How to get three important things done in three working days in Montevideo.
Who this is for: Clients and prospective clients pursuing Uruguayan residency or citizenship who already hold a cédula provisoria and want Uruguay to become a functioning jurisdiction rather than a stamp in a passport.
In August 2026 I spent three days in Montevideo and came away with three things: a definitive Uruguayan ID card, a Uruguayan driving licence homologated from my Slovak one, and registration in the state register of cannabis buyers. Each has its traps, and I walked into at least one of each.
This is the tested guide so that you don’t.
1. Cédula definitiva
What you need before you start at all
A Uruguayan birth certificate (partida de nacimiento). This is the long pole and it cannot be rushed: registration in the Uruguayan civil registry itself can take one to two years. If you haven’t started it yet, we will gladly help you and get your whole Uruguayan immigration process moving.
Once the entry exists, you have two options:
- Digital partida — downloaded free online at dgrec.gub.uy/partidas. Enter the document type and number of the certificate holder, accept the terms, and choose whether to download it or have it emailed. Digital certificates are available for entries from 1 January 2022, and for births abroad registered from 2015 onwards. The downloaded PDF formally carries a 30-day validity, but you can regenerate it any time — which is precisely why I recommend the digital version.
- Paper partida — for older, handwritten entries. Standard issue costs UYU 153, urgent UYU 612.
DGREC’s official position is that partidas do not expire and that validity depends on the office where you present them. In practice: the digital version is the safer bet, because you can pull a fresh one on the day you need it.
A valid cédula provisoria. You will hand it over — it is shredded when the new card is issued.
Booking the appointment
You will not be served without one. Book online at gub.uy — the trámite is Documento Nacional de Identidad — Renovación — or by phone on 0800 4632.
Online booking requires one of these identities: a gub.uy user account (we recommend registering), a digital cédula with a card reader, Abitab’s Identidad Digital, or Antel’s TuID. You choose the office, the day and the modality — común or urgente.
Fee (2026): UYU 443 común, UYU 886 urgente. Payment by e-banking or the BROU/Sistarbanc wallet at booking, or cash/debit at the DNIC office itself. Abitab, RedPagos and Correo add a small handling charge — you will find them practically everywhere in Uruguay.
Where to apply for the new cédula
DNIC — Sede Central
Rincón 663, Ciudad Vieja, Montevideo
Monday–Friday 07:00–17:00
Tel. 2030 3700 / 2030 3704
Other Montevideo offices if the central one doesn’t suit you: Av. Belloni 2881, Avda. Gral. E. Garzón 2122 (Colón) and Somme 1567 (Hospital Pereira Rossell), all 09:15–14:30; and Géant, Av. a la Playa 99 in Carrasco, weekdays 08:15–16:30 and weekends 09:15–20:00.
How it goes
Arrive at least 15 minutes before your appointment.
An important note for clients: accompaniment is not legally permitted. We cannot come in with you and you must apply for the card exchange yourself. The good news is that the process is straightforward and manageable even with limited Spanish.
- You are given a number and wait to be called. This can take up to an hour.
- The clerk asks you, in order, for your Uruguayan address, a Uruguayan mobile number, a second Uruguayan mobile number, your email, your occupation and your marital status (single, married, divorced). Have these ready in advance.
- They photograph you — no glasses — and you sign on a tablet.
- You move to the second part of the office, where the new card is printed within half an hour.
- It is handed over against your old cédula, which is shredded, and the birth certificate.
A Uruguayan address and two Uruguayan phone numbers are exactly what people freeze on at the counter. You don’t have to live there, but you do have to say something.
The whole thing takes one to two hours and is done while you wait. Validity is set individually — mine came out to March 2028, just under two years. Check the date on your own card and expect the cédula to be the first of your documents to need renewing.
2. The Uruguayan driving licence
This is considerably more complicated than Paraguay. It is also worth it.
Why the Uruguayan one
- It is valid for 10 years. That is exceptional in the region — my Paraguayan licence expired after five. For a document you renew from abroad, the difference between a five- and a ten-year cycle is enormous.
- Uruguay is a contracting party to the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic (acceded 8 April 1981). The Uruguayan licence is therefore described within the Geneva 1949 / Vienna 1968 / Washington 1943 framework and directly recognised across dozens of contracting states.
- Within Mercosur it is recognised automatically — exactly as the Paraguayan one is. Let’s be precise: there is no difference on that point.
What you must bring
If you hold a foreign licence — European, Paraguayan, Panamanian — the chain looks like this:
- The original must be valid. Nothing else matters if it isn’t.
- A certificate from the authority that issued it (certificado de legalidad de la licencia expedido por la entidad emisora). It must contain at minimum the licence data, the types of vehicle it authorises you to drive, and the validity dates.
- An apostille on that certificate.
- A sworn Spanish translation and an apostille on the translation.
- A certificado de concordancia — see the next section.
