Before you start

A valid foreign licence held before arrival
CPF and CRNM
Sworn Portuguese translation of the licence
Proof of a Federal District address
A gov.br account and DETRAN-DF registration

Step-by-step

1
Count the 180 days from entry
CONTRAN Resolução 933/2022 allows a maximum of 180 days driving on a foreign licence, counted from when you entered Brazil rather than from residence approval. Driving beyond it is an infraction and complicates any insurance claim.
OnlineWho: You
2
Get a sworn translation
Only a tradutor público juramentado registered with a Junta Comercial produces an accepted translation. Brasília has plenty; an ordinary professional translation, however good, is refused.
In personWho: You
3
Open the process with DETRAN-DF
Start on the DETRAN-DF portal with your CPF, CRNM, translated licence and proof of address. The department assigns you to accredited clinics rather than letting you choose freely.
OnlineWho: You
4
Sit the medical and psychological examinations
Both are compulsory for every Brazilian licence including a straight conversion. The psychological assessment is a separate appointment at a separate clinic, an hour or two of attention and personality testing, with its own fee and queue.
In personWho: You1–3 weeks depending on the clinic
5
Learn the tesourinha before you drive the Eixo
The Eixo Rodoviário and the monumental axis are grade-separated: there are almost no traffic lights and no left turns. To go left you exit right onto a looping ramp — the tesourinha — that carries you under or over the carriageway and delivers you across. It is completely logical and completely counterintuitive on the first attempt.
In personWho: You
6
Adjust to pedestrian priority, in both roles
Brasília has an unusually strong culture of stopping at marked crossings, built by a sustained campaign in the 1990s and enforced since. Drivers here stop where drivers in Rio would not. As a pedestrian, use the marked crossing; as a driver, expect people to step out expecting you to stop, because here you must.
In personWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Foreign driving licence, original
Sworn Portuguese translation
CPF
CRNM or registration protocol
Proof of Federal District address
Medical and psychological examination results

Things most newcomers don’t know

The psychological assessment is compulsory and it is what makes the conversion take a month.

No European or North American licensing system has an equivalent, so nobody plans for it. In Brazil it applies to every licence, including converting a spotless thirty-year record. It is a separate appointment at a separate accredited clinic with its own waiting list. Booking it in the same week you open the DETRAN process is the difference between four weeks and eight.

Source: CONTRAN Resoluções 927/2022 and 933/2022

You turn left by exiting right, and the city has almost no traffic lights on its axes.

Lúcio Costa's plan uses grade separation instead of intersections, so the fast axes have looping tesourinha ramps rather than junctions. A driver looking for a left turn will drive several kilometres past their destination before understanding the pattern. Once it clicks, Brasília is among the easiest Brazilian cities to drive; before it clicks, it is the most disorienting.

Source: Plano Piloto de Lúcio Costa and DETRAN-DF road layout

Distances here are much longer than the map suggests, and there is no metro to the Asa Norte.

The city was laid out at the scale of the car, with wide setbacks and no continuous street grid, so a walk that looks like four blocks is over a kilometre in full sun. The metro serves only the south-west corridor. Anyone living in the north wing or the lake sectors and working outside them should assume a car or a long bus journey, and price that in before signing a lease.

Source: Governo do Distrito Federal transport planning

Pedestrian priority at crossings is real here and it is a genuine behavioural difference from the rest of Brazil.

A sustained public campaign and consistent enforcement from the 1990s created a norm that survives — drivers stop at marked crossings in Brasília in a way they demonstrably do not in Rio or São Paulo. Newcomers from elsewhere in Brazil are startled by it, and newcomers driving here are startled by pedestrians stepping out confidently. Both directions of that adjustment are worth making consciously.

Source: DETRAN-DF road safety programmes

Common mistakes to avoid

Counting the 180 days from CRNM issue instead of from entry.
Paying for an unsworn translation and having it rejected at the counter.
Not booking the psychological assessment early and adding weeks to the process.
Renting in the Asa Norte assuming the metro serves it — it does not.
Failing to stop at a marked crossing, which is both an infraction and a genuine local taboo.

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