renew drivers license

[jacko 8,786]

31 minutes ago, Olded said:

The last time I renewed my license I got a 10 year renew, first time I got 1 year second time 5 years and last time I got 10 year license.

In Thailand?

[Kev 173]

thanks but doing it every two is a pain will just let the missus drive

[Olded 239]

23 hours ago, jacko said:

In Thailand?

Yes in Thailand I got it in Chiang Rai on Oct 2009 and good to Nov 2020.

[biggles 509]

When I renewed my 5 year last Nov out on route 36 I only had a tourist visa and they would only give me a 2 year. 

[PoolHustler 47]

On 11/13/2019 at 6:21 PM, Olded said:

Yes in Thailand I got it in Chiang Rai on Oct 2009 and good to Nov 2020.

show us a picture, never heard of this ever

Ive renewed my 5 year license a few times now and only ever got 5 years

[aj 59]

? if driver lenience expires during lock-down/ office closed how long to renew?

Will you have to take entire test over like first time?

 

[forcebwithu 4,822]

11 hours ago, aj said:

? if driver lenience expires during lock-down/ office closed how long to renew?

Will you have to take entire test over like first time?

You won't have to renew until after the state of emergency in Thailand is lifted.

No new driver’s license until Emergency Decree ends

Those with an expired driver’s license from 2 January 2020 to the date when the emergency decree ends will have an extension as long as Thailand is still in an emergency state. The DLT has notified the Royal Thai Police and the Office of Insurance Commission to allow those with an expired driver’s license since 2 January 2020 to continue driving on the road. The Insurance Commission will make sure that those with insurance will be able to claim the costs in case of an accident provided that you are driving the type of vehicle as registered in the driver’s license. For example, a Private Car Driving License, a Taxi Driving License, and etc.

[aj 59]

? Thanks just what i needed

[Olded 239]

On 12/22/2014 at 8:53 PM, Olded said:

I went today to renew my drivers license here in Chiang Rai, all I needed was a copy of my passport and visa page, copy of my house book and a photo that they took there. I went in and they checked my eyes and brake reaction time, then they put me in a room and played a 90 minute video on how to drive in Thailand the Thai's called it drivers school, when the video was done I paid 605 baht got my photo taken and got my new licence. Has anyone else had to watch that video or is it something new.

I went today and got a new drivers licence again, everything was the same but no brake reaction test but had two eye color test and had to watch that video again. I only payed 505 bath this time.

[tko 219]

I just renewed mine (4 wheel and motorcycle) in Rayong.  They're absolutely swamped here.  I went in a few weeks before my current licenses expired and they said the first date I could start the process was a month later - after my licenses expired.  I came back on that date, they processed my paperwork and told me the first opening for the video and eye tests was in several weeks, or I could do them at a driving school.

I went to a driving school that evening and did it there.  200 Baht for each license.  The film was 45 minutes and the reaction time/eye tests another fifteen.  They scan your thumb print and said I had to be scanned out after two hours as I was doing two licenses, but I could leave and come back.  I had my kindle so I just hung around and read.

The next day to immigration for residence certs then finished up at the transport office.  All three visits there the place was packed.  My previous renewal was upcountry and only took a couple hours total.

Oh well, as I got them after my previous licenses expired  they're effectively good for six years.  860 Baht + 400 for the school + 500 for the residence certificates.

 

[BeerBelly 1,026]

Does anyone know the best day and time to get residence certificate from Jomtien immigration?

Also, the Land Transport Office needs two certificates, is it sufficient to simply copy them or do they include a picture on it so it needs to be an original?

[jacko 8,786]

8 hours ago, BeerBelly said:

Does anyone know the best day and time to get residence certificate from Jomtien immigration?

Also, the Land Transport Office needs two certificates, is it sufficient to simply copy them or do they include a picture on it so it needs to be an original?

Usual advice is midweek about 10am..... avoid days after a holiday.

I have used a single original Residence Certificate every time for 2 licences, renewed at the same time... although Jomtien try to sell you two.. 

[BeerBelly 1,026]

2 hours ago, jacko said:

Usual advice is midweek about 10am..... avoid days after a holiday.

I have used a single original Residence Certificate every time for 2 licences, renewed at the same time... although Jomtien try to sell you two.. 

Thanks. I wasn't sure if late morning or early afternoon was best.

In case anyone is curious, because of Covid, you now need an appointment to renew your DL. I went to the DLT yesterday Nov 22 and the first available appointment was Dec 3. Because I am renewing my five year, I had to watch a video online at www.dlt-elearning.com.

The video is one hour long, mostly in Thai language with English subtitles and a bit of spoken English. It pauses every 15 minutes to make sure you are there and will pause if the focus is taken away from the browser playing it. There really isn't anything in the video you need to know for the three/four question "test" except maybe you need to indicate your turns at least 30 meters before you turn. The other questions had obvious answers. When finished the "test", you get a page you can print (or screen shot if done on your phone).

