So I’m making this post as a promise I made to me (and several other people) so I wouldn’t forget how much this process was an emotional rollercoaster for me. Also it’s been exactly 12 months since I started

tl:dr; I finally got my European (Belgian) driving licence after exactly 1 year of effort. Scroll to the bottom to see the list of steps I had to take

To begin with, I would like to mention a couple of things:

  • Of course, I have a valid driving licence (Mexican)
  • I have been driving for the last 21 or 22 years of my life. I vaguely remember, but I am sure my dad started teaching me when I was 13 or 14. As of today (2026-08-18) I am 35 years old.
  • In my past life (back in Mexico), I was usually the “designated driver” mainly because (according to my friends and family.) I drive very well.
  • I have already taught some people the basics of driving.
  • I have used a car in plenty of different types of roads in many different countrie

So you get the gist. I know how to operate a vehicle, I’d say I’m very responsible about it and I for one, can absolutely learn the rules quite fast.

Now a bit of context,

  • Around 3 years ago, I moved from London, UK to Brussels, Belgium, and being based here, there is a specific process, inside Belgium, but outside Brussels, things look slightly different. This post is Bxl specific
  • I’m originally from Mexico, so moving to Belgium didn’t carry any of my migratory status from the UK (thanks Brexit)
  • The worst one: According to the office for Mobility and Transport, Mexico IS NOT recognised in the list of countries that can exchange their non-EU driving licence for a Belgian one.

Before throwing myself into a rant about how difficult I had it, I want to acknowledge I am in a privileged position and some other folks in process of integrating to their host countries have it much much harder.

Process

So for the process. Here’s the official Bruxelles Mobilité poster

permisb.jpg

In the image (in French) the steps weren’t very clear to me so having gone through the process, I can explain a bit more:

NOTE: Choose the one that is closest to you. I don’t want to say this but you will end up going multiple times. I choose La Securite Automobile, and even though it was the closest, I still have nightmares about it. Eneded up going around 9 times. Also if you’re not in Brussels, and you chose one of this, you will have to do your ENTIRE process in the region, that is one of this.

In the poster is not super clear but the process is divided in 5 stages

  • Examen Théorique
  • Formation à la conduite
  • Formation Premier Secours
  • Examen Perception des risques
  • Examen Practique

Examen Theorique

  • It’s a computer based multiple question exam, comprised of 50 questions.
  • To pass you need 41/50
  • A faute grave (serious fault) will cost you 5 points, whereas a normal faute is 1 point
  • This means that you can get AT MOST once faute grave
  • After 2 exam failures, you need to go to an official auto-école and do a 12-hour theoretical course, which costs between €100 and €160 if in French/Dutch. In English you can expect to pay up to €200
  • After passing, you can request your provisional driving license.
  • Each attempt costs 19€

So this was probably the most difficult part of the whole process. See I started studing the code de la route with two fantastic mobile apps, passetonpermis.be and feuvert.be, I had to pay around 12€/M for like 6 months of passetonpermis.be and 25€/M for feuvert.be

TOTAL: (12€ * 6) + 25€ = 97€

I started studying in July 2025 and after many simulations, I felt ready so I went to the _La Sécurité Automobile_ and booked my first exam slot for 11/08/2025.

For some reason, I didn’t thought of studying in another language than English, and never tought any of it, unfortunately, when I arrived to the exam center, they asked in french which language did I wanted to do the test in, FR or NL. When I asked EN, they said that I had to wait for the translation module to be fixed, book again, this time notifying in advance and pay an extra 65€.

NEW TOTAL: 97€ + 19€ = 116€

So I said FR, being the beginner french speaker and feeling quite confident about my knowledge, I went in with a positive mindset. Failed it. I quickly changed to FR and started all lessons again. Went in for the attempt 2 the 14/10/2025. Failed again.

NEW TOTAL: 116€ + 19€ = 135€

This meant that I had to do a 12h theoretical course.

