Renewing 2-year Driving License to 5-year at Dept of Land Transport Chatucha, Bangkok

[Lucian]

Appreciate if anyone who had recently (as in the last 2 weeks) renewed his Driving Licence at Chatuchak to give advice on:

1. Do I have to make an appointment? If yes how and where to log in?

2. What application form do I need to fill in and what other documents (and copies) are required?

3. What is the best time to go to the DLT at Chatuchak?

4. Can I take the online eLearning test earlier than 3 months? For example my DL is expiring in February 2023, can I do the test now in October 2022 and apply for the DL in November? Reason is that I will be away from end November 2022 thru April next year..

 

Thanks in advance for any advice and guidance.

[userabcd]

Pretty standard really.

 

1st step you need to make an appointment at the foreigner's counter.

 

Foreigners need to go in person to Chatuchak and make in person appointment with a passport and a residence certificate from immigration or embassy.

 

Appointment time and date depends on what slots are available when you go there.

 

Needed at the appointment date.

Residence certificate, health certificate, 2-year driving license, passport.

 

Best time??? Any between DLT working hours at the foreigner's counter.

 

After making the appointment you can make the online eLearning. It is just watching a video for one hour and answering a few questions, at the end of the video you save the online video form onto your phone and show it to the DLT officer on the day of the appointment.

 

Application form: you get this at the reception desk when you attend your appointment and then fill it out.

 

On the appointment time and date you do the physical reaction tests, after passing, and then you go have your photo taken and they issue the 5 year license.

 

 

[Gknrd]

I am more than ticked off,  I have had a 5 year license in Thailand for years. I usually come in every year or so and spend several months here and have a car here.  This year my license was due to expire and I went down to get it renewed. They gave me two years. I asked why???? They said my visa expires in two years and they only give five if the visa has five years.  What a crock...

[BritManToo]

4 minutes ago, Gknrd said:

I am more than ticked off,  I have had a 5 year license in Thailand for years. I usually come in every year or so and spend several months here and have a car here.  This year my license was due to expire and I went down to get it renewed. They gave me two years. I asked why???? They said my visa expires in two years and they only give five if the visa has five years.  What a crock...

Odd that, Any long term VISA of extension gets me a 5 year license.

My last one I got on a 1 year non-O multi.

[userabcd]

14 minutes ago, Gknrd said:

I am more than ticked off,  I have had a 5 year license in Thailand for years. I usually come in every year or so and spend several months here and have a car here.  This year my license was due to expire and I went down to get it renewed. They gave me two years. I asked why???? They said my visa expires in two years and they only give five if the visa has five years.  What a crock...

Where was this?

 

Do you have a 1-year O visa extension?

[tomazbodner]

12 hours ago, Lucian said:

1. Do I have to make an appointment? If yes how and where to log in?

In person, ground floor, building 4, on the right side after walking in the front door. There are 2 counters for foreigners on the left. After checking documents and making sure all is in order, they'll give you a piece of paper for first available date, and ask you to put your name in there along with your passport or pink ID number, and phone number. That's your date and time of appointment. They are all for the morning only, it seems. At least a month back, the queue was about 2 weeks.

 

12 hours ago, Lucian said:

2. What application form do I need to fill in and what other documents (and copies) are required?

You'll be given application form there, and fill it out in front of the counter while the officer is checking your documents. They'll then be stapled together and stamped. The rest of documents listed are already posted by someone else.

12 hours ago, Lucian said:

3. What is the best time to go to the DLT at Chatuchak?

There were a few in a queue at 1 pm when their lunch break was over, but there was nobody at 10 am, walked straight to counter. So I'd say 10 am was good, but even normally there were not many people.

12 hours ago, Lucian said:

4. Can I take the online eLearning test earlier than 3 months?

Yes, upon completion it states that it is valid 6 months. At least Thai version is. That's just answering 4 questions correctly from a multiple choice answers. No idea how the foreigner version looks like.

[Lucian]

1 hour ago, tomazbodner said:

In person, ground floor, building 4, on the right side after walking in the front door. There are 2 counters for foreigners on the left. After checking documents and making sure all is in order, they'll give you a piece of paper for first available date, and ask you to put your name in there along with your passport or pink ID number, and phone number. That's your date and time of appointment. They are all for the morning only, it seems. At least a month back, the queue was about 2 weeks.

 

You'll be given application form there, and fill it out in front of the counter while the officer is checking your documents. They'll then be stapled together and stamped. The rest of documents listed are already posted by someone else.

There were a few in a queue at 1 pm when their lunch break was over, but there was nobody at 10 am, walked straight to counter. So I'd say 10 am was good, but even normally there were not many people.

Yes, upon completion it states that it is valid 6 months. At least Thai version is. That's just answering 4 questions correctly from a multiple choice answers. No idea how the foreigner version looks like.

Thanks for the info. So, if I have to personally make an appointment, does this mean there.s more than a likely chance I will have to go back a second time to take the physical test? Or can all this be done on the same day - make appointment, take test, take photo and collect new licence?

[Gknrd]

4 hours ago, userabcd said:

Where was this?

 

Do you have a 1-year O visa extension?

No I do not have an O visa. I usually only stay about 6 months.. But, have never had a problem before.

[richard_smith237]

14 minutes ago, Gknrd said:

No I do not have an O visa. I usually only stay about 6 months.. But, have never had a problem before.

Agree , it’s a PITA… But they are correct. 
 

According to the regulations we can only get a 5 year full licence if on a resident visa (that means a Non-Imm visa or extension of stay).

 

The issue is that different offices & different officers interpret what they read differently. 
I got 5 years Thai DL on an S.E. Visa (Thai Elite) - theoretically it’s not classified as a resident visa and I should have only been issued 2 years ( as was the case previously )… it seems they made a minor mistake which worked in my favour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[userabcd]

55 minutes ago, Gknrd said:

No I do not have an O visa. I usually only stay about 6 months.. But, have never had a problem before.

At Chatuchak the dlt officer scrutinised my 1 year o visa extension and made a copy of it when making the appointment together with the residence certficate and passport copy.

[tomazbodner]

On 10/23/2022 at 1:10 PM, Lucian said:

Thanks for the info. So, if I have to personally make an appointment, does this mean there.s more than a likely chance I will have to go back a second time to take the physical test? Or can all this be done on the same day - make appointment, take test, take photo and collect new licence?

You'll need to go back twice. There would probably be about 2 weeks between first time, making appointment, and going for actual renewal.

 

On the day of appointment you'd go to same counter to confirm appointment, before sending you to 2nd floor, where you'll get the queue (might be possible to just skip the counter and go straight to 2nd floor - didn't try). There you'll get documents checked and a form checked that all information is correct. Sign, and go another floor up for physical check. There could be some waiting but once inside the room, it's 10 min to complete all, get all stamps and signatures and back to 2nd floor to wait your queue. The photo is taken there and license issued. In total it took about 45 minutes, if I remember correctly, from walking into building to walking out with license in hand. I was 20 min early for appointment but was accepted immediately, so it's not like you have to wait for the queue on appointment date.

 

But on same date? Not terribly likely. There was a French accent foreigners arguing with the counter on ground floor that he needs license immediately as the old one expires the next day, and I was listening to that for about 15 minutes while waiting for my queue, but officer had no sympathy for him at all. He was still holding everyone else up and arguing by the time I've left. Others just took appointment 2 weeks later.

 

PS: I went to Bang Chak first, as that's where I got my 2 year license issued, and after making appointment for 6 months later, I was told I should actually go to Chatuchak as my address is outside their area. Great they didn't accept me,... in retrospect.

 

Hope this helps.