It looks like you can make an appointment from that website as well, but when I went to the page, it went straight to the video.

[BeerBelly 1,026]

So I got my residence certificates today and it was a pain in the ass. I really think things a worse now because of the Covid social distancings.

I arrived this morning (Wednesday) around 10:10. The outdoor queue was about 15 minutes. When I got to the information desk, he handed me a form to fill out and said "come back at 1".

Around 1:10, the queue was much longer...at least 30 minutes to get back to the information desk where he handed me a queue number and told me to wait outside for 30 minutes.

The queue number I had was 9A080 (Queue 9, number 80). They were just working on 67 when i got the number. It took FOREVER to get called. I noticed the processing times per number varied. Some were quite short, while others were long. I figure the long ones were from agents doing many at once.

Anyhow, after about an hour wait for my  number, I gave my documents, she told me I needed "two", one per license, I didn't argue, and gave her a third photo (1 photo plus one per certificate). She gave me a plastic queue number and told me it will be ready after 4pm.

Back at 4pm and it was ready as promised. However, what I saw where people who were JUST handing in their filled out forms and told it would be ready at 5pm (I thought they closed at 4:30, but I guess that's new business). If I were to do it again, I would go in after 3pm to start the whole process and suspect get it done the same day in less time than I took today.

 

[jacko 8,786]

12 hours ago, BeerBelly said:

Back at 4pm and it was ready as promised. However, what I saw where people who were JUST handing in their filled out forms and told it would be ready at 5pm (I thought they closed at 4:30, but I guess that's new business). If I were to do it again, I would go in after 3pm to start the whole process and suspect get it done the same day in less time than I took today.

Perhaps I misled you... but I live well out of town to the North and have always preferred getting things done in the A.M.... travelling home in school traffic and the likelihood of being told 'come back tomorrow' being the reasons. I see they are managing to foist the need to pay for 2 certificates on you... a money making exercise for a service that has no official price... it is not so long since I achieved 2 licences with a single residence certificate. 

I have 2 jobs I will be needing to do there in December and I certainly do not look forward to it.. even tempted to get an agent myself.

[sailingbill 1,015]

2 hours ago, jacko said:

 

I have 2 jobs I will be needing to do there in December and I certainly do not look forward to it.. even tempted to get an agent myself.

I use tic toc. at 3k it is very expensive compared to the actual fee. But im not riding my little 150cc out there. They pick me up at the Condo, Tell me to sit over there and they will call you for your photo. They stand in line and obtain the medical and Residence Certs., pay the fees.  Considering every 5 years well worth it.  Though i turn 70y/o next year and may hang up my helmet in 4 years.

[BeerBelly 1,026]

1 hour ago, sailingbill said:

I use tic toc. at 3k it is very expensive compared to the actual fee. But im not riding my little 150cc out there. They pick me up at the Condo, Tell me to sit over there and they will call you for your photo. They stand in line and obtain the medical and Residence Certs., pay the fees.  Considering every 5 years well worth it.  Though i turn 70y/o next year and may hang up my helmet in 4 years.

When I talked with Tik Tok, she quoted me 5,000. Further, I got the feeling it wasn't actually her doing it. I think she is simply a middle man. Another place quoted me the same price. Tik Tok told me they go every Mon-Friday as a group. She told me they would send the driver the next day to bring me to make the appointment at the Land Transport Office. Personally, I hate being stuck in a van that drives around the city picking people up. That's when I decided to do it myself. 

Edit: The 5,000 is broken down to 3,500 for one license, +500 for the second license, +1000 for the residence certificate. Not sure if the 3500 includes the photos, but it does include transportation, medical certificate(s) and Land Transport Office fees and probably a shit ton of passport photocopying. 

Edited November 25, 2021 by BeerBelly

[BeerBelly 1,026]

3 hours ago, jacko said:

Perhaps I misled you... but I live well out of town to the North and have always preferred getting things done in the A.M.... travelling home in school traffic and the likelihood of being told 'come back tomorrow' being the reasons. I see they are managing to foist the need to pay for 2 certificates on you... a money making exercise for a service that has no official price... it is not so long since I achieved 2 licences with a single residence certificate. 

I have 2 jobs I will be needing to do there in December and I certainly do not look forward to it.. even tempted to get an agent myself.

No worries. For me, it was a coin flip trying to decide if morning is better than afternoon. I think your suggestion of 10am is a good one. I know some people like to queue up at places before they open "so they don't have to wait too long"...somehow they neglect to count the time they are waiting before the places opens. I think 10am is a good time since it is after all the people who pre-loaded the queue, and far enough before lunch that you might get your stuff done before immigration takes a break.

