Renewal Of Thai Driver License

[AlexLah]

Hi all,

Just wanna let you know that I was pleasantly surprised about the speed of service.

It took just ten minutes to get two new (car and motorcycle) 5 year valid driver licenses.

In my hometown it would take at least two hours.

What a wonderfull country Thailand is!

Kind regards,

Alex

[Donz]

Finally someone not complaining about the service or anything about thailand

[OZONE]

Finally someone not complaining about the service or anything about thailand

Its rare but it happens from time to time

[samran]

coppers here a great too. Give them 200 baht and the paperwork for a traffic infingement is no longer an issue!

[Kan Win]

Finally someone not complaining about the service or anything about thailand

Donz,

Did you not notice that the “Silence Majority”on ThaiVisaDotCom do not post bad things about Thailand, as opposed to the Minority (of Members) that post …………………… about this country.

Well done “AlexLah” may we have a few more good posts about Thailand on this forum.

Yours truly,

Kan Win

[thatguy]

the thai wife of a friend recently went to renew her soon to expire license.

she was told that she could not renew, as the license had not yet expired. <deleted>? wait til expiry, then drive without a license to renew?

i believe she used the office in chum phae, west of khon kaen.

is this common practice?

xtg

[Axel]

the thai wife of a friend recently went to renew her soon to expire license.

she was told that she could not renew, as the license had not yet expired. <deleted>? wait til expiry, then drive without a license to renew?

i believe she used the office in chum phae, west of khon kaen.

is this common practice?

xtg

That's roughly the rule. Actually, apply before expiration and you get 1 year, apply 1 day after and you get 5 years.

[Niloc]

Last week my wife and I went to Mae Hong Son to extend my retirement visa. We also wanted to get a drivers' license each.

By one pm on Monday I had my extension, had done the written test for the drivers license, and by two I had it in hand. By Tuesday lunch my wife had completed her test and was the proud owner of a car drivers license. She had also changed her name on the bike license. We were home in Pai by 4:30 in the afternoon.

So I have nothing but praise for the Thai way of doing things, the big boss at the license office even sat beside my wife and 'helped' her understand the questions on the written test.

[pnustedt]

My wife also got her driving licence last week - no problems whatsoever. Now all she needs to do is learn how to drive!

[Neeranam]

That's roughly the rule. Actually, apply before expiration and you get 1 year, apply 1 day after and you get 5 years.

Apply 3 months after and get 5 years too.

As they say here - "Baw Dtong Faooo" which means, "Mai Dtong Reeb".

[samran]

how hard is the test to do?

[Rooo]

My wife & I ,went to immigration this morning for residency letters 20 minutes, then off for 5 year licence 20 minutes again no dramas.

By the way mine goes on for 5 years 9 months, March birthday.

[bino]

how hard is the test to do?

The test isn't difficult at all.

I had lost my licence from home, and therefore did not have one to present / switch to a Thai licence.

They have an instructional video in English to watch (about 1 hour long if I remember correctly), and then a multiple choice test of 30 questions based on the video. You must score 23 or higher to pass.

If you pay attention during the video, the test is easy. I scored 28 out of 30. There was one other farang in the class with me that day who was obviously not paying attention, I guess he figured he knew it all, and I'm sure he failed because I didn't see him at the road test. There are some funny / borderline stupid questions on the test that one could never guess if they had not paid attention to the video.

After the written test, you have to do a reaction time test, a depth perception test, a peripheral vision test and a colorblindness test.

They have a machine that you sit at for the reaction time test and the depth perception test. The reaction time is measured by observing a green light turn red, and stomping on the brakes within an acceptable window of time. The depth perception test is done by looking in a window of the same machine, and aligning one movable post side by side with another stationary post.

The peripheral vision test is a machine that you look into and changes colored lights on the edge of your vision. You have to tell them the color you are seeing. The colorblindness test is a chart on the wall with many colored dots. They will point ot one, and you have to tell them the color.

The road test is easiest of all. They have a road course laid out in the parking lot of the Land Transport department where you must do three things.... reverse into a "parking spot" made of orange cones, drive slowly through a curving lane of orange cones without hitting any, and come to a complete stop at a "stop sign" within 30 CM of the curb on the side and 30 CM of the white "stop" line in front.

The whole deal took me about 4 hours - start to finish.

Edited June 27, 2006 by bino

[samran]

My wife & I ,went to immigration this morning for residency letters 20 minutes, then off for 5 year licence 20 minutes again no dramas.

By the way mine goes on for 5 years 9 months, March birthday.

can these residency letters be used as an alternative to the embassy letters for those on non-O extensions? How much are they?

