Britons scramble for driving tests as licence applications by migrants surge

British-born citizens are in a scramble for driving test slots as the number of applications by migrants for provisional driving licences surges. Nearly half of applications for provisional licences are now from migrants, according to official data, with foreign nationals applying for more than 1.2 million in 2024 and last year. That is twice the rate of 2021, when immigration began to surge under Boris Johnson’s more liberal immigration regime. Figures from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) show that 46.3 per cent of applications in 2024 and 44.7 per cent in 2025 were from foreign-born nationals. This was up from 30.1 per cent in 2021, the first year of the so-called “Boriswave” of migrants , when around 280,000 applied for licences. Non-UK nationals accounted for 80 per cent of the total increase in applications. Migrants can legally drive on British roads with a foreign licence for 12 months. After that, they must apply for a British licence then pass a driving test. Documents show that Heidi Alexander, the Transport Secretary, was warned last September by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) that the surge in immigration was partly to blame for test backlogs that force applicants to wait months . DVSA officials told her that migration “from non-EU countries had increased substantially” to make her “aware of the scale of the challenge”, board meeting minutes show. Ms Alexander was briefed that she should consider “immigration options” as well as “minimum learning periods”. Learners are having to wait an average of 19.7 weeks for the practical driving test, according to the latest data, compared with an average of just six weeks before the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic led to lengthy backlogs in test applications, adding to waiting times. ‘Terrible incompetence’ Neil O’Brien, the shadow minister for policy renewal and development, said: “Many young people across the country are completely unable to get on with their lives or get jobs because they can’t get a driving test, which means they can’t get a licence. “While that reflects terrible incompetence by the Government, it is also yet another example where the demand from immigration is a big part of the story about why public services can’t cope. “With nearly half of all applications for people coming from abroad, that is one of the reasons it has got harder for young British people to get motoring.” Nationals from certain countries, including EU nations, can exchange their existing licence for a British one without a test. There were 81,816 such licences granted in 2025. However, foreign nationals from many non-EU countries – the largest sources of immigration since Brexit – must apply for a new licence and take a test because their nations do not have a licence-exchange agreement with the UK. The DVLA, which is responsible for licensing rather than testing, records an applicant’s country of birth when they apply for a first provisional licence. Data shows the number of foreign-born applications more than doubled between 2021 and 2025 to 626,448. The majority of applicants were from India, which accounted for 134,775 last year, followed by Nigeria (69,963), Pakistan (66,043), Bangladesh (19,246), and Ghana (15,795). The Department for Transport (DfT) said there were many factors behind the driving test waiting times, including an increase in the population of 17-year-olds in recent years. It said it would be misleading to report that driving test waiting times were linked to a rise in applications for provisional driving licences from people from outside the UK. In many cases they would be applying for a licence for identity purposes and not with the intention of taking a driving test, the DfT said. A DfT spokesman said: “These claims are inaccurate and misleading. This data simply confirms the broken migration and driving test booking systems we inherited from the previous government. We are turning this around with net migration, and driving test wait times, both now falling. “Net migration is down by 82 per cent from its 2023 peak, and visa numbers continue to fall, while the DVSA has carried out over 163,000 more tests between April-September this year and the pass rate remains the highest it’s been since May 2021.”