Apply for an age exception permit for a driving licence

An exception may only be granted if the journey exceeds the limit of reasonable travel time without a car. Check the duration or length of the trip in a journey planner, map service or other commonly used service. 

Regardless of the travel time, the journey must be longer than 5 kilometers. Use the default settings of the route planner or other travel service.

At least one of the following reasonable travel time limits must be met:

• The walking distance is at least five kilometres in one direction and there are no public transport services available.
• The journey by public transport takes at least one hour in one direction.
• Public transport departures are so infrequent that, in addition to the actual travel time, there is a long waiting time after school or work, for example. The waiting time and travel time are at least 1 h 30 min in one direction.

This means that if the journey by public transport takes less than an hour but departures are infrequent, you can also include the waiting time in the travel time.

For example, such waiting time includes the time between the end of school day and the departure of the first possible bus service. In this case, however, the limit of reasonable travel time is not one hour, and the waiting time and the journey must take at least 1 hour and 30 minutes in total.

You cannot add up different trips to make up the total travel time.  For example, if the young person first travels from home to the venue of their leisure activity in the morning and then to school, these are separate trips, and the time they take is not added up.

If the applicant spends equally long periods living with both their parents and the journey from at least one of their homes exceeds the set travel time limit, an age exception permit may be granted. However, an age exception permit is not granted if the only need for a driving licence is for journeys between two homes. 

In order for an exception to be granted, school travel must be regular. The reasonable travel time must be exceeded at least weekly.

If the young person lives in a dormitory or other residence in their place of study, visiting their parents is not school travel.

If they cannot stay in the dormitory at weekends, an exception permit may be granted. In this case you should state in the application or its attachment that the young person cannot stay in the dormitory at weekends.

Attach a signed study certificate or certificate of attendance issued by the educational institution to the application.

Print out and fill in the educational institution’s certificate (External link)(pdf; in finnish)

An age exception may be granted for workplace education and training on one of the following grounds:

• The journey to the workplace exceeds the reasonable travel time limit.
• A driving licence is necessary for work duties.

Attach to your application a certificate issued by the employer or educational institution concerning the workplace education and training, or an employment contract. The certificate must indicate the duration of the on-the-job learning.

If the grounds for the exception are using a car in work duties, the application must also be accompanied by a signed certificate provided by the employer or educational institution stating that a driving licence is required in the job.

Print out and fill in the educational institution’s certificate (External link) (pdf; in finnish)

An age exeption permit can be granted based on employment if:

• public transportation connections to the workplace are poor, resulting in a travel time of over 90 minutes, or
• a driving license is essential for performing job duties.

The permit can only be granted if the job has already been agreed upon.

Submit an employment contract as an attachment, indicating whether the job is permanent or fixed-term. If the employment is fixed-term, the contract must specify its duration.

Additionally, if the permit is applied for due to poor public transportation connections, the contract must include the young person’s working hours.

If the permit is requested because a driving licence is essential or beneficial for the job, this must be explicitly stated in the certificate or contract.

If the young person is employed by a private individual, a formal employment contract must be provided. A certificate of employment alone is not sufficient.

Volunteer work is considered a hobby if no salary or compensation is received. For more details, see the section on travel for goal-oriented and regular hobbies.

An age exception permit can be granted for leisure activities that are regular and goal-oriented. A leisure activity is regular if it is pursued at least once a week.

A certificate of the regular and goal-oriented nature of the activity must be provided from its organiser, such as a club, coach, association or institute. The certificate must explain how the activity is goal-oriented and regular.

Please note the following before applying for an exception based on a leisure activity:

• Trips to competitions or training camps are not regular journeys to a leisure activity.
• Pursuing an activity independently and without a coach is not goal-oriented. For example, self-directed gym visits, hunting, fishing, airsoft or CrossFit are not goal-oriented activities if the young person does not have a personal coach.
• An age exception permit cannot be granted just because coordinating school timetables and other schedules of daily life and leisure activities makes travel more difficult.

Print out and fill in a Certificate of goal-oriented and regular recreational activity (pdf)(in finnish)

A young person may be granted an age exeption permit if health reasons make regular travel difficult or impossible.

Attach a medical certificate no older than six months to the application. The doctor must clearly state why the age exemption permit is necessary for health reasons.

Regular, at least weekly trips required to treat an illness may also be taken into consideration if they are mentioned in a statement or certificate issued by a physician or other healthcare professional.

If you are pursuing vocational driver training which includes obtaining the right to drive a lorry or bus, you can get a driving licence for a car already at the age of 17 without an exception permit.

In vocational driver training, the driving licence is obtained based on a certificate issued by the educational institution. In this case, you do not need an age exception permit for driving related to your studies.

You can take the theory test one month before turning 17 and a driving test after you have turned 17. When you go to the theory test, present your study certificate issued by the educational institution. 

Before you turn 18, you can only drive when the journey is related to your studies. This includes

• travel to the educational institution’s units
• driving practice with the educational institution’s fleet
• travel to training organised in the workplace, including workplace education and training or apprenticeship training
• driving practice related to workplace education and training.

If driving is also essential for you in other situations, for example because of a goal-oriented leisure activity, you must apply for an age exception permit. Unless you are granted an age exception permit, you are not permitted to drive a car on such journeys until you have turned 18. 

If you have a driving licence obtained based on an age exception permit, it does not give you a right to drive in Åland, Sweden or Estonia, for example. Before driving in another country, check with the local authorities if this is permitted.