To resume it, it was really exhausting, but I did end up learning a lot

  • It was during the night (6-10pm) over 3 days
  • Everything in french (of course)
  • Take a lot of notes (probably the most useful way of persisting information)

NEW TOTAL: 135€ + 120€ = 255€

Failed the 3 time the 13/04/2026.

NEW TOTAL: 255€ + 19€ = 274€

And finally passed attempt 4 on the 11/05/2026. I remember being incredibly nervous as I really really didn’t want to do another 3 day course. Passed it with 41/50 (the minimum)

NEW TOTAL: 274€ + 19€ = 293€

Formation à la conduite

MISTAKE 1: After I got the paper saying I passed the theorical exam, I didn’t go straight to the commune to get the license until the 14/12/2025. It is only after you get your provisional driving license (pink card) that your Formation à la conduite period starts. At this point you have to decide which parcours or route you want.

  1. 9 months - No driving courses - With guide
  2. 6 months - 14h driving courses - With guide
  3. 3 months - 20h driving courses - No guide
  4. No stage - 30h driving courses - No guide

NOTE: If you chose any of the first two, you need to register your guides in the BelDrive platform.

MISTAKE 2: Without really understanding the implications of these, and hearing that driving courses were incredibly expensive, I chose 1. Had I know how the driving lessons worked I would have definitely chosen 4

So for me

14/12/2025 + 9 months = 14/09/2026

So only after the 14/09/2026 I would be able to make the practical exams

Oof… anyways I did end up waiting a long time… and while I was waiting. I had to do do the first aid course.

Formation Premier Secours

GOOD NEWS: This is no longer required, since 10 days ago, it was removed from the process..

In essence you had to do an online course (now defunct) and then to the Red Cross Belgium, book a slot and go to the city center for 1 hour of course. They give you a certificate that you need to take to the examination center.

Driving Courses

So after the Formation Premier Secours, me and my family started thinking about doing a road trip to Italy on August 2026.

Problem was I didn’t have my permit yet… And at this point I realised I would have to wait until September 2026.

I read somewhere that you can reduce your stage by doing driving lessons with an auto école.

So to make it

14/12/2025 + 6 months = 14/06/2026

I would need 14h of driving lessons. So that is what I did.

I went to Auto école Européenne and guess how much was the 14h pack… 1200€

Some context around driving lessons

  • The school was 5 min walking from my home
  • Each session is 2h
  • You can squeeze as many sessions in the week and the weekdays as they have available
  • My 14h course I ended up doing it in the course of 2 weeks

So in retrospectibve, I think it made sense to do the 30h, in my case. The cost of the 30h is 2280€, BUUUT, I would not have had to wait AT ALL for the practical exam stage.

And personally, I couldn’t wait longer to make some progress (I really wanted to be able to travel), I forced the 14h course to reduce my wait time from 9 to 6 months

NEW TOTAL: 293€ + 1200€ = 1493€

I’m not going to be timid about how the driving lessons (in my case, experienced driver), were a total waste of time.

This part made me upset (but not as much as the practical exam, see below) because I felt I didn’t learn anything (except that I improved my street-French)

Funny story: in 2 of the 7 courses I had

  • Once instructor felt asleep for ~20 minutes. I drove as far as I could when I realised. This made him upset when he woke up immediately but upon realising that he felt asleep he could say anything. Strangely funny
  • Another instructor was making offensive remarks about my mexican origin and how “Trump was right”. No comment haha

Anyways, having completed the 14h I got my certificate and finally was able to book the Examen Perception des risques which is part 1/2 of the practical exam.

Examen Perception des risques

  • It’s a computer based multiple question exam, comprised of 5 questions with 10 “risks”.
  • To pass you need to detect 6/10 risks
  • It’s in the same place than in theorical
  • Costs 17€

I took it on 13/05/2026 and passed it the first time with 8/10 risks detected

NEW TOTAL: 1493€ + 17€ = 1510€

Examen Practique

I did an initial research on how it looked like.

