Renewing a 5 year licence?

[LolaBeltran]

I searched the HHAD forums for the latest on doing this and didnt find anything recent or applicable.

I have to renew my five year Thai driver's licence. It expired a month ago. I have never been asked for it by the police but the way things sometimes go, that might happen this week.

I am planning to go to the DMV place near Santorini Park between Chaam and Tha Yang.

Anyone done this recently? What is needed? Etc. Appreciate any help.
Thanks

[Dannie Boy]

I searched the HHAD forums for the latest on doing this and didnt find anything recent or applicable.

I have to renew my five year Thai driver's licence. It expired a month ago. I have never been asked for it by the police but the way things sometimes go, that might happen this week.

I am planning to go to the DMV place near Santorini Park between Chaam and Tha Yang.

Anyone done this recently? What is needed? Etc. Appreciate any help.
Thanks

You must have been searching in the wrong place as the subject has been covered countless times - this one should help. viewtopic.php?f=44&t=23861&hilit=Driving+licence

[Lev]

And here: viewtopic.php?f=44&t=25479

[REEM]

I also need to do this shortly, I popped into the Cha Am DMV office last week and asked what paperwork would be necessary to renew my 5 year driving licence, and they told me:-

1. Proof of address, a yellow tabien baan book will do. Without the book, a letter from immigration will be
necessary.
2. Photocopies of passport and visa pages, along with the original.
3. Expired licence.
errrr, thats it.

I will need to sit through a Thai language instructional safety video, but wont need to redo any eye tests, braking tests or driving test.

Looks like it will be a simple trouble free procedure doesnt it.

[LolaBeltran]

Thanks Reem for your very helpful post!

You know guys, getting my five year license was VERY different from getting my first Thai license and this being Thailand, I needed to know how different renewing (getting a SECOND five year license) might be. I also need to find out what happens now that I am a month later doing this. . I am also not dealing with Pranburi thanks ( too much out of the way for me) hence this new post.

Trouble free . . .I doubt it very much.

[Dannie Boy]

Thanks Reem for your very helpful post!

You know guys, getting my five year license was VERY different from getting my first Thai license and this being Thailand, I needed to know how different renewing (getting a SECOND five year license) might be. I also need to find out what happens now that I am a month later doing this. . I am also not dealing with Pranburi thanks ( too much out of the way for me) hence this new post.

Trouble free . . .I doubt it very much.

I'm not sure whether the current licence having expired will have an impact, but the Cha Am office are very flexible, so hopefully you will sail through.

[Nereus]

Thanks Reem for your very helpful post!
You know guys, getting my five year license was VERY different from getting my first Thai license and this being Thailand, I needed to know how different renewing (getting a SECOND five year license) might be. I also need to find out what happens now that I am a month later doing this. . I am also not dealing with Pranburi thanks ( too much out of the way for me) hence this new post.
Trouble free . . .I doubt it very much.

Unless it has changed recently, ANY drivers licence MUST be expired before you can renew it. It has been this way for the past 20 years that I am aware of. You also have up to one year to renew it without starting again from scratch, and without penalty.
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NOTE: Anybody that does not like to read good rant, close this now.
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Some of you people must go to a different DLT office in Cha Am than the one I had the misfortune to attend on last Wednesday!

The following is what happened to me, and before all the grateful guests of Thailand
jump on their bandwagon, I went there properly dressed and did not lose my cool! I have also had a Thai driving licence longer than some of the people that work in that office have been alive.

I arrived at 09-15 am and was told to go to desk # 2 by the “information” lady. As I fronted up to the desk I was “informed” by the creature sitting behind it: “you wait”!
Ok, no problem, I will wait my turn, despite the Thai fellow that pushed his way in front of me, and despite being told to go there!

After 5 minutes or so: “yes?” I had all my papers in order and in a plastic sleeve held with a paper clip, the same as I use for Immigration. I took them out and handed them to creature whom immediately THREW my medical certificate back at me! No word of why, or even stuff this up your what’s it!

Closely followed by my address certificate from my Embassy, and then, rudely demanded where is my proof of address? WTF?

I told her that she had just thrown it back at me! Gave it to her again and this time she bothered to read it! Some shuffling of papers, and then she demanded my old licence, which I had given her in the first place, but she had also thrown back at me.

Next she bangs a form down on the counter with the comment” “name!”
So I wrote my name in the space shown and gave it back to her. She clipped the papers together, THREW them down on the counter, and waved her hand at me: “ go documents”! Amazingly enough I still held my cool! Not sure of where to go I headed towards a desk near the vehicle inspection area, only to be yelled at” you, up”, which I took (correctly) to mean the stairs.

Now the fun part starts! Upstairs I am greeted by at least 20 mostly young people milling around waiting to try their luck at the ridiculous reaction test machine and its associated bits of string, all under the direction of a self appointed dictator. As there did not appear to be any orderly line I approached and stood behind a person that I thought was next in line. Down comes chief clown from his post alongside the machine, grabs my papers for a look at, and asks me “English”?, and then tells me to sit down and pointed to the chairs along the wall.