Without the complete chain your licence will not be recognised. The Intendencia put it to me in writing: “la certificación notarial no es válida” — a notarised copy is not sufficient on its own; the certificate must come from the issuing authority.
In fairness, here is how it actually went for me: at the counter, my notarised and apostilled Slovak licence was accepted together with the translation, the certificado de concordancia and a translated ministerial statement on validity. The clerk was more permissive than the email. Do not build on that. Prepare the strict version and treat my experience as a bonus, not a plan.
Certificado de concordancia, and the Slovak problem
There is no sworn translator for Slovak in Uruguay. The Colegio de Traductores Públicos del Uruguay does not have Slovak in its register. If you are going the Czech route, check their directory at colegiotraductores.org.uy first — and note that an agency advertising a language is not the same as a traductor público on the register. Those are two different things, and the Intendencia distinguishes between them.
The solution is called a certificado de concordancia: the translation is signed by a traductora pública jointly with an idónea — a person demonstrably competent in the language — and the document states explicitly that this route was taken “por no existir traductor público de idioma eslovaco en el país”. The Intendencia confirmed to me by email that “la traducción puede ser con asistencia de idóneo”.
Two days’ work, here:
SUGAR — Oficina de Traducciones
Cerrito 563, esc. 001, Montevideo 11000 (Ciudad Vieja)
Tel./fax (598 2) 915 94 47
ofisugar@gmail.com · trasugar@gmail.com
Traductora pública: Susana Rettich Brüdner
Special case: a licence with no printed expiry date
This was my situation and it deserves its own section, because it affects a large share of Slovak drivers.
Older Slovak driving licences carry no printed expiry date — field 4B is blank. The Uruguayan Intendencia nonetheless needs to see that the document is vigente. The fix:
- Print the Slovak Ministry of the Interior statement on licence validity. The rule has two brackets and hitting the right one is critical:
- issued 1 Jan 1993 – 30 Apr 2004 (the pink laminated ones) → validity ended 31 Dec 2023
- issued 1 May 2004 – 18 Jan 2013 → valid until 31 Dec 2032
- Have that text translated at SUGAR with its own separate certificado de concordancia.
The Intendencia confirmed this explicitly — the certificate should show “sus fechas de vigencia y/o la aclaración … sobre la vigencia en Eslovaquia”. The statement therefore fully substitutes for the missing date on the card.
Check field 4A (date of issue) on your own licence before ordering anything. The difference between 30 April 2004 and 30 April 2007 is one digit — and the difference between a valid and an expired document.
The infringement record — bring it anyway
I recommend also asking your issuing authority for a record of outstanding fines and traffic offences, and apostilling, translating and adding a certificado de concordancia to it as well. They did not ask me for it, but the Intendencia says they may. Ordering it from abroad after being sent home costs far more than carrying it unnecessarily.
The medical examination
No appointment needed. I recommend:
CAVICA
Av. Italia 2496 (between Avelino Miranda and Presidente Batlle), Montevideo
Monday–Friday 07:00–17:00, Saturday 08:00–12:30
cavica.com.uy
Ask explicitly for the certificado médico para homologación de libreta de conducir for categories A, G1 and G2. They take your blood pressure, check vision and hearing, and run basic reflexes. It takes about half an hour, the certificate is issued on the spot, and it is valid for 30 days.
The fee runs roughly UYU 800–1,500 depending on the provider. No blood tests and no fasting — those belong to the professional categories, not to A/G1/G2.
Timing: leave the medical until your translations are finished. Thirty days goes faster than you think.
Booking at the Intendencia
You must reserve in advance, three ways:
- WhatsApp to 099 019 500 — this is how I did it and it worked best
- phone 1950 4000, option 2
- the web agenda at montevideo.gub.uy/reservas-de-hora
The agenda opens every day at 08:00.
The day itself
Intendencia de Montevideo
Av. 18 de Julio 1360, Montevideo
Despacho de Conductores: 1er subsuelo, sector Santiago de Chile, puerta 33
Arrive inside the ±15-minute window you reserved. The entry window is hard and the QR code expires with it.
- Tell them you want to homologar una licencia de conducir extranjera.
- They send you one floor up to pay the fee — UYU 2,591.
- You get a numbered ticket and wait to be called.
- You show: your Uruguayan cédula (a provisoria reportedly works; I used my new definitiva), the apostilled licence with its apostilled Spanish translation and certificado de concordancia, optionally the infringement record, and the CAVICA medical certificate.
- That’s all. In 10–15 minutes they print your new licence while you wait.
One condition people forget: you must have no unpaid Uruguayan traffic fines. Check on the Intendencia website beforehand, not at the counter.
Which categories you get
Uruguayan categories do not map onto European ones, so don’t be alarmed:
- A — cars up to 9 occupants including the driver (with trailer, up to 4,000 kg). This is the car category.