[Phil Conners]

My wife & I ,went to immigration this morning for residency letters 20 minutes, then off for 5 year licence 20 minutes again no dramas.

By the way mine goes on for 5 years 9 months, March birthday.

can these residency letters be used as an alternative to the embassy letters for those on non-O extensions? How much are they?

Yes. I think they're 2-300 baht.

[corkscrew]

Hi all,

Just wanna let you know that I was pleasantly surprised about the speed of service.

It took just ten minutes to get two new (car and motorcycle) 5 year valid driver licenses.

In my hometown it would take at least two hours.

What a wonderfull country Thailand is!

Kind regards,

Alex

I agree. It took me all of 15 minutes to get my 5 year license. The BKK office was very courteous.

Contrast that with the terrible service I get when I renew my American license.

Yeah for Thailand.

BTW, the BKK Post or The Nation today carried a letter praising the motor vehicle office. Was that you?

[Rooo]

My wife & I ,went to immigration this morning for residency letters 20 minutes, then off for 5 year licence 20 minutes again no dramas.

By the way mine goes on for 5 years 9 months, March birthday.

can these residency letters be used as an alternative to the embassy letters for those on non-O extensions? How much are they?

On Samui they cost 500 Bht,I needed 2 & they still charged me same.Residency letter is used for licence & 1rst time registration of car or bike.

[t.s]

what documents are necessary to get the thai DL?

passort enough or do you need more?

ts

[wrestler7902002]

TS asks what documents are necessary to get the thai DL?

passort enough or do you need more?

Well, the easiest way to get a Thai car driver's license was to get a car International Driver's Permit from AAA in America (cost 10 USD), valid to drive in most countries for one year.

I then went to Immigration in Pattaya and told them that I was going to apply for car driver's license. They wanted my condo registration book so I gave them a copy, signed a few forms, told to come back next day with 200 baht. Next day they gave me official document to give to Driver's license place outside Pattaya.

Also had to go to local clinic and told doctor that I will be applying for car driver's license. The doctor then didn't even look at me and filled out a form, took less than 2 minutes. Paid the clinic about 80 baht. No questions like how is your health, how do you like Pattaya, or any other relevent questions......so go figure. I guess that just being able to walk in on my own two feet and not hitting anything on my way inside the doctor's office was good enouugh

What to bring?

I believe I had to take 1 or 2 photos of my mug (smaller size than regular passport size--or else they will cut down to size with scissors).

Bring copies of your passport front Information page and page showing your current visa. I believe that a 3 month non-immigrant visa is a requirement, but I may be wrong on this point.

Since I had an International Driver's Permit, I DID have to take the normally required peripheral vision, braking response, and color blindness test.

I DID NOT have to take the written test. I DID NOT have to take the driving test at all--all because I had the International Driver's Permit.

Paid the 205 baht to lady at desk and then given my driver's license. As I was leaving the room, I yelled out that I was so happy to finally have an official thai driver's license---guess that most Thai tought it was rather strange of me to be so elated!

The entire process took about 3 hours in the room along with all the other farang and Thai waiting to get driver's license, but it was all worth it.

Go across the street and get your driver's license laminated with hard plastic covering.

I believe you have to wait till your current Thai driver's license expires. Then go off to get it renewed....believe you only need to bring with you the blue book condo residency book, NO doctor's exam, no other tests, bring 2 pictures again and copies of passport and current visa.....and bring I believe 500 baht for the 5 year license.

Edited June 30, 2006 by wrestler7902002

[Oswulf]

I believe you have to wait till your current Thai driver's license expires. Then go off to get it renewed....believe you only need to bring with you the blue book condo residency book, NO doctor's exam, no other tests, bring 2 pictures again and copies of passport and current visa.....and bring I believe 500 baht for the 5 year license.

It seems that different offices have different requirements for renewal. Yesterday I was told I needed:

* 2 photos

* passport photocopies (photo page, TM9, visa page, last entry stamp)

* medical certificate

* letter from local amphur office confirming address

* 550 Baht

[AlexLah]

Quote: It seems that different offices have different requirements for renewal. Yesterday I was told I needed:

* 2 photos

* passport photocopies (photo page, TM9, visa page, last entry stamp)

* medical certificate

* letter from local amphur office confirming address

* 550 Baht

All I needed was copy of passport picture page and visa stamp/permit to stay

Copy of all printed/written pages of WP

2 pictures per license

And filled in forms (make sure you can either read Thai ore bring someone that does

to tick the right boxes and where to fill in name and so on.

Tidy them up in good order pay the fee and that is it.

They even changed my adress to my office adress as they told it will be more easy for me to renew next time as that office is very nearby.

Oh, and it was not me that wrote to newspaper.

Take care all and have a great time here in Thailand!

Alex