  • It’s a practical exam, on the car
  • In total 40min, of those ~32min driving and the rest are questions about the car and the manouvers
  • You start and end in the same center as in the theorical
  • If you did a route with a guide (9 or 6 months), you can use your own car
  • Costs 46€

This Reddit post helped me a lot.

I really remember feeling that if I didn’t prepared myself enough for the theory exam, the practical one would be a breeze for me. And indeed it was, the driving part that is… but I didn’t realised at the time that passing the exam was more around understanding a bureacratic system, having some willingness to pay up, and sheer luck, than actual skill, knowledge and experience

Anyways, immediately after passing the Examen Perception des risques at the center, I asked for availability of the practical exam with my own car. They said at the counter that the only availability was end of October… Mind you this was May

I was looking at a 5 month wait for a chance to present the exam…

So I just spend +1200€, wasted 14h of my life in the driving lessons, to speed up the process and be able to drive in August… only to get told I still needed to wait 5-6 months more (end of October)?

I remember going out of the building feeling incredibly stupid, helpless and quite anxious.

At this point I’d like to mention that every aspect of the process was in French and the people at the La Sécurité Automobile center are quite rude. Trying to ask politelly for information as a foreigner with basic french skills resulted almost always in either a three or four word response completely unrelated or a speech that I didn’t translate fast enough thus ended up missing.

But then looking at the garage in front of the street, where the practical exams are conducted, I decided to sit down to observe what was happening; I saw nothing but cars from auto écoles. Literally, no particular cars. I suspected something fishy about it.

So I went to the Auto école Européenne, asking for advice. They told me that in fact the lack of spots was a recurrent problem… BUUUT that they could search their waiting list for any recent désistement (withdraw)… and surprise surprise, there was one spot the 16/07/25.. but that it would cost me €160

As I said previously, you can present your exam using your car but you have to reserve your spot yourself… OR go to an auto ecole and pay €160. This includes the car and the instructor’s time. But not the cost of the exam.

NEW TOTAL: 1510€ + 160€ = 1670€

They give you a couple of instructions where they double mention the time of the exam and that you have to be at least 15 minutes to register, and all the documents you need to bring. So I did

  • ID
  • Theory exam result
  • First aid course certificate
  • Driving lessons certificate
  • Risk perception exam result

So the day of the exam, I got in 30min before, registered and paid the exam

NEW TOTAL: 1670€ + 46€ = 1716€

I was really nervous. I did a meditation hoping it would help. And then at the hour of the exam… nada… the car from the auto école wasn’t showing up. Noone from the center would signal anything…

At this point I was getting super worried I would have to wait 2-3 more months to try again. I tried calling the auto école but they close 13h, It was 14h30…

Finally the instructor arrived 20 min late (it was the one from the racist remarks). He went straight to the counter and greeted everybody there as if they were close colleagues. That’s where I finally was able to confirm my suspicion of a loophole in the system

The examination centers and the driving schools somehow work together, extra-officially.

Which meant that:

  • There was some sort of quota/bonus system between the two entities (corruption)
  • The booking system is completely captured by the auto écoles. They reserve slots for themselves and sell them to want-to-be drivers at a premium (€160)
  • There is an endless supply of want-to-be-drivers which means recurring revenue.
  • AND THE WORST: They were going to fail me, there and then, systematically

So that’s what happened really.

I drove the best 40 minutes I’ve driven in my whole life. Calm, slightly exaggerating the gestures, making sure to pay attention to the signals. Everything. And I failed.

At the end, the examinator said I failed mainly because I stopped less than a second in a STOP where I should have completely stopped for 5 seconds or more. Ha !

