How to Get a Category D Driving Licence in Greece?

Greece genuinely cuts your practical training in half if you already hold Category C: just 6 bus lessons instead of the standard 15, since much of the underlying vehicle-handling skill already transfers. This piece covers what Category D authorizes, the exact fees, and the current requirements.

What Category D covers

Category D authorizes passenger vehicles (buses) with more than 8 seats besides the driver’s, with no upper limit. A trailer up to 750 kg is included automatically.

Minimum age

The standard minimum age is 24. This drops to 21 if you hold, or are applying for, a Certificate of Professional Competence (Π.Ε.Ι.) issued by an EU member state, Norway, Iceland, or Liechtenstein.

You need Category B first.

Category D requires you to hold a valid Category B license already.

Training hours

Standard training covers 15 theoretical and 15 practical bus lessons. If you already hold Category C, the practical requirement drops to just 6 lessons.

Documents and eligibility

• Usual residence in Greece
• No other driving license of the same category, Greek or from another EU member state
• A valid Category B licence
• Application and sworn declaration under Law 1599/86, confirming your address and tax registration number

What it costs

Fees break down as follows: €50 for the initial category grant, €30 for printing your license form, €10 for the theory exam, €10 for the practical exam, €18 in stamp duty, and €108.15 for the extension fee, if applicable.

The training and examination bulletin

Once you submit your documents to the Ministry of Transport, you’ll receive a training and examination bulletin, valid for 3 years. Under recent law, you must pass the theory exam before starting your practical lessons.

What Category D is genuinely used for

Most Category D holders go on to work in urban bus networks, intercity coach services, or tourist transport; the license is the foundation. Still, real commercial work always requires the PEI professional certificate.

The theory and practical exam content

Theory covers traffic rules, vehicle-specific regulations, and passenger safety knowledge. The practical exam assesses the actual handling and control of a bus in real-world traffic conditions.

Automatic transmission

Sit your test in an automatic-transmission bus, and your license carries a real restriction to automatic vehicles only from that point on.

Medical fitness requirements

Given Category D falls under the enhanced medical group, you’ll need vision, hearing, and general health confirmation appropriate to professional passenger transport before your license is issued.

DE: adding a heavier trailer

DE authorizes Category D buses combined with a trailer exceeding 750 kg, requiring you to already hold Category D1 as a base prerequisite before progressing to the full combination.

D1, for comparison

D1 authorizes smaller minibusses of up to 16 passengers, with a 65-year renewal limit shared with D, D1E and DE.

Foreign applicants

Non-EU foreign nationals need 185 continuous days of residence in Greece; EU nationals need a shorter minimum residency period.

Validity

Category D is valid for 5 years from the date of issue or your previous renewal, capped at age 65, after which it cannot be renewed.

Tips that actually help

• Check whether holding Category C already reduces your practical training requirement to 6 lessons.
• Confirm your PEI status if you’re aiming for the age-21 route.
• Budget for the full fee stack: initial grant, printing, exams, and stamp duty, not just a single figure.
• Track your training bulletin’s 3-year validity window.

The full, itemized fee breakdown

Greece’s Category D fees are quite specific and worth laying out in full, since several separate charges apply rather than a single lump sum. Extension from Category B costs €50. Printing your license document costs €30. The basic theoretical exam fee (for questionnaire M.Σ.Θ.Ε.Υ.Ο) costs €10. The PEI-specific theoretical exam fee (questionnaire M.Σ.Θ.Ε.Π.Ε.Ι, covering professional competence) is an additional €20. The practical exam itself costs €10, with an additional €20 specifically for the PEI practical component. On top of these, stamp duty (χαρτόσημο) adds €18, and the overall extension fee for adding Category D to your existing license runs €108.15. Altogether, official government fees for a full Category D application with PEI genuinely add up to more than €200 before you’ve paid your driving school anything at all.

The medical exam waiver if you already hold Category C

Genuinely useful shortcut worth knowing: if you already hold a professional Category C license (or a Category B taxi license) and want to extend to Category D, you don’t need to go through the medical examination process again: a real time and cost saving compared to applying completely from scratch.

Where your theory training actually takes place

Theoretical instruction for Category D happens at a KEΘEYO (Κέντρο Θεωρητικής Εκπαίδευσης Υποψηφίων Οδηγών, Theoretical Education Center for Candidate Drivers), covering the specific road signs, rules, and knowledge you’ll be tested on. The standard requirement is 15 hours of theory, dropping to just 6 hours if you already hold a Category C license. The same pattern of practical training-hour reduction applies to your practical lessons as well.

What one driving school’s all-in fee total looks like

To give a concrete sense of what the official fee stack (separate from driving lessons themselves) can add up to, one Greek driving school quotes a total procedural cost of €218 for candidates going through the standard route with medical certification, covering the various exam and administrative fees discussed above. If you’re extending from an existing professional Category C license or a Category B taxi license, you skip the medical certification requirement entirely, which can meaningfully reduce both the cost and the time needed to complete your application.

Electronic payment through e-paravolo

Most of these fees are paid as electronic paravolo (fee vouchers), printed from the e-paravolo government portal and payable at any bank or public treasury office. This system genuinely streamlines what could otherwise be a confusing, multi-step payment process, letting you handle most of your Category D fee obligations online before visiting in person for the parts that still require an in-person visit.

