A READER has passed on information to Voices that may prove useful to those looking to obtain school certificates as part of the changeover to a Turkish driving license.

The Turkish authorities are insisting on original school certificates when you change your British driving license to a Turkish one.

In an email back to the reader, the British Embassy advised:

“On the educational certificates issue the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs inform us that ‘a certificate of education’ is required for the exchange process.

“For those of you who, like many of us, have no longer got your original school certificates you can apply for a copy using www.gov.uk/replacement-exam-certificate  

“You can’t get a replacement certificate for an O level, CSE, GCSE or A level – your exam board will send you a ‘certified statement of results’ instead.

“On this site there is a list of which exam board you need to contact if your old exam board no longer exists.”

The email continued:

“On 27 January 2016 the British Embassy sent a Diplomatic Note to the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the submission of educational certificates by British nationals when applying to exchange their UK driving licence for a Turkish licence.

“We explained the difficulty that many British nationals resident in Turkey will have in producing such certificates many years after they have completed their schooling.

“We also asked what alternative documents, if any, would be acceptable to the Turkish authorities in this process. We also asked them to clarify the 6 month grace period.

“We received an update on 1 April from the Turkish MFA on the exchange of foreign driving licences:

“On the issue of the 6 month validity period they state ‘kindly be advised that validity term of the driving licences of foreign nationals in Turkey start with their entry to Turkey. This validity term restarts with every new entry.’”

The email added: “In addition, we are aware some of you have asked about using the ‘driving license information’ or code from the DVLA you can find on gov.uk https://www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence to give to the Turkish Traffic Authorities instead of them contacting the DVLA directly about the validity and authenticity of your UK licence.

“Acceptance of the information in this format, which is not an official document, depends entirely on the discretion of the Turkish authorities and would likely require translating and notarising if accepted which would incur additional expense.”

It concluded: “We are continuing to raise issues with the Turkish Authorities regarding areas of concern.”