I honestly don't remember my experience last time, but I suspect it was similar, but the only difference was I was probably able to wait inside.

The staff at counter 9 was going balls out too. So the delay was not from anything she was doing. Even when I went back to pick up my documents, she barely took her eyes off the customer she was working with. She saw my queue number out of the corner of her eye, reached out to take, then grabbed my documents from behind her and handed them to me. All without her stopping what she was doing with the customer she was with.

[sailingbill 1,015]

3 hours ago, BeerBelly said:

When I talked with Tik Tok, she quoted me 5,000. Further, I got the feeling it wasn't actually her doing it. I think she is simply a middle man. Another place quoted me the same price. Tik Tok told me they go every Mon-Friday as a group. She told me they would send the driver the next day to bring me to make the appointment at the Land Transport Office. Personally, I hate being stuck in a van that drives around the city picking people up. That's when I decided to do it myself. 

Edit: The 5,000 is broken down to 3,500 for one license, +500 for the second license, +1000 for the residence certificate. Not sure if the 3500 includes the photos, but it does include transportation, medical certificate(s) and Land Transport Office fees and probably a shit ton of passport photocopying. 

Beer Belly you are accurate except no vans,several individual cars but yes you see they have others to attend to. At 3k no contest. For 5k I'll give my LT  Nam's driver 3K to do the Thai stuff at the office  and get my own residence cert. 

[BeerBelly 1,026]

So I had my renewal appointment today. My appointment was scheduled for 2:30pm, I arrived around 2:15pm. I went inside and they told me to go to the desk outside in the parking lot. From the entrance, I can see where the Foreigner check in table. They checked my documents, had me sign a couple of things gave me a plastic laminated queue number and told me to go inside to the second floor at 2:30 at station 14.

Station 14 is the reaction test and color blindness testing station. They had all ten for the 2:30 appointment do the test, then wait a bit to pay. After paying 760 baht for both renewals, I got a new paper queue number.

Back outside, we had to wait in our assigned queue order to have our photos taken for our licenses. Once that was done, wait again for our licences.

I left at 3:30pm for my 2:30pm appointment. So not bad.

So by doing everything myself, it cost me a total of 1610 baht, a savings of 3390 baht.

[forcebwithu 4,822]

Finished the process of renewing my five year license today. Here's the steps I went through from booking an appointment to receiving my new licenses, car and motorbike.

Appointment Booking
It's strange the Bang Lamung DLT office, one of the busiest, still uses a spiral notebook and pen for booking appointments. But as they're not on the online DLT Smart Queue yet, you have to drive out to the office (map link) and make your appointment in person.

From central Pattaya it's about 40 min RT to spend five minutes to book an appointment. In my case the appointment was for one week later, but depending on how busy they are, the available dates and times could be farther out. Something to keep in mind when you get your resident certificate as they're good for only 30 days. Times to choose from are either 09:00 or 14:30.

The station for both booking your appointment and checking in on your appointment date is at the front of the building to the left of the entrance and has "FOREIGNER" over the desk.

Once you pick your date and time you'll be given an appointment slip listing the documents you need to bring with you for the renewal.

Part of that renewal process is registering and logging on to the DLT eLearning site and watching a one hour online "training" video. The first 20 minutes are in Thai with English subtitles. The opening scene is really bizarre and quite pointless. The remaining 18 minutes of the Thai portion isn't much better as an actress plays the role of the clueless female driver while the actor plays the role of the tolerant, but wise teacher of road rules.

The next 20 minutes are two Aussie actors, mostly facing each other while they ask each other the road rules. The last 10 minutes are a series of gore videos of the consequences of drink and distracted driving.

You can't fast forward and you can't shrink the window to surf the internet while they drone on as the minute you click to a different window, the video pauses. They have the Aussie portion of the vid on YT (link).

The video is divided into four parts, and at some point during each part you'll be presented with a multiple choice question to answer. Then at the conclusion of the video you'll have to answer the same four multiple choice questions.

Hint: Part of the screen lists the four parts with a check mark next to each as you complete the part. You can click on review to go back to a part that's been completed, but don't do what I did out of boredom and click on review while you're in the middle of one part. What happens is when you go back to the part you were in the middle of, it doesn't start where you left off. Instead the bloody program starts the part from the beginning of the part.

I don't know if the questions vary, but here's the four I was asked.
1. Before changing lanes or turning, the turn signal should be given how many metres in advance? (A: 30 metres)
2. Which of the following is the main cause of collisions? (A: Tailgating)
3. What should you do when going through a flooded area? (A: Drive slowly and keep back a reasonable distance from the vehicle in front of you.)
4. Before changing lanes or turning, the turn signal should be given how many metres in advance? (A: 30 metres)

Once you pass you can then print and/or save as a pdf file your completion certificate.