D1, for comparison, in terms of cost

If you’re weighing D1 against full Category D specifically on cost grounds, it’s worth knowing that D1’s fee structure and training requirements follow a broadly similar pattern  age 21 as the minimum, and a comparable document and fee stack  though the smaller vehicle and reduced capacity mean D1 is often perceived as the more approachable first step for candidates not yet ready to commit to full Category D’s unlimited passenger capacity and correspondingly greater responsibility.

Why Category C holders enjoy real advantages across the board

Taken together, the pattern is genuinely consistent throughout Greece’s Category D system: holding a professional Category C license beforehand cuts your required practical lessons from 15 to 6, cuts your theory hours from 15 to 6, and waives the medical examination requirement entirely. If your career plans might eventually include Category D, and you’re already pursuing or considering Category C for goods transport, sequencing your training this way is actually worth factoring into your overall planning, since the cumulative savings in both time and money are substantial.

PEI has been mandatory for several years now; it's genuinely important to understand

This is worth knowing before you plan your application. For several years now, the PEI (Professional Aptitude Test) has been compulsory for everyone holding a professional license category and for anyone submitting documents for the initial issuance of a professional license, whether for truck or bus. If you obtain your professional Category D without PEI and later decide you need it, you’ll have to sit both the written and practical PEI exams again from scratch, at a greater overall cost than if you’d pursued Category D and PEI together from the outset. In practice, this means most candidates today apply for Category D and PEI simultaneously, rather than treating PEI as a separate later step.

The exact government fees involved

Greek Category D and PEI applications involve several distinct e-paravolo (electronic government fee) payments, each of which is printed from the official e-paravolo website and can be paid at any bank or public treasury office. These break down as follows: €10 for the questionnaire 5 examination fee covering Category D and PEI; €20 for the PEI questionnaire examination fee; and €20 plus €10 for the driving examination fee covering Category D and PEI together. One driving school’s published total for a complete extension application, including all mandatory government fees, comes to €218.

A cheaper route if you already hold a professional category

Genuinely useful to know: if you’re extending your professional license from an existing category, for example, already holding Category C, or a B-category taxi license, you don’t need to go through medical examinations again. One driving school quotes a reduced total of €108 in government fees specifically for this extension scenario, covering the printed license request form, the Ministry’s declaration form, and the relevant examination fees, without needing fresh medical assessments.

The training and examination bulletin’s real practical value

Once you submit your documents to the Ministry of Transport, you receive a training and examination bulletin (δελτίο εκπαίδευσης και εξέτασης), valid for 3 years. Under current law, you must pass your theoretical exam (the KOK, or traffic code exam) before you’re permitted to begin practical lessons: a sequencing requirement genuinely worth planning around, since it means you can’t shortcut into practical training while still working through theory.

The practical training reduction for Category C holders, revisited

As mentioned earlier, holding Category C already reduces your practical bus lessons from 15 to just 6, but it’s worth being explicit about the scale of that saving. Given that practical lessons represent one of the largest cost components of the overall course, cutting 9 lessons genuinely translates into a meaningful reduction in your total training bill, in addition to the reduced time commitment.

Residency and duplicate-license restrictions

Beyond the age and category requirements already discussed, Greek regulations specifically require that you don’t hold another driving license in the same category, whether Greek or issued by another EU member state, including Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein, under the EEA framework. This is a genuinely important detail if you’ve previously held or attempted licensing elsewhere in Europe, since a duplicate application could be rejected on these grounds.

Photographs and additional documentation

Alongside your application forms and fee receipts, you’ll typically need to submit passport-style photographs as part of your Category D and PEI application package: a small but easily overlooked requirement worth preparing in advance of your appointment at the Ministry of Transport or your local traffic department.

Where this fits going forward

Category D in Greece offers an accessible route into professional bus driving, with real savings for those who already hold Category C. If your plans extend toward professional driving down the line, take a look at the driver section, browse current vacancies, or see who’s hiring among employers on FastDriver.eu, alongside our broader jobs guides. Our driving license in Greece and license eligibility pages provide the broader picture.

The full document checklist for your application

Beyond the fees themselves, your application file typically includes a completed application form and a sworn declaration (usually provided directly by your driving school), an application to print your driving license (also provided by your school), and your tax registration number (AFM). Bringing your documentation complete and organized on your first visit to the relevant transport office genuinely speeds up processing and avoids unnecessary return trips.

Comparing driving schools before committing

Since official government fees are fixed regardless of which driving school you choose, the real cost variation in Greece comes down to what individual schools charge for theory and practical lesson packages, plus any administrative service fees they add on top of the government paravolo amounts. It’s genuinely worth requesting a full written quote from more than one school, specifically asking whether the government fees are included in their headline price or charged separately, since this significantly affects what you should expect to pay overall.

Timing your application around the medical certificate window

If you do need medical certification (because you’re not extending from an existing Category C or taxi license), it’s worth planning your application timeline around when your certificates remain valid, since medical documentation for professional driving categories typically has a limited validity window before it needs renewing. Coordinating your theory course, practical lessons, and exam schedule to fall within that window helps avoid the extra cost and inconvenience of repeating medical assessments partway through your training.

Declaration

This article is provided for general information only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. Fees, training requirements, and administrative rules can change and may vary by driving school in Greece. Always confirm current requirements with the official Greek sources before making decisions: Ypourgeio Ypodomon kai Metaforon. FastDriver.eu accepts no liability for decisions made based on this information.