Portugal offers a foreign driver's exchange program, which eliminates the need to take a driver's test in a foreign language. It is, however, not an easy path to follow it requires quite a few steps in order to take advantage of it. You need to have the following documentation:
Your US driver’s license. This must be an original card, not a copy.
Your Portuguese Residence Permit (Titulo de Residencia Temporária) Card.
The original confirmation of your Portuguese address (Comprovativo de Residência) from your local Junta de Freguesia (some IMT / Lojas accept your Residence Card as proof of address if it is your current address, but you won’t know that in advance)
A copy of your state driving record, usually called Driving Record Abstract, apostilled by the Secretary of State for the state in which the license was issued.
Your NIF (Número do Finanças) paper (some IMT / Lojas accept the NIF shown on your Residence Card, but you won’t know that in advance).
The Certificate of Authentication of Driving License (Certificado de Autenticação de Carta de Condução) issued by the Portuguese consulate.
A health certificate electronically transmitted by a medical facility to the IMT system.
€30 in cash or payable with Multibanco (Portuguese bank card).
Item #6 needs to be obtained from the consulate in your home country. It cannot be obtained in Portugal.
After submitting all of these documents on the website (IMT Driver's License Exchange), you wait for about a month, in our case, until they request your current valid driver's license to be mailed to the IMT, after which they issue you, via email, a temporary driver's license.
Then, a month or so later, they will send you an appointment to show up for a photo.
After that, only time will tell how long it takes to receive your license. Two months, in our case.
All told... it was a 5 month process. Your experience might be longer or shorter. It all depends on where you are.
But... whoopee! Now, when will mine be processed?
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