Before you start

Registration with your commune 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 your commune, not at a regional office
The driving licence counter is communal. Bring the foreign licence, your eID or Annexe 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
Know that Wallonia has no low emission zone — and that the cities you drive to do
The regional ban on the most polluting vehicles, adopted in 2019, was repealed by the Walloon Parliament in April 2024. Communes may still create their own zones where pollution is highest, and Liège is one of the agglomerations named as large enough to justify one, but none exists today. Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent all run zones with different rules and calendars, so check the destination's regime before any regular trip and register a foreign plate in advance.
OnlineWho: You
4
Learn the tram line before you choose a neighbourhood
The Liège tram opened on 28 April 2025 after nearly six decades without one. It runs 11.7 kilometres with 23 stops from Sclessin through Guillemins station and the Place Saint-Lambert to Coronmeuse, with a branch to Bressoux, operated by TEC. The bus network was restructured around it at the same time. If you are choosing where to live on a commute, the line — not the old bus map — is the thing to look at.
OnlineWho: You
5
Respect the topography when you choose a car and a street
Liège is built on a river between steep hills. The Coteaux, Sainte-Walburge, Cointe and the plateau at Sart-Tilman are genuinely steep, streets are narrow and often one-way, and winter mornings on a north-facing slope are a different proposition from the flat riverside. An underpowered car and a hill street are a bad combination here in a way they are not in Flanders.
In personWho: You
6
Use the train for Brussels and Germany
Liège-Guillemins is on the high-speed line: Brussels in about an hour on an ordinary intercity and less on a fast service, with direct international services east. Season tickets are commonly reimbursed by employers, and parking at the Brussels end costs more than the fare.
OnlineWho: You

Documents you’ll need

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

Things most newcomers don’t know

Wallonia repealed its regional low emission zone, so an old diesel is legal here and illegal an hour away.

The 2019 decree that would have progressively banned the most polluting vehicles across the whole region was repealed by the Walloon Parliament in April 2024, on expert advice that such a zone only works for an agglomeration of a certain size. Communes kept the power to create their own and none has. Meanwhile Brussels barred Euro 5 diesels from 1 January 2026 and Ghent charges for a Euro 4 diesel. For anyone moving to Belgium with an older car that is a real saving — and a real trap the first time the commute goes west.

Source: SPW Environnement; Walloon Parliament, April 2024

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

The tram is new enough that most advice about getting around Liège predates it.

The line opened on 28 April 2025 — the first tram in the city since 1967 — running 11.7 km with 23 stops between Sclessin and Coronmeuse via Guillemins and Saint-Lambert, with a Bressoux branch. The bus network was redesigned around it at the same time, so journey times, interchange points and which streets buses use all changed together. Anything written before 2025 about commuting here, including a good deal of what is still online, describes a network that no longer exists.

Source: TEC; Tram'Ardent project

Where you live on the hill matters more than the distance on the map.

This is a river city with real relief. The plateau at Sart-Tilman, where the university and much of the science park sit, is a genuine climb from the valley floor, and the Coteaux, Cointe and Sainte-Walburge are steep enough to change how you get about in ice. Cycling is not the flat, universal answer it is in Ghent or Bruges, though e-bikes have changed the calculation considerably. Walk the street you are considering, uphill, before you sign.

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 Wallonia has no LEZ, Brussels and the Flemish cities do not either.
Planning a commute from a pre-2025 bus map that the tram made obsolete.
Underestimating the hills when choosing between a flat on the quay and one on the slope.

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