Use of UK/EU Driving Licence in Poland

I've been in Poland since March, happily driving on my UK/EU driving licence.
Yesterday, my wife was told by some Bureaucrat in the Car Registration Department that after six months I'm supposed to apply to transfer my UK/EU licence to a Polish one.

Does any Poland based UK citizen have any experience or knowledge of this law?
Obviously, I would prefer to continue driving on my UK licence......

Yes, it's nonsense, she has been misinformed. All EU licences are valid until expiry in any EU state. One poster here is still happily driving around with his green piece of paper.

Not in the UK.
You are supposed to exchange the licence of your home country for a British one after 6 months.
It's not rigorously enforced though and usually only comes to light after driving offences.

Not for holders of EU driving licences. People who hold a valid driving licence issued by an EU member state can drive legally in the UK until either their 70th birthday or for three years after they become resident in the UK, whichever is longer. The only exception is people who obtained an EU member state driving licence by exchanging their non-EU member state driving licence for one: those people can only drive in the UK for 12 months.

I've been driving in Poland on my UK licence for 17 years, never had any problems at all. Staff at car registration offices often have poor knowledge of exact rules which apply to foreigners (e.g. how long foreigners can register cars for).

I'm surprised.
I've never had reason to look up the regulations, but what I have done is fill out forms for a few people who have been told by the police for one reason or another, that they need to exchange their EU licence for a British one, and that it should have been done after 6 months of living in the UK.

I suspect it's the usual case with Plod - they simply don't know the current rules.

gov.uk/non-gb-driving-licence/y/resident_of_gb/car_mo torcycle/eea_ec - straight from the Powers That Be.

Looks like the police were wrong or the UK regulations have changed since you last filled out forms (although EU law has always been pretty clear on this topic).

Wouldn't surprise me tbh.

Last form I filled out was at the end of last year.
As I've never looked up the regulations I don't know if they've changed or not, but yes, I can see that you and Delph are correct.

Shame our police don't seem to know what's going on though.

I think there may be some mix up with other requirements, such as having to register your car in the UK after a certain time. Either that, or they're tarring Johnny Foreigner with all the same brush, which would be quite normal...

I recently did this because I lost the paper part of my British licence which made it difficult to rent cars while on holiday. It was very simple. The people in the office were very helpful and friendly, I filled in the forms with their help and picked up the licence a few weeks later. The licence is valid until I reach 70 whereas the British one needs replacing every ten years. That's the other problem - if you don't have parents or an address in Britain, you can't get a new British licence as they won't put a foreign address on it.

Not if you're lucky enough to have one of the old style UK licences which doesn't have a photograph on it!

europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/vehicles/driving/validity/tourist_en.htm

This answers to the OP question for sure.

The only issue I sometimes when I get stopped by the police, is that my licence dates back to 1983 and so the photo on it is not really very similar anymore :)

Not anymore - since the law changed at the start of the year, the licence must be exchanged for a 15 year one at some point between 2028 and 2033.

Ah well, that's the time when I hit the big 70 anyway.

My photocard licence expired and the DVLA will not issue me with a new one as I am not resident in the UK anymore, having lived in Poland since 2002.

You can get a certificate from DVLA saying how long your licence is valid to etc. - you pay 5 pounds for this.

I understand that, if no longer resident in your own country, you need to get the licence of your resident country i.e. Poland in this case. However, looking at all the posts it seems that one can drive on one's British licence.