TIRANA, February 11
Albanians residing in Germany, who have a driving permit issued in Albania or Kosovo, will be able to convert it to a German driving license without taking additional tests, Deutsche Welle reports.
The decision was adopted on Friday during the meeting of the German Bundesrat (Federal Council) in Berlin.
Minister of Transport in Baden-Wurttemberg Winfried Herrmann in the quality of Chairman of the Conference of Transport Ministers, said that fortunately this obstacle has been lifted. The representative of the Greens highlighted that many Kosovan emigrants are employed in jobs that require a driving permit.
The new regulation is expected to enter into force after getting published in the Official Gazette. The process takes approximately two weeks.
The regulation allows the conversion of almost all types of driving licenses. However, only those who have legal residence in Germany and had got their permits before moving to Germany can do it. This means that someone who resides in Germany and has no driving permit, cannot go back to Albania or Kosovo to get one. This phenomenon known as Driving License Tourism is not allowed in Germany.
Moreover, legal residence implies that the resident complies with the 185 days rule. This means that the person must have lived in Albania or Kosovo for 185 days in 12 months before starting an application for a driving permit.
Further on, the regulation defines that the driving permits issued in Albania after 24 January 2017 and those issued in Kosovo after 1 March 2018 will be recognized immediately. Meanwhile, those issued prior to the mentioned dates will be first checked by the respective German authorities.
A considerable number of citizens from Albania and Kosovo are leaving for Germany, a country that is running out of workers. The country is attracting not only skilled workers for essential positions in the healthcare system but also unskilled workers.
Source: DW
Photo by Norbert Braun on Unsplash
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