Thai Driving License For Farang

[js1]

Hi all...

Could anyone on this forum please advise me of how to obtain a Thai driving license here in Phuket?

I have a Non Imm B Visa and a work permit. I have a UK driving licence, it's seen better days though.

Do i need to take a driving test here or is it just some paperwork to complete and sign. Where exactly do i have to go in Phuket Town? Do i need to make a booking or just turn up in business hours Mon to Fri? What paperwork do i need? I rent my house, so don't have a Tabien Baan. Is that a problem? I could get the Tabien Baan from my landlord, with few problems i imagine.

TIA for and help

[LivinLOS]

If you get an international driving permit you can convert it with just the eye tests (color blind, dept perception, and possibly peripheral vision) and the reaction test.. If you dont have a IDP you need to do the above plus a written and practical driving test, both of which are a joke and if you fail you deserve to be off the road. I have heard of some areas of Thailand converting a UK license but the law is it needs to be an international and they scrutinized mine (a fake IDL purchased off the internet) very closely.

The DMV is in phuket town, if no one chimes in with the correct road address I can make a google earth map.

You also need your long stay visa (will they take a tourist ?? Rule is non immigrant I think, not sure as I had one), proof of your residency from you embassy or the immigration, and some tiny fees. This gets you the one year (like a provisional) license and then after thats expired you can get a 5 year full license.

All this is covered in detail in the motoring forum.

[Lithobid]

Wish I could help you with the local, but all I can do is it's downtown, opposite side of the klong (canal) from immigration and has a huge flagpole in the center of it's parking lot. Bassically if you know where Immigration is, take a right out of the lot, and then another right, and go over the klong, and another right and it's on your left.

Just a note of advise, get there early 8:00 on the nose. Or else it can be a several day ordeal.

Good Luck

Lithobid.

[damian]

Just got mine done and just showed my aussie license which was OK.

Need to have:

Copy of passport main page

Copy of visa page

Copy of license front and back

Residency certificate (get this from 2nd floor immigration office and take your passport, a photo, house registration or rental agreement with you - only takes a few minutes)

Medical cert (you can get this from any clinic)

Plusoriginals of the first three.

Get there around 08.30 and not after 09.30. Line up present your papers and head upstairs for the practical tests (giggle). After you pass go back downstairs and get your 1 year "samart card" license. No need for a photo as they do it there for you.

I was in and out within 1.5 hours.

Hope that helps.

PS: if you have nothing better to do in the afternoon and want some entertainment take a six pack and go and sit out at the training track and watch the students get their licesne simply by driving around the test track once.

[Quero]

It depends on which country your license is from. The IDL and the ones from ASEAN countries are easily convertible. Those from non-ASEAN countries require the written and road tests in addition to the vision and reaction tests, as noted above. Apparently you have to sit through a lecture on road rules as well--delivered in Thai, no less. Since yours is a UK license, expect to spend the day there. Interestingly, there's nothing to study for the written test. If you ask, you might be allowed to look at a booklet of road signs.

I converted a Malaysian DL and was also in and out within an hour and a half. All that was required of me was the vision and reaction tests. When I did mine, the French guy ahead of me took 6 tries on the reaction test before he was able to hit the "brake" in time, and as the tester was trying to make up for lost time, she flashed the peripheral vision lights at me at such a pace that I couldn't even keep up. It's all a bit silly if they're going to pass everybody regardless.

Maybe they've changed things in regard to the photo, but when I did mine, I was required to provide photos. The cost was THB 105 plus THB 20 for laminating.

[mjperry]

Can confirm you can definitely convert your UK driving license without an IDL as I went there and did it today. Converted my UK car driving license to a thai one, got it after the funny eye tests then had to spend the rest of the day doing the other rubbish for a motorbike license. For the conversion of my UK car license I took:

- Residence confirmation, made at immigration office round the corner on the 2nd floor, needed house rental agreement, a photo and my passport with Non-Imm B visa

- Doctors certificate, seems almost any clinic can do this after a quick glance at you, wanted to see my passport and 100 Baht

- Copy of my passport showing photo page and last entry stamp

- Copy of my UK driving license, front and back

For my new motorbike application only needed to give another copy of the first three, then had to do the ridiculous theory test on the computer, 30 questions in english without any training given and only a flick through a book showing road signs, when most of the questions are about where you can park and where you can do U-turns! Managed to blag that one, luckily they're rules are ripped straight out of the UK highway code book so anyone familiar with that should pass it. Then off to do a quick lap of the test track on your bike and voila newly certified motorbike rider!

Edited July 9, 2008 by mjperry

[digitalchromakey]

Wish I could help you with the local, but all I can do is it's downtown, opposite side of the klong (canal) from immigration and has a huge flagpole in the center of it's parking lot. Bassically if you know where Immigration is, take a right out of the lot, and then another right, and go over the klong, and another right and it's on your left.

Just a note of advise, get there early 8:00 on the nose. Or else it can be a several day ordeal.

Good Luck

Lithobid.

Phuket Provincial Land Transport Office

42/4 Rattanakosin Song-Roi-Pee Road

Taladneua, Ampur Muang

Phuket 83000

[chickencurry]

Not sure what gender JS is, but if female, make sure you wear a top that is covering your shoulders. Having spent ALL day there, at the final hurdle - photo time - they tell me my smart sleeveless top is not suitable for pic. Had to go out and buy a scruffy sports top - that was acceptable.

[12xu]

If you do go through the complete process, make sure you get in some practice on the computerized machines that give practice tests outside the main testing room. The question are the exact same as on the written test so if you get any wrong you can just memorize the correct answers.

When was there a number or foreingers failed it; I was lucky to pass with the minimum score, a fact I attribute solely to being placed in the last testing group and killing time by practicing on the machine.

The whole thing is a big joke of course, but it is a defining expate experience to those who have gone though it.

btw: In my state in the US, Thais (and many other foregn residents) are allowed to drive on a Thai driver's license for up to one year. No "International Driver's Licence" or "permit" is required and the state is keen to crack down on Internet sites posing as being able to issue any documents that confer driving privileges abroad.