German or English Only: Berlin LABO's Own Rule for Translating a Foreign Driving License

The Official Rule

Search LABO’s own page for converting a driving license from outside the EU or EEA and the translation question sits inside one bullet, in the Erforderliche Unterlagen (required documents) list of Service Berlin’s conversion page: “ggf. Übersetzung des ausländischen Führerscheins,” translation of the foreign license, if necessary. Read past the heading and LABO actually commits to more than that single qualifier suggests. The full text reads: “Eine Übersetzung ist immer erforderlich, wenn der Führerschein nicht in deutscher oder englischer Sprache ausgestellt ist. Ob eine Übersetzung des ausländischen Führerscheines erforderlich ist, entscheidet im Zweifel die Fahrerlaubnisbehörde. Die Übersetzung wird dann bei der Bearbeitung des Antrages nachgefordert.”

Unpacked, that’s three separate statements stacked in one bullet. First, a default rule: a translation is always required unless the license is already issued in German or English. Second, an escape hatch for anything ambiguous: in case of doubt, LABO’s own Fahrerlaubnisbehörde decides. Third, a timing detail easy to miss: the translation isn’t something you’re expected to hand over with your initial application, it gets requested later, while your file is already being processed.

That German-or-English default is worth sitting with for a moment, because it’s a genuinely Berlin-specific detail. Munich’s KVR page treats every non-EU license as needing a translation regardless of language, and Hamburg’s LBV pages don’t name English as an exemption either. Whether that’s a real substantive difference in what Berlin ultimately accepts, or simply a difference in how explicitly each city’s page happens to spell out an assumption every office shares, isn’t something a required-documents bullet can settle on its own. What can be said with confidence is that LABO’s own page states it as a rule, in writing, for anyone filing a conversion here.

What LABO’s page does not do, anywhere in this section, is name a single accepted translator or organization. No mention of automobile clubs, no mention of “öffentlich bestellt und beeidigt,” the formal sworn-translator status covered in depth in this project’s guide to finding a sworn translator in Berlin, and no mention of the national justiz-dolmetscher.de directory. That’s a real, checkable difference from Munich’s own KVR page, which explicitly names automobile clubs such as ADAC and sworn translators as accepted routes. It would be overreaching to claim LABO accepts something less rigorous just because its page is quieter about it; the far more likely explanation is that Berlin’s page assumes what German administrative practice generally means by a translation attached to an official application, a beglaubigte Übersetzung from someone sworn or authorized somewhere in the country, without spelling it out. Still, if you want it confirmed in writing rather than inferred, that’s a fair question to put to LABO directly before you commission anything.

Separate from all of this, LABO’s own required-documents bullet closes with a sentence that has nothing to do with translation directly but resolves a question a lot of newcomers arrive with: “Internationale Führerscheine werden nicht umgeschrieben, es bedarf immer eines gültigen nationalen Führerscheines.” International driving permits are not converted, full stop, a valid national license is always required. LABO’s own general information page on recognizing foreign licenses mentions an International Driving Permit only in the context of temporary visitor driving, before you’ve registered a Berlin residence, where it can stand in alongside your national license without a translation for a limited period. Once you’re a resident going through the actual Umschreibung, that context no longer applies, and the IDP simply isn’t part of the conversation.

One more contrast worth knowing: LABO’s EU/EEA conversion page doesn’t raise the translation question at all, not once, in either direction. Munich’s equivalent EU/EEA page at least carves out licenses issued in Greek or Cyrillic script as needing translation; Berlin’s own EU/EEA page is silent on the subject entirely. For an EU or EEA license, translation simply doesn’t appear to be part of what LABO asks about, according to its own current page.

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What This Means If You’re Choosing a Translator

Given LABO doesn’t name a route, the working assumption most newcomers should carry into this is the general German administrative standard: a beglaubigte Übersetzung from a translator who is sworn or authorized (allgemein beeidigt or ermächtigt, the exact terms Berlin’s own courts use) somewhere in Germany, not necessarily Berlin specifically. This project’s own guide to finding a sworn translator in Berlin covers that search in detail: the Landgericht Berlin’s Dolmetscherabteilung as the authorizing office, the national justiz-dolmetscher.de database for confirming someone’s current status, and BDÜ Landesverband Berlin-Brandenburg’s own regional directory as a second way to search. None of that changes because of anything specific to driving licenses; it’s the same authorization that would apply to translating a birth certificate or a court judgment.

What’s different about a driving license specifically is that the document itself is short, usually one card’s worth of fields rather than pages of running text, which is part of why a bundled service built around exactly this document exists as a separate option worth knowing about.

ADAC Berlin-Brandenburg’s Bundled Route

ADAC Berlin-Brandenburg, the regional ADAC club covering the capital and its surrounding state, sells translation of a foreign driving license as a combined product with classification (Klassifizierung), the notation matching your license’s foreign classes to their nearest German equivalents. This is a detail worth pausing on: LABO’s own required-documents list, unlike Hamburg’s LBV pages, never actually uses the word Klassifizierung for a non-EU/EEA conversion. ADAC bundling it in regardless suggests the underlying task, matching license classes across two different systems, is a real consideration here too, even though Berlin’s own official page doesn’t name it as a separate requirement the way Hamburg’s does.

Turnaround is advertised as a few working days once your document is submitted, noticeably faster than the roughly ten working days Hamburg’s own regional ADAC club quotes for the same kind of service, though that’s a commercial figure from ADAC rather than anything LABO itself commits to. Nothing about using ADAC is mandatory: if LABO ends up requesting a translation for your file and classification never comes up, the general sworn-translator route this project already covers works just as well and isn’t limited to ADAC’s own network.

Step by Step

1. Check your license’s language first. LABO’s own rule only requires a translation if your license isn’t already in German or English; confirm which applies before arranging anything.
2. File your LABO application as scheduled, even without a translation in hand. LABO’s own wording says the translation gets requested later, during processing, not collected at filing.
3. If you’d rather not wait for that request, arrange a translation early anyway, given how far behind LABO’s own non-EU/EEA processing queue can run (see this project’s separate guide to converting a foreign license in Berlin for current wait times).
4. Choose a translator with confirmed sworn or authorized status, using this project’s own guide to finding one in Berlin, since LABO’s page doesn’t name a route but general German practice expects this status regardless.
5. Ask specifically about classification if your license covers vehicle classes that don’t map cleanly onto Germany’s system, even though LABO’s own list doesn’t name it, since ADAC Berlin-Brandenburg’s bundled product suggests the issue does come up in practice.
6. Don’t substitute an International Driving Permit for any of this. LABO’s own page states plainly that IDPs are never converted and a valid national license, translated if needed, is always required.
7. Keep the original license and any translation or classification paperwork together until your conversion is fully complete, in case LABO requests anything a second time.

Compliance Note

This page explains the general framework around the certified translation requirement for foreign driving license conversion in Berlin, current as of mid-2026. It is not legal or administrative advice. LABO’s own wording leaves some questions to its discretion (“im Zweifel”), and exact requirements, accepted translators, and fees can change; confirm your specific situation directly with LABO’s Fahrerlaubnisbehörde before relying on any detail here.