I’m just applying for a new driving license after my old one expired a few years ago and I need a new one. They asked me to get some paperwork from the police, does anyone know what paperwork I can get? Does it matter that I’m not in the same province where I drove last.

Well, the Immigration Bureau is part of the Royal Thai Police so maybe they meant a residence certificate from them?

I don't see why you would need a paper from the police just because your license expired.

Ask the people at the DLT what they want.

Have you still got your expired Thai DL because there been an amnesty for 2 years on renewals. 

It's probably the immigration residence certificate. 

Im sure it was in addition to the residence certificate as i had that already. I dont have the old one but it had expired 3 years ago.

50 minutes ago, Regain said:

Im sure it was in addition to the residence certificate as i had that already. I dont have the old one but it had expired 3 years ago.

They they probably want you to report it as lost.

I went to the Police dept, they said go to immigration for a police check. Immigration then told me to go to the police to do it.

 

????

For applying you usually need the residence certificate which you get with immigration, would not know what else either.

11 minutes ago, Regain said:

I went to the Police dept, they said go to immigration for a police check. Immigration then told me to go to the police to do it.

 

????

They think you have lost your Driving Licence.... which is why they want a Police Report (note: this is also no longer an official requirement, but some DLT’s may not have got the memo !)

 

You need a Letter / Certificate of Residence from Immigration.

You can do this IF you have filed a 90 day report (at most Immigration offices) - I think you can get a Letter / Certificate of Residence from Immigration in Chiang Mai at any time [Note: Immigration may or may not charge 500b or a nominal fee to issue the letter immediately instead of waiting two weeks). 

 

If your previous licence is older than 1 year you need to start the process from scratch (by showing your home country licence, if in English), otherwise you can renew your 2 year licence to a 5 year licence (IF you have a Non-Immigrant Visa, otherwise you just get a renewed 2 year Licence). 

 

 

 

 

Just now, richard_smith237 said:

They think you have lost your Driving Licence.... which is why they want a Police Report (note: this is also no longer an official requirement, but some DLT’s may not have got the memo !)

 

You need a Letter / Certificate of Residence from Immigration.

You can do this IF you have filed a 90 day report (at most Immigration offices) - I think you can get a Letter / Certificate of Residence from Immigration in Chiang Mai at any time [Note: Immigration may or may not charge 500b or a nominal fee to issue the letter immediately instead of waiting two weeks). 

 

If your previous licence is older than 1 year you need to start the process from scratch (by showing your home country licence, if in English), otherwise you can renew your 2 year licence to a 5 year licence (IF you have a Non-Immigrant Visa, otherwise you just get a renewed 2 year Licence). 

 

 

 

 

Its not lost, I told them its expired and i left it in my home country. I assumed they wanted a police report to check i hadnt got lots of points on it for bad driving.

2 minutes ago, Regain said:

Its not lost, I told them its expired and i left it in my home country. I assumed they wanted a police report to check i hadnt got lots of points on it for bad driving.

Thailand doesn't have a points system yet.

You can either file a police report because it's "lost", or you can ask somebody back home to send it to you.

On 11/2/2021 at 9:36 AM, Regain said:

after my old one expired

Mmmm......call me crazy, but I would have gone for my new one BEFORE the old expired.

2 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

Mmmm......call me crazy, but I would have gone for my new one BEFORE the old expired.

I was out of the country when it expired, i got it when i was a tourist a few years ago.

who's crazy now ????

2 minutes ago, Regain said:

I was out of the country when it expired, i got it when i was a tourist a few years ago.

who's crazy now ????

Excellent comeback......I take a bow...555

50 minutes ago, Regain said:

Its not lost, I told them its expired and i left it in my home country. I assumed they wanted a police report to check i hadnt got lots of points on it for bad driving.

Forget all of your assumptions..... Your expired licence expired more than 1 year ago, even if you had the old licence you would still have to start over from scratch. Thus: Forget about the old licence. 

 

Start the process over as if you are applying for your Thai Licence the first time. 

 

If you start offering more information than necessary you will get the run around (already have). 

 

 

8 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

Forget all of your assumptions..... Your expired licence expired more than 1 year ago, even if you had the old licence you would still have to start over from scratch. Thus: Forget about the old licence. 

 

Start the process over as if you are applying for your Thai Licence the first time. 

 

If you start offering more information than necessary you will get the run around (already have). 

 

 

i wont volunteer any more information, i just hope they dont refuse my application because of this, good advice.

2 minutes ago, Regain said:

i wont volunteer any more information, i just hope they dont refuse my application because of this, good advice.

Get the following: 

 

1) Letter / Certificate of Address  (Affirmation of Residence)*

2) Medical Certificate*

3) Copy of Passport ID Page

4) Copy of Passport Visa Page 

5) Copy of Home Country Driving Licence (and the Licence) - No need for IDP if your home licence is in English.

 

Go to your local DLT and tell them you want a driving licence - you will guided through the process in a somewhat clumsy and uncertain manner, but its easy enough (you may be required to make a booking due to Covid-19, but a lot of ppl have been able to get their licence or renewal anyway). 

 

*1: Obtaining letter of residence

Option A: IF you have been in Thailand longer than 90 days and submitted a 90 day report you can get a letter of Certificate of Address (letter of residence).

IF you have been in Thailand less than 90 ays and have not submitted a 90 day report some Immigration offices will not give you a Certificate of Address (it can be hit and miss, Chiang Mai Immigration will)

Option B: You can obtain an Affirmation of Residence letter from your Embassy - Some Embassies (i.e. British) may require you to be on a residence visa (i.e. Non-Immigrant Visa) and will not issue the Affirmation of Residence letter if you have a tourist visa or entered visa exempt. 

