DTV and 5-year driver's license

[DrJack54]

18 minutes ago, pres.yota41 said:

I might be a bit late to the party, but I wanted to share my experience getting a 5-year driver's license on a DTV visa.

Excellent report. Thankyou.

Without being negative your success in the 5yr with DTV may have been fortuitous. 

After all they initially indicated only 2yr would be issued.

In any event you got the 5 so good news.

Some folk posting only 2 so seems hit and miss.

BTW some of your cost were little high side.

505b should have been for TDL.

The medical from clinic ~100b.

Not important. 

[farang51]

My experience at Phuket DLT is not similar. And I only got two years.

 

No need to use the DLT Smart Queue App.

Bring the papers, queue to get the papers checked, then I  got an appointment for later that day.

Went back, got the papers checked again and got an appointment for one month later.

Went again one month later (this Monday), queued to get the papers checked again.

Anther queue for another form, a queue for paying, and then a queue for the test.

After the test and yet a queue I got my license.

 

At the first desk they marked my papers with 2 years license. I tried at every desk to point out that the DTV is a five year visa, but to no avail; I only got two years.

 

[DrJack54]

2 minutes ago, farang51 said:

At the first desk they marked my papers with 2 years license. I tried at every desk to point out that the DTV is a five year visa, but to no avail; I only got two years.

Sadly thinking your experience will be the norm for folk with DTV. 

[pres.yota41]

Quote

505b should have been for TDL.

You’re probably right. The fee was 505 baht, but I remember paying for something else as well, which brought the total to around 700 baht.

 

 

Quote

The medical from clinic ~100b.

Maybe there are cheaper clinics, but we picked the one that was just 1 km away from us. 🙂

[ricklev]

You can use any office to renew your license so it might be worth checking which offices will give you a 5 year license with a DTV visa.

 

Bangkok does this absurd peripheral color blind test I could not pass.  Chiang Mai just wanted me to recognize red, green and yellow circles.  No problem.  That is where I go now even though I live in Bangkok.  I have an old style work permit with my address on it and they used my Bangkok address.  No residency certificate required.

[DrJack54]

29 minutes ago, ricklev said:

  I have an old style work permit with my address on it and they used my Bangkok address.  No residency certificate required.

So if I follow. You obtained your TDL in CM with a work permit address in Bangkok.

No certificate of residence. 

[ricklev]

10 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

So if I follow. You obtained your TDL in CM with a work permit address in Bangkok.

No certificate of residence. 

Yes, actually I upgraded my 2 year license issued in Bangkok to a 5 year license in Chiang Mai and then renewed that in Bangkok, as during covid they were not using the peripheral vision color blind test machine.

[DrJack54]

1 hour ago, ricklev said:

...,as during covid they were not using the peripheral vision color blind test machine.

What is a "peripheral vision color blind test machine" 

There is a peripheral eye test 

Color test is separate. 

[Caldera]

1 hour ago, DrJack54 said:

What is a "peripheral vision color blind test machine" 

There is a peripheral eye test 

Color test is separate. 

 

I was wondering the same. With the peripheral vision test, a WHITE light is flashing up on the right side or the left side, and you have to indicate on which side you saw it flashing up. Nothing to do with distinguishing colors.

[DrJack54]

13 minutes ago, Caldera said:

I was wondering the same.

I about a year ago renewed 5 yr TDL.

The first test was color.

Then others such as foot break test etc....

Then peripheral test. 

I was not good on that. Did it couple of times (I'm old fella) 

Then she said "good enough" 

Gotta love Thailand 

[Briggsy]

2 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

What is a "peripheral vision color blind test machine" 

There is a peripheral eye test 

Color test is separate. 

There are two colour tests.

 

The first is to identify colour blindness.

 

The second is to identify if you are able to identify colours using only peripheral vision.

 

There are also two other tests, reaction and depth perception, which are usually no longer used.

[DrJack54]

6 hours ago, Briggsy said:

The second is to identify if you are able to identify colours using only peripheral visio

I'm not so sure. Bit off topic. 

I just recall a light coming on in peripheral and you indicate.

Not colors. In any event......

 

Discussed here.

https://aseannow.com/topic/1190035-renew-5-years-license-no-peripheral-vision-color-test-where/

 

[ricklev]

At Bang Chak in Bangkok, the peripheral color test involved putting your chin in a machine and identifying red or green dots randomly projected peripherally.   If I remember correctly I had to call out the colors.  It may also have included yellow.    

[sikishrory]

Update here:

I have held a 2 year then 5 yr then another 5 yr Thai license previously on non-imm visas. 

Now in Phuket there is a choice of Phuket office which is backed up a few months or 2 phang nga offices which are only a couple of weeks of queue (you can see the queue in smart queue app).

I asked at phang nga office and the manger says policy there is to renew even a 5 year license as a 2 year on a DTV. 

Then as Phuket is less user friendly and backed up I asked 2 agents I know down here who can sometimes work around such issues. Both said nope. The 5 year will be renewed for 2 year and there is nothing that can be done about it.

I imagine the success stories here are either before changes in policy took place or due to different offices interpreting it differently. The phang nga office did also say "the policy of our office is... " so I imagine in the backwaters of a place like Nan or similar you might have a better chance.

Dissapointing anyway.

[Caldera]

1 hour ago, sikishrory said:

I imagine the success stories here are either before changes in policy took place or due to different offices interpreting it differently. The phang nga office did also say "the policy of our office is... " so I imagine in the backwaters of a place like Nan or similar you might have a better chance.

 

I guess some offices just jumped the gun on this, when they didn't understand the DTV yet. They've probably received a clarification from Bangkok in the meantime, so the days of getting 5-year DLs on a DTV should be over all across Thailand nowadays.