Before you start

Residence in Spain and the padrón certificate
A valid foreign licence
NIE or TIE
A medical fitness certificate from an authorised centro de reconocimiento

Step-by-step

1
Establish whether your country has an exchange agreement
Spain maintains a list of countries whose licences can be exchanged without testing. It is specific and does not track how developed a country's driving standards are. Check the DGT list before assuming.
OnlineWho: YouBefore the six months expire
2
Act inside the six-month window
You may generally drive on a valid foreign licence for six months after becoming resident. After that it is not valid regardless of its expiry date, and driving on it is an offence with insurance consequences.
OnlineWho: YouWithin 6 months of residency
3
Get the psychotechnical medical certificate
Spain requires a fitness assessment at an authorised centro de reconocimiento de conductores — a short medical including vision and reaction testing. Quick, inexpensive and required for both exchange and a new licence.
In personWho: You
4
Book the DGT appointment and submit
Exchange applications go through the Jefatura Provincial de Tráfico in Bizkaia with the medical certificate, the padrón certificate, your TIE, photographs and the fee. Your foreign licence is surrendered as part of the process.
In personWho: You
5
Get a Barik card and try the network first
One contactless card covers the metro, the tram, the buses, the funicular and the suburban trains across Bizkaia, with fares that fall as you use it more. The metro alone reaches most of the metropolitan area including the coast at Getxo and Plentzia. Most residents of central Bilbao do not own a car.
In personWho: YouWeek 1
6
Understand that the valley makes driving awkward
Bilbao is built along a narrow river valley with steep sides, which means limited road capacity, expensive scarce parking and a lot of one-way streets and tunnels. A car is genuinely useful for the coast and the mountains at weekends and genuinely inconvenient the rest of the time.
OnlineWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Foreign driving licence and an official translation if not in Spanish
TIE or NIE
Padrón certificate
Medical fitness certificate from an authorised centre
Passport photographs and the paid DGT fee

Things most newcomers don’t know

Six months, not twelve — the Spanish window is shorter than most people assume.

Residents arriving from the UK or the US often assume a year. In Spain a foreign licence generally stops being valid six months after you become resident. Driving after that is an offence and can leave you effectively uninsured in an accident. Start in month one.

Source: Dirección General de Tráfico

Driver licensing is one of the things the Basque Country did not take over.

The Concierto Económico devolved tax, and the autonomy statute devolved health, education and policing. Driver licensing stayed with the Spanish state and the DGT, so this is one process where guidance written for Madrid genuinely does apply here unchanged. It is worth knowing which side of the line each procedure falls on, because the answer is not intuitive.

Source: Dirección General de Tráfico

The Barik card is the single best piece of Bilbao infrastructure and almost nobody explains it.

One card covers the metro, tram, buses, the Artxanda funicular and the Cercanías and Euskotren suburban services across the province, with a fare structure that gets cheaper the more you travel. It removes any need to think about tickets and it makes the whole metropolitan area — including the beaches at Getxo, Sopelana and Plentzia — casually reachable. Get one in your first week.

Source: Consorcio de Transportes de Bizkaia

The valley geography, not policy, is what makes a car inconvenient here.

Bilbao has no congestion charge and no low emission zone of Glasgow's or Bristol's kind. What it has is a narrow steep-sided river valley with limited road capacity, a warren of one-way streets and tunnels, and very little space to park. The metro follows the valley because the valley is where everything is. Owning a car for weekend trips to the coast and the Pyrenees makes sense; using one daily does not.

Source: community-reported

Common mistakes to avoid

Assuming a twelve-month grace period; the Spanish window is six months from residency.
Assuming your country has an exchange agreement without checking the DGT list.
Assuming licensing is devolved to the Basque Country — it is not.
Buying a car before spending a month on the metro and the Barik card.
Renting a central flat with a car and no included garage space.

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