At this point I was feeling pretty down, I was not going to be able to drive to Italy, not because I couldn’t but because I was failed in the last part of the process. So I went to the auto école and begged for a solution that would grant me my license BEFORE August…. and they told me that I had some options

  • Wait for a désistement (withdraw). Another €160 + €46
  • Go to the center at 6am and get in line to try to get a place
  • Keep trying one of the above whilst waiting indefinitedly.

Went home and then I spent a full week savouring the sour defeat… I was super stressed because I felt this whole mess was blocking my life. In retrospective I think it was a very dramatic of me but hey, I’ve been in Europe 8 years now, being this close to get something you’ve been thinking about for that long, grants the emotional response.

I read all the posts and articles I could find, and then I even asked on Reddit, and (un)surprisingly it was one of my most popular posts. Everyone was claiming how it “is a mafia”, “its corrupt AF”, “it’s not personal, just business”.

On Wednesday morning, I got a call from the auto école saying there was an open spot for the next day (23/07/26) but that I had to pay €160 as soon as I hung up. Yes of course :( What else can I do? Wait forever?

NEW TOTAL: 1716€ + 160€ = 1876€

On Thursday, I showed up, registered and paid the exam

NEW TOTAL: 1876€ + 46€ = 1922€

I was less eager and excited than before (I think that helped to curve the excitedness), and this time the instructor and the examinator were both looking much more positive, and in a better mood than the previous ones.

I drove much more careful, more defensive, almost theatrical, exaggerating the head gestures to look around as much as I could. Stopped at the stop signs for a couple seconds. Never going more than 27 on a 30, 45 on a 50.

And at the end the examinator said, “You didn’t cleared the road sufficiently fast, but you know, I’ll give you the gift of the year”… Obnoxious but I didn’t care, I just passed !

I got a paper that says that I passed, which I took to the commune immediately. They ask and keep your provisional license as well as this paper. Make sure here that you get an email from them saying that they received the documents.

After a week and a couple days (in which you still don’t have driving permission), you go back to the commune to retrieve your permis b.

  • VISITS TO THE CENTER: 9 times
  • TOTAL: 1922€
  • TIME TO COMPLETE: 12months

If you read this, it means that you’re looking at starting this process, or maybe already on it. For you, really, best of luck and contact me if you think I can help hey@oschvr.com

Steps I Had to Take

  1. Download study apps - passetonpermis.be and/or feuvert.be. Study in the language you’ll take the exam in (FR or NL, not EN).
  2. Book Examen Théorique - 50 questions, need 41/50. Costs ~€19. Book at La Sécurité Automobile or Autocontrole.
  3. If you fail twice → do the 12h theoretical course at an auto-école (~€120–€200). Mandatory before attempt 3+.
  4. Pass the Examen Théorique.
  5. Go immediately to the commune to request your provisional driving license (pink card). Choose your parcours:
    • 9 months, no lessons, with guide
    • 6 months, 14h lessons, with guide
    • 3 months, 20h lessons, no guide
    • No stage, 30h lessons, no guide

    The sooner you get the pink card, the sooner your waiting period starts. Don’t wait.

  6. If you chose route with a guide - register them on BelDrive.
  7. Formation Premier Secours - Removed since 15/08/2026. No longer required.
  8. Do your driving lessons (if your chosen parcours requires them). Budget ~€1200 for 14h, ~€2280 for 30h.
  9. Book and pass Examen Perception des risques - computer-based, 5 questions with 10 risks, need 6/10. Costs ~€17.
  10. Book Examen Pratique - contact your auto-école for availability (don’t trust the center’s counter, they’ll say N months). Budget ~€160 for their slot + €46 exam fee.
  11. Pass Examen Pratique - 40 min total, ~32 min driving. Be theatrical: exaggerate head checks, stop fully at STOP signs, stay under the speed limit.
  12. Take the result paper to your commune immediately. They keep your provisional license. Get an email confirmation.
  13. Return to the commune after ~1 week to pick up your Permis B.