After about 7 or 8 had done the test chief clown calls me over, which made me think (silly me) that it was my turn. But oh no, chief clown instructs me to watch, so that when it is my turn I will know what to do!

After ALL the others had gone through the test he calls me over. First the colour eye test. So, hoping to humour him a bit after he claimed that I was not covering one eye correctly, I turned around 180 degrees and asked “like this”? The whole group of Thais burst into laughter, but chief clown was not amused!

Next the reaction test. I never have a problem with this, but the stupid chair was that low down it made it very difficult for a Farang size leg to operate the pedal.
I missed the first time, moved the chair back a bit, and got it in the lower 1/3 of the green range the second time.

Now to that absolutely ridiculous “correlation” device! If I live to be 100 years old I will never work out just what the HELL it is supposed to achieve. “Pull” says chief clown! So after asking him if it was a horse, which he indignantly denied, I pulled and the bloody thing very nearly fell over. A couple more attempts and chief clown gives up on me.

He handed me the forms and says: “go take photo”. But before I could hobble off he grabbed them back again and, pointing to a door and says: “in there”. By now it is 10-00 am.

So “in there” are rows of desks with the usual low down, uncomfortable wooden Thai chairs. There is also a video set up and a projector screen. One would expect to now have a video screened in the “normal” course of events. But chief clown is not in any way near “normal”. Once everyone is seated, and I counted 22 people at this stage, he picked up a book that has ALL the Thai road signs in it, around 50 I believe, with 5 or 6 on each page.

He then spent the next 55 minutes going through EVERY page of that book, pointing out ALL the signs, and throwing out repeated questions at the gathering! All of this with much arm waving in 100 mph Thai!

After 45 minutes, with my water bottle now depleted, and my backside complaining about the hard chairs I had to stand up. “Sit down” cries chief clown! At this stage I did start to come unglued! I pointedly told him that I have been driving longer than he has been on the planet, I have been driving tractors since I was 8 years old, trucks for several years, aeroplanes for a while, bloody helicopters for several years and even have a certificate to operate lifeboats! In addition, I already have a Thai licence, and how does he think that I got that in the first place, and my backside hurts from the seat and my head hurts from his non stop garbage!

His only response was” take one hour”!

At some stage during his ranting a well-dressed younger Thai lady had came into the room and sat at a desk with the rest of us. As I was saying my piece to chief clown, she turned around and smiled a big smile at me. So, after it is finally over (by now it is 11-00 am), and we are moving out, she comes up to me, and starts speaking perfect English. Turns out she has a Farang husband, and works in the Thai Embassy in her husbands country in Europe.

Ok, the rest should be easy, right? Down stairs we go to be completely ignored! The young lady took pity on me, and the girl that was with her made a comment about helping me. So I told her the rest of the saga and she fronted the creature behind the counter. Eventually we were told to sit and wait. Just got seated and then here comes another grandmother that up until then had not been involved! “Why Farang have walking stick”? “Is your car automatic”? All this, and a lot more, directed at the hapless girl trying to help me. “Yes, my car is automatic, but it has nothing to do with it. I have just passed a reaction test, which is ticked off on the relevant form!”

She was not to be put off by this, and I had to demonstrate to her that I could lift my right foot off the floor!
After grandma went off in a huff the young lady told me she ended up telling the old biddy that she worked in the Embassy, and if this was not sorted out soon she would take it further.

A few more minutes waiting and we are called back to the counter.” You must pay”, says creature. Really? And here’s me thinking I will first have to join the clowns union! Paid up, but she managed to get that wrong also, and demanded an additional 5 Baht after giving me a receipt!

“Now take photo”. So into the photo room and wait again while grandma that does not like walking sticks, attended to the person in front of me. My turn! Sit down as directed, but grandma suddenly has a memory lapse and cannot get the machine to function! She ended up calling creature to come and sort it out, and she took the photo after grandma scolded me for having the top button undone on my shirt!

Creature must have realised that by now I was getting to the end of my tether, as she told me to wait right there while the card was printed, rather than go back to the waiting area.

Mission accomplished, and by now it was 11-30 am! I am sure that if the young lady had not intervened that I may still be there “waiting”!
…………………………………………………………

There are many things in this country that are hard to fathom out, and I have probably come up against most of them in the long time that I have been here. But this carry on has to take first prize.

What is the point? What the bloody hell, in the name of all that is holy, is the point of this entire BS? Ok, they to want see a reaction test; I can MAYBE understand that.

The absolutely ridiculous “correlation test” achieves what? The equipment they have for the reaction test bears as much resemblance to a real life brake set up in a car, as the ears on a donkey! In fact, if a cars brake were to be set up like that, it would be uncontrollable. The bits of string attached to the rest of it should be used to tie up the lunatic that dreamt it up! The colour test is just pointing at 3 different coloured dots, so is a very basic test, and again, SHOULD have been passed before any original licence was ever issued. It should also be part of the medical certificate that creature threw back at me!

