Easier to buy: why some Ukrainians in Finland seek shortcuts to a driver’s license
Finland’s control system cannot determine how many Ukrainian driving licenses are invalid. PHOTO: ADOBE STOCK.
Svitlana Yeharmina
Published 10.09.2025 at 10:58
Updated 10.09.2025 at 11:03
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Nina from Mariupol dreams of obtaining a driver’s license in Finland. (Due to the sensitivity of the subject, Nina’s name has been changed.)
She says her husband has already taught her how to drive and that she feels confident behind the wheel. She has no desire to spend months in driver’s training.
Another deterrent is the cost: obtaining a regular driver’s license (B) in Finland usually ranges from 1,500 to 2,000 euros – at least twice as much as in Ukraine. An additional challenge is that Nina does not speak Finnish or English.
Returning to Ukraine to complete driver training “by the book” is not an option for her. Buying a license seems far simpler. She is looking for someone with connections in the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) in Ukraine who can arrange a genuine license for her in exchange for payment.
In Finland, foreign drivers are not tested on their skills behind the wheel, and Ukrainians without a permanent registered address are allowed to drive with their national licenses without exchanging them. The system leaves a gap open for abuse.
The system has long been susceptible to corruption
Despite years of reforms, it is still possible in Ukraine to obtain a driver’s license “through arrangements”: skipping theory classes, cutting short practice hours, and receiving “assistance” during the exam.
The price of such illegal services ranges from 150 to 1,000 euros, depending on the city, circumstances, and urgency. Driving schools sometimes act as intermediaries—officially enrolling students, but in reality helping them pass exams at the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) service centers. In other cases, intermediaries are private individuals with connections inside the Ministry.
“Corruption has existed since Soviet times. Many people believe you can’t get a license without paying a bribe,” says Sviatoslav Litynskyi, a civic activist from Lviv, in a phone interview.
Litynskyi is an administrator and one of the founders of the Facebook group Licenses Without Bribes, which has over 70,000 members.
The group promotes obtaining driver’s licenses without paying bribes: people share their experiences on how to pass exams honestly, report those who demand bribes, and explain how to resist this. The group also informs members about scammers who produce fake licenses.
In 2017, Litynskyi and other activists filmed at the Lviv MIA service center, which issues official driver’s licenses.
“There were only six practical driving tests, even though 99 people received licenses that day. This means fewer than six percent actually tried to pass the test honestly.”
According to Litynskyi, significant changes have been made in the past two years: theory exam rooms now have cameras, every test is recorded, and random checks are carried out to catch violations. Still, he says, loopholes remain.
“Some schools falsify practice hours—claiming students have completed the required 40 hours of driving when in fact they haven’t.”
A growing market for fakes
Corruption has also created an opening for new services. Social media ads have appeared offering to “get you a license online.”
Such offers show up even in groups for Ukrainians living in Finland. Satakieli, posing as a client, responded to one ad in a Facebook group with more than 53,000 members.
The “package,” which included the license and delivery to Finland, cost 400 euros, with half to be paid upfront. The seller promised he would send photos of the license for verification after it was produced. Whether the licenses he was selling were genuine or outright fake remained unclear.
According to civic activist Sviatoslav Litynskyi, 99 percent of such license offers online are fraudulent in his experience.
“Either the person receives forged documents, or the intermediaries simply disappear after the advance payment.”
Checking the authenticity of a driver’s license is relatively simple: all valid documents are available on Ukraine’s Diia government portal and mobile app, and can also be verified in the MIA’s open registries.
Still, some Ukrainians in Finland use counterfeits.
According to Henna Antila, Head of Traficom’s Driver Services, between 2016 and 2025 there were a total of 83 cases in which the authenticity of a Ukrainian driving license did not meet the requirements to be considered genuine.
“At the same time, we have exchanged about 4,000 Ukrainian driving licenses, so it’s only about two percent,” Antila wrote in an email.
The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation has observed a growing trend.
According to Anne Nironen, communications specialist at the bureau, before 2024 there were usually one or two cases a year. By 2024, that number had risen to seven. In 2025—still an incomplete year—the tally has already reached the same figure.
Finnish nuances
Driver’s licenses issued in EU and EEA countries, as well as in states party to the Geneva and Vienna Conventions, are recognized in Finland. Ukraine is among them, which means Ukrainians can use their national licenses.
“If a person moves to Finland for permanent residence, they must exchange their foreign license for a Finnish one within two years from the date they receive a permanent address,” says Henna Antila from Traficom.
“If the license expires earlier, the exchange must be done sooner.”
Traficom relies on data from the DVV, Finland’s population registry, where permanent addresses (vakituinen osoite) are recorded. That entry determines when the two-year clock starts.
If a person already has a permanent address but obtains their first driver’s license abroad, Finland does not recognize or exchange it.
“In that case, the document cannot be exchanged, and we advise against applying. The only path is to complete training and pass the exams in Finland,” Antila says.
Most Ukrainians in Finland are under temporary protection, and not all of them have a permanent address. Those without a permanent address are not required to exchange their driving licenses after two years of residence.
According to the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri), by the end of 2024 nearly 27,000 Ukrainians had registered a municipality of residence (kotikunta). This means that by last year, just under half of the Ukrainians who fled the war to Finland still had only a temporary address (tilapäinen osoite).
Unknown licenses, known risks
How many Ukrainian driver’s licenses remain valid in Finland before they are exchanged? Traficom’s answer: no one knows.
“These documents are not recorded in our registries, so we have no statistics,” says Henna Antila.
The scale of forgeries—or of invalid licenses—is equally impossible to gauge. Traficom checks documents only during the exchange process. If a driver never applies for an exchange, the license might be scrutinized only on the road—during a police stop or after an accident. Even then, if no traffic rules are broken, officers may limit themselves to a simple visual inspection.
According to Traficom, there is also no requirement for foreigners to demonstrate driving skills or knowledge of traffic rules, or to verify that they match the licenses they hold.
“This does create a real road safety risk if some drivers have limited knowledge and skills,” Henna Antila says. “Weather conditions in Finland demand a much higher level of preparedness than in many other countries.”
Ukraine has one of the lowest rates of car ownership in Europe, yet its road fatality rate is far higher than in any EU country. The likelihood of dying in a traffic accident is roughly three times greater than in Finland, according to 2024 statistics. According to Ukraine’s Patrol Police, the main causes of fatal crashes are speeding, improper maneuvering, and failure to yield at intersections.