Ham licenses in the world

I am carrying out a research on how long it takes for a ham to get his/her new license from the respective national authorities.

What has made me start this investigation has been the incredibly long time it takes in Italy for the bureaucracy to release the authorization and callsign after the exam has been successfully passed. As an example, I obtained my "codeless technician" license in 1984, and I have successfully passed the CW test for upgrading to the full license on June 16, 1998: I received my "second operator" license at the end of August and I applied for the full license and callsign on September 4, 1998. The license finally arrived in my hands on May 15, 1999!

So, I decided to see what happens in as many other Nations as possible and here are the results I have obtained by now. If anyone reading this page would like to contribute with a report on what goes on in his/her own Country, I would really appreciate that!

Australia

a few days

Belgium

3 weeks

10 days for upgrades

Brazil

1 week

Canada

Newfoundland

2 weeks

Denmark

3-4 weeks

Estonia

1-2 weeks

France

4 months

Germany

1-2 days

Italy

2-3 months for the test results then
8-9 months for the license (upgrade)

Temporary licenses available upon request in about 1 month after the test results (not for upgrades)

Luxemburg

4 days

Norway

1 month

immediate temporary license

Spain

more than 1 year

Switzerland

2-3 weeks

The Netherlands

1 month

United Kingdom

Guernsey

4-5 months for the results then
6-8 weeks for the license

2 months for upgrades

Scotland

less than 3 weeks

United States

1 week (first license)

immediate upgrades

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