Required Documents
- Passport and a copy of the ID/Data page and the page with your visa or extension to stay.
- Current Driving License(s) and a copy of each, front and back.
- Resident Certificate and a copy if two licenses.
- Medical Certificate and a copy if two licenses.
- Training Certificate

Sign each of the copies.

For the Resident Certificate it's easy and straightforward enough to make the trip to the immigration office for the cert. Or if you're lazy like me and like to avoid the crowds and waiting in line at immigration, you can use an agent. My go to agent for all things immigration is Maneerat. Their fee to handle the paperwork is 500B. They said it would be ready for pickup in 2-3 days, but the next day I received an SMS telling me it was ready.

You only need one Resident Certificate, but for the one cert you'll need two photos. Plenty of places to get your photo taken around Pattaya. The one I use is the FujiFilm place near the north end of Buakhao. I usually get a dozen made as they're handy to have around and saves me from having to run to the photo place every time I get a new immigration doc or extension to stay.

For the medical cert I used a clinic on Buakhao near the LK Metro entrance. All I needed to do there was stand at the front counter and answer two questions. What was my weight and height, then complete a form with my name, address and passport no. Handed over 100B and that was that, walked out with a cert that declared I was medically sound to ride/drive the sois of Thailand. Amazing Thailand.

Renewal Process
As mentioned above, you check in at the same desk you made your appointment at. They'll check your documents and if all is order you'll be directed to head up to the 2nd floor. The stairway is inside to the right of the main entrance.

On the 2nd floor head to the station that is left of the stairway as you exit. There you'll hand over your documents and be given a colored tag with your queue number on it and directed to sit in a waiting room.

From what I saw there are two groups of six for each appointment time. The group you're in is denoted by the color of the tag, which they announce when they're ready for you.

From the waiting room it's on to the color and reaction time tests. The color test is a stop light with multi-colored lenses. Just call out the color as it flashes. The reaction test are two switches shaped like gas and brake pedals. Step on the gas pedal and when the light turns red, move your foot and step on the brake. Easy peasy unless you're hungover like I was and move your foot too far to the left and miss the brake pedal. Then the pressure is on as you get one more shot at doing it right.

Once you pass the tests you then go to the station to pay the license fee. Car is 505B and motorbike is 255B. You'll then be given a slip of paper with a queue number for the photo taking part. Make yourself comfortable and watch the ceiling mounted monitor for when your number is called.

When your number is called, proceed to the station number indicated on the monitor next to your queue number to have your photo taken. Once your photo is taken go have a seat and wait for your number to be verbally called out by the person that took your photo. The wait for me was about 10 minutes as it seemed they did the license production in batches.

Once your number is called you'll be given a receipt and a shiny new license(s).

My appointment time was 09:00 and I had my new licenses in hand at 09:50.

[jacko 8,786]

I missed a lot of those steps but paid 5000 to an agent, just the 2 visits to the DVLC on Hwy 36, with about 10 days between them. I expect that would be more in high season. They also got my address wrong so don't be lulled into a false sense of security. ( I have a tendency to go into a trance when doing these types of things.... sort of the long haul syndrome). 

Edited September 17 by jacko

[forcebwithu 4,822]

2 hours ago, jacko said:

I missed a lot of those steps but paid 5000 to an agent, just the 2 visits to the DVLC on Hwy 36, with about 10 days between them. I expect that would be more in high season. They also got my address wrong so don't be lulled into a false sense of security. ( I have a tendency to go into a trance when doing these types of things.... sort of the long haul syndrome). 

I saw a couple of agents while there shepherding their customers through the simple process of renewing a license. There was no queue jumping using the agent, which I was happy to see. So that means all they got for the 3500B - 5000B paid was an expensive chauffeur for the ride out there and back.

[jacko 8,786]

21 hours ago, forcebwithu said:

I saw a couple of agents while there shepherding their customers through the simple process of renewing a license. There was no queue jumping using the agent, which I was happy to see. So that means all they got for the 3500B - 5000B paid was an expensive chauffeur for the ride out there and back.

I was more into saving the other necessities, like the COR and docs visit, which I did not have to do, nor the online test. Even the lift to the DVLC did not apply as I live close, and it was easier to meet them there. (Whereas immigration is quite distant and a pet hate). Things at the DVLC were rather different than my previous renewal so I might have been a bit lost at the appointment making stage..... yes the rest of it was trivial... but we had a nice chat this lady and I. As I mentioned, the Tik Tok girls I saw there were a fair distraction. 

Edited September 18 by jacko

[DP Gumbypgh 97]

Just did the training video for a car and got a pass certificate for Private driving license (car). Does anyone know if you have to also do the same thing again for motorcycle licence?