Before you start

Registration with the city and a national register number
Your original foreign licence, valid and obtained before you registered in Belgium
For non-EU licences: confirmation your country is on the FPS Mobility recognition list
A recent passport photograph

Step-by-step

1
Check the FPS Mobility recognition list first
Exchange of a non-EU licence is only possible for recognised countries and territories. The list is specific and it changes. If yours is not on it there is no exchange at all, only the full Belgian theory and practical test.
OnlineWho: You
2
Apply at the municipal counter
Driving licences are handled by the city, not by a regional office. Bring the foreign licence, your eID or Bijlage 15, and a photograph. Your original licence is surrendered and returned to the issuing authority — you do not keep both.
In personWho: YouWithin 185 days of registration
3
Note that Bruges has no low emission zone — but the cities you drive to do
Flanders' low emission zones are in Antwerp and Ghent; Brussels runs its own, stricter one. Bruges has none, which means an older vehicle you could not use in those cities is perfectly usable here. Before any regular trip east, check the vehicle against the destination's rules rather than your own city's, and register foreign plates in advance.
OnlineWho: You
4
Sort parking before you sort the car
Inside the ring canal, on-street parking is scarce, paid and largely reserved for residents holding a permit. The city's answer is a set of underground car parks and park-and-rides at the edge with a bus into the centre. If you are choosing between two flats, the one with a garage or a legitimate permit entitlement is worth a real premium here in a way it is not in a bigger, flatter city.
In personWho: You
5
Plan around the ring canal, not through the middle
The historic centre is a medieval street plan with one-way loops, cobbles, delivery windows and pedestrian priority, and the ring canal has limited crossings. Journeys that look direct on a map are not. Locals drive round the R30 and come in at the nearest gate — do the same rather than trusting a satnav that thinks the Markt is a through road.
In personWho: You
6
Use the train for anything east of Ghent
Brugge station is on the main line: Ghent in around half an hour, Brussels in about an hour, and the coast in fifteen minutes. Parking in Brussels or Ghent costs more than the fare and both have emission rules Bruges does not. For a commute rather than a day out, the season ticket is usually reimbursed by the employer.
OnlineWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Original foreign driving licence
eID or Bijlage 15
Passport
Passport photograph to Belgian specification
Proof the licence predates your Belgian registration

Things most newcomers don’t know

Bruges has no low emission zone, and that is a real financial fact rather than a footnote.

Belgium's zones are Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels. A Euro 4 diesel that would need a paid pass in Ghent and is barred outright from Brussels can be driven, parked and kept in Bruges with no permit and no charge. If you are moving to Belgium with an older car, that is a genuine saving — but the moment your commute or your weekends run east, you are back under someone else's rules, and the penalty for an undeclared foreign plate is separate from the penalty for polluting.

Source: Stad Gent; lez.brussels

The 185-day exchange window runs from registration, not from arrival.

A recognised foreign licence covers you for roughly 185 days from the date you enter the population register. People who spend two months finding a flat before registering misjudge when the clock started; others discover late that their country was never on the recognition list, so the exchange route never existed and the only way to a Belgian licence is the full test. Check the list in your first week, not your sixth month.

Source: FPS Mobility and Transport

Parking, not distance, is what makes living in the centre with a car hard.

The historic core is a World Heritage site with a medieval street plan and a ring canal. On-street space is scarce, paid and permit-controlled, and the practical alternatives are underground car parks or a park-and-ride. In a city fifteen minutes across, a garage or a permit entitlement is worth more than a slightly larger flat — and it is one of the few things you genuinely cannot fix after signing the lease.

Source: community-reported

A car is a liability inside the ring and close to a necessity outside it.

This is the reverse of the usual big-city advice and it catches people. Inside the centre everything is walkable and a car is pure cost. But most of Bruges is the eight villages merged in in 1971, where the bus network is a provincial one, evening frequencies are thin and the supermarket is not on the corner. Where you land on that boundary should be decided before you buy or sell a car, not after.

Source: community-reported

Common mistakes to avoid

Assuming a non-EU licence is exchangeable without checking the recognition list.
Letting the 185-day window lapse and losing the exchange route entirely.
Assuming that because Bruges has no LEZ, the cities you drive to do not either.
Renting in the centre without establishing what the parking entitlement actually is.
Selling the car on arrival and then moving to a deelgemeente where the bus runs hourly after seven.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.