Out of Province
If you have moved into Alberta from another province and you hold a valid driver’s licence from your home jurisdiction, you are entitled to exchange your driver’s licence for an Alberta Licence of the same class, in most cases. Please note that you will have to surrender your current licence as it is an offence to hold more than one subsisting licence at a time.
Required Documents
Your out-of-province licence will serve as your photo ID, but we will still need to verify your Legal Entitlement to be in Canada and your Alberta Residency. Please bring us one document for each of these two categories. Remember that you have 90 days from the time you arrive in Alberta to change over your licence, so this should be enough time to set up a residence and receive a bank statement or other mailed document by mail.
Closing Out the Out of Province Licence
We are required to “close out” your out-of-province licence, letting your home province know that you have applied for an Alberta licence. If there are any restrictions or fines on your licence, we will be unable to close out and exchange the licence until you have resolved these restrictions and paid any outstanding fines to your home province.
Cost
The fee for the closing out your out of province licence is $7 plus the usual $93 fee for a five year licence will apply (unless you are required to renew for a shorter period).
Wait Time
Your current licence or ID card will be shredded in front of you and you will leave our office with a paper interim licence which does not have a photo. It will take approximately 2 weeks to receive the actual card in the mail. If you haven’t received the new card within 21 days, call (780) 427-7013 for an explanation of the delay. Then, please come back to our office with your temporary ID or Driver’s Licence and a piece of ID so we can order a replacement.
In Alberta you are required to come into the registry in person for all driver’s licence services – you cannot authorize another individual to do this on your behalf. There is no “rush” service available for driver’s licences as they are printed off-site.