If a court or the driver's license office have effectively withdrawn your driver's license, you are not allowed to drive before it has been reissued. For this you have to file an "application to (re-) issue your driver's license". On this webpage, you will find out how this is achieved. Your driver's license office will gladly hand over to you an appropriate instruction leaflet, and maybe you have already received a letter which informs you about the main steps. In the internet, under the search term "Reissue of driver's license", you will find rich information about this topic as well.
Preferably you have to file the application at the local authority of your residence or at the driver's license office or your district office or your county-level city. In Munich, this would be the Kreisverwaltungsreferat, while outside of the metropolis, the local authorities are mostly appropriate. Should you be unsure, you can either ask your local authority or your driver's license office. You will gladly be assisted filling in the application form. You should anyway visit the driver's license office, since there, you will be informed which documents you need.
Even if I will inform you now about the usual constellations, i.e. the documents you have to come up with when applying for a driver's license, you should consult the clerk at the driver's license office to avoid surprises or delays. It is anyway possible to sketch what you need - sorted by driver's license classes:
For all classes:
- Actual passport photo, 35 mm x 45 mm, in half profile or in a frontal position without headgear, no rounded corners
- ID-Card or passport (possibly with register certificate)
- Certificate of good conduct (requesting with application).
For the classes A, A1, B, BE, M, L, T, S:
- Proof of participation of a teaching in life-saving emergency measures (not necessary when the driver's license taken has been issued after July 31, 1969)
- Eye test certificate of an officially accepted Eye testing institute (not older than 2 years).
For the classes C, CE, C1, C1E, D, DE, D1, D1E:
- Proof of a first-aid education (not necessary, when the license taken for truck (class 2) or bus has been issued after July 31, 1969)
- Certificate of a medical examination of eyesight (not older than 2 years)
- Medical Certificate or Expertise (not older than 1 year).
Additionally for the classes D, DE, D1 und D1E:
- Occupational medical or medical-psychological expertise (not older than 1 year).
An application to receive a new driver's license you can formally file at the earliest three months before the end of the waiting period. You should do that then to avoid an unnecessary delay. However, a couple of things have to be taken into account. Mostly the court has issued after the legally effective sentence a waiting period, i.e. you can infer from the sentence when an application is possible. Beyond this waiting period it might be necessary – especially if a MPU has been ordered – that you have to meet further deadlines which surpass the one issued by the court. We are talking about abstinence periods which the expert might impose on you and which you have to document to have good chances of a positive expertise. In case of drugs or alcoholism these abstinence certificates are binding, e.g. it makes no sense to risk a MPU without them. In case of alcohol abuses they are advisable, mostly however not obligatory, and in case of points (traffic violations) or legal offences the testing institute will typically not set deadlines which surpass the ones fixed by the court or the administration. An exception would be imprisonment, since here one year of legal reliability after release is usually asked for.
It is best if after talking to a traffic psychologist, who can contact the driver's license office or the testing institute for you, to decide when a MPU respectively an application is reasonable. For the application which you can of course file as soon as possible will be valid till half a year. You can prolong it as need arises without extra costs, you can as well just file it and then let it rest, but this would involve extra administrative effort. You also have to be active yourself for the application not to expire resp. for not risking a costly denial. Not before knowing what is ahead of you, you should choose the right time of filing the application, and in doing so your traffic psychologist is going to assist you.
After submitting the application, the driver's license office will examine your case. It will particularly decide if a medical expertise or a MPU is necessary. In doing so, it is obliged to use a number of data. First, it has certainly received relevant court documents like a summary punishment or sentence. Then, while applying for the driver's license, you have ordered a certificate of good conduct at your municipality of residence, This certificate will then be transferred to the driver's license office, telling it if you have committed grave offences. Finally, the driver's license office can act by itself. It will order a statement of points in Flensburg (FAER), to check for traffic violations.
Regarding the application, the city of Munich is a special case. Here, the KVR (Kreisverwaltungsreferat), or more precisely the driver's license office of the KVR, rules all formal issues. It also obtains the certificate of good conduct. This process can take up to four weeks, but there are efforts to get a direct admission to relevant data bases.
In case of an unclear or critical file situation, the driver's license office is up to ask you for further information or to go on with own enquiries. In case of a serious health issue which might have become apparent during an accident via the police report, the person concerned may be asked to actively comply by handing in relevant information about the illness, including a medical dossier or a hospital report. And if a criminal case is pending, the driver's license office may contact the court, trying to receive relevant documents like sentences. The "obligation to check the facts" allows the administration even to reference foreign data. Once these data have arrived, the relevant clerk of the driver's license office will make his decision.
The web page "Criteria of a MPU-Ordering" tells you more exactly if and when you have to expect a MPU. On the web page "Ten Points Program to Regain Your Driver's License" you will find a survey of the (further) steps you have to take, and the pages about the MPU preparation contain valuable information as well, sorted by occasions. You might as well study the page about the reduction of the waiting period to find out if this path is to your advantage.
Should objections to your driver's fitness remain after checking the documents, the driver's license office will inform you about them after your application. You will be told if you have to come up with a special medical expertise (Facharztgutachten) in case of alcohol dependency or physical resp. mental disease. Or you will be informed that you have to undergo a MPU: e.g. if you have been driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, if you have accumulated more than 8 points in Flensburg, or if you have committed a major offence, for example an act of aggression.
In this case, the driver's license office will present you with a list of special doctors or institutes that are officially acknowledged. You will then – ideally after having consulted your traffic psychologist – chose the right provider. For you have closely followed my web presence and have found out that especially in the context of a MPU order a traffic-psychological counseling is mandatory. You should at least agree upon an informative consultation to make certain that your situation will be carefully analyzed. Of course, you can already use the waiting period to seek such information, i.e. you can try to get competent help early on. Then you will have excellent chances of a positive expertise, and you will go into the test with highly improved self-esteem.
Let us not be fooled! It is mainly up to you to be or not to be successful in the MPU. You are able to minimize the damage caused by the loss of your driver's license by acting quickly. For if you consult a traffic psychologist in time, if you clarify the criteria of a positive expertise, if you collect the necessary abstinence evidence and if you prepare yourself professionally by attending a qualified traffic-psychological counseling, you will not remain empty-handed on the day of the examination: you will not fall straight into the trap. You will rather meet the expectations of the doctor and psychologist, you will be up to his questions, and you will convincingly document and explain that you have dealt with your past and have changed. With this pleasing communication and with the positive expertise, that great load will be off your mind which has burdened you since the loss of the driver's license. You will feel free and you will know that you have deserved this feeling. And since you have fully understood how important the driver's license it to you, you will do everything possible to permanently keep it.
So if you have lost your driver's license and do not know what you are in for, contact a traffic psychologist in good time and stick to the steps I have outlined on the web presence to assure that your case will change for the better and you will be able to drive again as soon as possible.