 

*2: Medical Cert: 

From any local clinic or public hospital - its about 150 to 300 baht (depending on where you go) and takes about 10 mins, is a very basic medical check up filled out by the Dr. they usually know whats needed for a Driving licence and will have a form (tell them the MCU is for your DL)

21 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Get the following: 

 

1) Letter / Certificate of Address  (Affirmation of Residence)*

2) Medical Certificate*

3) Copy of Passport ID Page

4) Copy of Passport Visa Page 

5) Copy of Home Country Driving Licence (and the Licence) - No need for IDP if your home licence is in English.

 

Go to your local DLT and tell them you want a driving licence - you will guided through the process in a somewhat clumsy and uncertain manner, but its easy enough (you may be required to make a booking due to Covid-19, but a lot of ppl have been able to get their licence or renewal anyway). 

 

*1: Obtaining letter of residence

Option A: IF you have been in Thailand longer than 90 days and submitted a 90 day report you can get a letter of Certificate of Address (letter of residence).

IF you have been in Thailand less than 90 ays and have not submitted a 90 day report some Immigration offices will not give you a Certificate of Address (it can be hit and miss, Chiang Mai Immigration will)

Option B: You can obtain an Affirmation of Residence letter from your Embassy - Some Embassies (i.e. British) may require you to be on a residence visa (i.e. Non-Immigrant Visa) and will not issue the Affirmation of Residence letter if you have a tourist visa or entered visa exempt. 

 

*2: Medical Cert: 

From any local clinic or public hospital - its about 150 to 300 baht (depending on where you go) and takes about 10 mins, is a very basic medical check up filled out by the Dr. they usually know whats needed for a Driving licence and will have a form (tell them the MCU is for your DL)

Yes, I have all of them. thanks

On 11/3/2021 at 8:45 PM, Regain said:

Its not lost, I told them its expired and i left it in my home country.

You've told them that you cannot produce the licence because it is in your home country so they probably have to categorise that as "lost".   That's why you need a police report.  Go to your local police station and report the licence lost.  Problem solved.

 

If you can start your application again that would be the way to go if reporting your "lost" licence is too much of a chore.   I had an old, Thai licence,  expired for maybe 10 years and, although I still had it when I decided to get legal again with a new licence, I just started from scratch with a 2-year licence without telling them about my long-expired original licence.  I anticipated issues with the old one and the LTD did not bring it up from their records. 

On 11/3/2021 at 9:47 PM, Regain said:

i wont volunteer any more information, i just hope they dont refuse my application because of this, good advice.

If they do refuse because they realise that your application has already been submitted all you've got to do is get the lost licence report from your police station, it's no big deal.

On 11/3/2021 at 2:09 PM, Regain said:

On 11/3/2021 at 2:04 PM, Will B Good said:

Mmmm......call me crazy, but I would have gone for my new one BEFORE the old expired.

I was out of the country when it expired, i got it when i was a tourist a few years ago.

who's crazy now

You maybe for coming back to this blighted realm?

On 11/2/2021 at 5:16 PM, Regain said:

Im sure it was in addition to the residence certificate as i had that already. I dont have the old one but it had expired 3 years ago.

The police report is for a lost license. If you want a replacement licence you will need to do a driving test, a theory test + the usual checks, because your license is over 3 years expired.

 

if you have a current IDP and a current license from another country you may be able to get a license with those specially if your passport has changed since you had a Thai license.  if you have the IDP & license do not say that you had a Thai license, do not provide a police report of a lost license, you may get lucky.

 

A communication problem? 

Here is a situation that less said the better.  Since you are applying in another province the other license has expired pass the allowable time you need to start from the beginning anyway. Province to province it is the left doesn't know what the right is doing so just wait a bit don't go back to the same person you don't need any police paperwork. 

I think you would be better off and less frustrated?

Don't forget to watch the video and answer the questions online https://dlt-elearning.com/ then copy the completion certificate to hand in with the other documents on the list.

On 11/3/2021 at 8:45 PM, Regain said:

Its not lost, I told them its expired and i left it in my home country. I assumed they wanted a police report to check i hadnt got lots of points on it for bad driving.

In Thai logic (oxymoron intentional), if you are unable to produce the expired license, it is considered "lost".

 

The DLT are instructed to physically copy your expired license and punch a hole in it to render it useless befpre issuing a new one - if they can't punch their hole they need a copy of your police report of a lost license instead.

 

It is all perfectly normal procedure in the most advanced bureaucratic administrative system in the world.

On 11/3/2021 at 9:29 AM, Regain said:

I went to the Police dept, they said go to immigration for a police check. Immigration then told me to go to the police to do it.

 

????

Reminds me of wife and I trying to register our U.S. marriage in Thailand. Local Amphur wouldn't register our marriage until it had a special stamp from what hereafter will be called Office A. We went to that office and were told that they would not stamp it until Office B put a stamp on it. Went to Office B and they said no stamp until Office A stamps it. Went back to Office A where we were told no stamp until Office B stamps it. Went back to Amphur and was told that it didn't matter...marriage couldn't be registered without the stamps. We gave up. 

49 minutes ago, thailand49 said:

A communication problem? 

Here is a situation that less said the better.  Since you are applying in another province the other license has expired pass the allowable time you need to start from the beginning anyway. Province to province it is the left doesn't know what the right is doing so just wait a bit don't go back to the same person you don't need any police paperwork. 

I think you would be better off and less frustrated?

That doesn’t work as the license database is country wide. How else could you renew your license at any DLT office?

I've renewed multiple drivers licenses, the police were never involved.

A hug and a request for a 500Baht donation to the Joe Ferrari fund.