- G1 — mopeds up to 50 cc without gears, and light quadricycles
- G2 — motorcycles and mopeds up to 200 cc
- G3 — motorcycles with no displacement limit
A European B therefore homologates to A. They also gave me G2, even though my Slovak AM formally covers mopeds only — the Intendencia was generous. Which is exactly why it pays to have the medical certificate issued for all three of A, G1 and G2: it costs nothing extra and blocks nothing.
3. Registering as a cannabis buyer
Uruguay is the only country in the world with state-regulated cannabis sales in pharmacies. It is not, however, a tourist attraction — only citizens and permanent residents may register.
What you need
- A cédula definitiva. A provisoria is not enough. The requirement is Uruguayan citizenship (natural or legal) or duly accredited permanent residency. Cards printed “Residencia en trámite” are rejected by the system.
- A constancia de domicilio in your own name, no more than 3 months old.
- Age 18+.
- You must not be registered as a home grower or club member. The three registers are mutually exclusive, and switching between them carries a 3-month wait.
The constancia de domicilio
It is free and carries the weight of a sworn statement. Request it as early as you can, ideally on arrival.
- Online through the gub.uy portal — you need a gub.uy account or electronic identity (the digital cédula requires a card reader). During the request you choose the police station where you will collect it.
- In person at any Seccional Policial, 09:00–17:00.
Within 24 hours you collect it in person at your chosen seccional with your cédula. The police will ask for a Uruguayan phone number, your occupation and an address — again, have these ready — and issue the certificate. You pay nothing.
A UTE, OSE or ANTEL (fixed-line) bill in your name is also accepted. If you have none, the police route is the only one.
The registration itself
With your cédula definitiva and constancia de domicilio, walk into any participating Correo Uruguayo branch. No appointment, no cost. Documents are shown, not copied.
Important: you must give fingerprints — a minimum of 4 of 10. If you have already handed them to the Slovak, Czech, EU or Paraguayan government, the Uruguayan one is unlikely to trouble you. (For the small percentage whose prints cannot be read, IRCCA has an alternative process.)
You answer a few socio-demographic questions — dissociated from your identity, used for statistics — and you are registered on the spot.
But here is the part that surprises everyone: registration is not the end. IRCCA has 30 days to authorise your activity. You will not be buying at a pharmacy the same day — expect your first purchase to fall on a later trip.
How buying works afterwards
The list is here: lista de farmacias adheridas. There are currently 60 pharmacies nationwide — 26 in Montevideo, 8 in Canelones, 7 in Maldonado.
At the pharmacy you identify yourself with a fingerprint or your cédula definitiva — either is enough. The IRCCA system verifies on the spot that you are authorised and how many grams you may still buy.
It is sold in 5-gram packages (you may take 5 or 10 g at a time). Prices in force from 1 August 2026, per 5 g package:
- Alfa — UYU 500
- Beta — UYU 510
- Gamma — UYU 580
- Épsilon — UYU 630
Cash only.
Limits: 10 grams per week, 40 grams per month and 480 grams per year. The system checks the last 7, 30 and 365 days.
Your identity is protected throughout — using the fingerprint, you need not give your name or show a document at all.
And one thing not worth attempting: export is illegal. The Uruguayan register entitles you to buy and consume in Uruguay. Crossing a border with anything from the pharmacy is a criminal offence in the destination country, and your Uruguayan registration protects you by exactly zero grams.
Four things I wish I had known first
A consular document cannot be apostilled. I spent a day trying to get an apostille on a certificate about my Panamanian licence, issued by the Panamanian consul in Montevideo. It cannot be done: Article 1(3) of the Hague Convention expressly excludes documents executed by diplomatic or consular agents. On top of that, an apostille is issued by the state in whose territory the document was executed — and this one was executed in Uruguay, not Panama. If anyone suggests routing around your home bureaucracy via your embassy in Montevideo, it does not work. Consular documents go through legalisation, not apostille.
Order matters. Partida → cédula definitiva → constancia de domicilio → registration at the post office. And the medical last, because it is only good for 30 days. The cédula definitiva is the gateway to both of the other two procedures, so make it your first stop on the ground.
Have a Uruguayan phone number and address ready. Both DNIC and the police ask. Nothing stops without them, but you will be improvising at the counter.
Make photocopies in pairs. The Intendencia and embassies sometimes keep an original. Copy shops in Centro close around 17:00–18:00, so don’t leave it to the evening before an office day.
What you walk away with
After these three procedures you leave Uruguay with a definitive identity document, a driving licence valid for ten years and recognised across Mercosur and the Vienna Convention states, and an entry in the only state cannabis register in the world.
Three working days are enough — provided you started the partida two years earlier and arrive with the paperwork rather than a plan to sort it out on the spot.
Liberation.travel assists with Uruguayan residency and citizenship, as well as Paraguayan residency, bank accounts and other jurisdictions. Where the law requires you to appear in person — and the cédula exchange is one of those — we prepare you so that you get it right on the first attempt.