars up the slopes. The network genuinely works where it goes. It does not currently serve the hillside communes most foreign residents live in, so for now the answer there is still a car.

Source: press reporting; ETUSA/Métro d'Alger

We have deliberately not given you Algerian licence fees or timelines.

We could not establish a current, official schedule for licence exchange fees or processing times in Algeria to the standard this product requires, and the secondary sources that state them do not agree with each other. Rather than pick one, we have left it out. Ask the wilaya, and ask colleagues who have done it recently — and apply the same scepticism to any guide that gives you a confident number without a source.

Source: editorial note

Common mistakes to avoid

Arriving without an international driving permit and finding you cannot easily obtain one here.
Assuming your licence is exchangeable without checking whether a bilateral agreement covers it.
Choosing a flat on price without driving the commute at peak first.
Assuming the metro serves the hillside communes — it does not.
Planning around a licence fee or timeline you found in a secondary source.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.