What did 55 minutes wasted watching some clown wave his arms around, and carry on a dialogue of which I understood maybe 10%, achieve? Even with my limited Thai, I did not hear him say which side of the road to drive on, use the indicators BEFORE changing direction, the rear view mirror is NOT there to help put on make up or search for pimples! Etc., etc.!

[Dannie Boy]

I don't know about deserving a licence, but 100% you deserve a medal for (just about) keeping your calm, I'm not sure I could have done so.

All I can say is that your experience is nothing like it was for me, I just hope that "creature", "chief clown" and "grandma" have moved on in 4 years time when my 5 year licence will need renewing.

[hhfarang]

There are many things in this country that are hard to fathom out, and I have probably come up against most of them in the long time that I have been here. But this carry on has to take first prize.

What is the point? What the bloody hell, in the name of all that is holy, is the point of this entire BS? Ok, they to want see a reaction test; I can MAYBE understand that.

The absolutely ridiculous “correlation test” achieves what? The equipment they have for the reaction test bears as much resemblance to a real life brake set up in a car, as the ears on a donkey! In fact, if a cars brake were to be set up like that, it would be uncontrollable. The bits of string attached to the rest of it should be used to tie up the lunatic that dreamt it up! The colour test is just pointing at 3 different coloured dots, so is a very basic test, and again, SHOULD have been passed before any original licence was ever issued. It should also be part of the medical certificate that creature threw back at me!

What did 55 minutes wasted watching some clown wave his arms around, and carry on a dialogue of which I understood maybe 10%, achieve? Even with my limited Thai, I did not hear him say which side of the road to drive on, use the indicators BEFORE changing direction, the rear view mirror is NOT there to help put on make up or search for pimples! Etc., etc.!

I hate to say it (again) but TIT!

After hearing all the good stories about that office in Cha-Am, I was thinking about going there for my next renewal, but now I think I'll stick to the Pranburi office where I've never been treated like that.

[LolaBeltran]

I did not have any trouble at all. Thai spouse along smoothed over the rough spots. There is a requirement that you spend an hour in instruction. I think this is sometimes a movie but we had a guy who did it in Thai and did great job I thought entertaining about 20 of us. Spouse translated pertinent parts. The rest went very well and we were out in about one and a half hours. They dont have much English that is true so I would not really attempt it there without a helper.

Biggest surprise ( confirmed above) is that you do not need a health certificate. Mine cost 80 baht and took 10 minutes at the clinic on Petchkasem. Never saw the doctor at all. So no real bother. Now I am good until 2020 . .thanks to those who were helpful in replying to my original post.

[buksida]

Nerves of steel Nereus! Bureaucrats have an asshole gene in them that comes out on occasion and it seems that you got the brunt of it this day.

[Nereus]

Nerves of steel Nereus! Bureaucrats have an asshole gene in them that comes out on occasion and it seems that you got the brunt of it this day.

Yes, I even surprised myself! Not so many years ago the creature behind the counter would have got a serve to tell her grandkids about! I must be getting senile!

As posted above by the OP; I beleive some of it has to do with going there alone, without a Thai partner, or "helper", and a lack of fluent Thai language. But I have looked, and had somebody ask, and nowhere does it demand fluency in the Thai language!

But my main gripe is the fact that it was a renewal, and I have been through the rest of it numerous times. I would normaly do it in Bangkok, and there is a DLT office close to where I live, but it is always packed out.

Just for others info there is no requirement to go to the nearest office where you live. I used my Bangkok address on the certificate from my Embassy, and for sure, if it had not been acceptable it would have been thrown back at me a second time! The new card does have "Phetchaburi 1" printed along the bottom, for whatever reason.

Another thing that I cannot find an answer to is: what is the law regarding an automatic transmission car? There is space on the back of the card that reads "Restriction of use" (in English!). Did old grandma that did not like my walking stick, have the option of adding some rider about auotmatic transmission cars?

In Australia it is possible to obtain a licence just for automatic, but if you get one for manual it just says "any car", and goes on to list various classes, with and without trailers, trucks, road trains or whatever. The classes were changed several years ago, I beleive to bring them into line with International requirements. I guess that will not happen here, at least until Yingluck is able to sell all of her rice stockpile!

[SunandFun]

I Just renewed my 1 year license at Pran Buri Office. In addition to my passport and "O" Visa, my expired License, they required a medical certificate and a letter from Immigration verifying where I lived. I had brought my Blue Book and details of my ownership of my condo and she said, no good. Must have letter from Immigration. Luckily, I had a copy of the one I got last year and gave it to her and she accepted without looking at the date.

I quickly went to the Doctor's office in Pran Buri gave him 100 Baht and said need medical certificate. He said for driving? I said yes. He pulls out a form, stamp, stamp stamp and signs it. Says fill in my name. I did, he gives me 50 Baht change, no questions, no examination nothing else. I was back at Pran Buri Office in 20 minutes.

They still took me in the testing room, the lady behind the counter gave me the eye test, depth perception test and braking test. Made me repeat the coors in Thai and then off to take my picture. Rather painless.

[Gregjam]

Same same for me in Pranburi today. Immigration asked which office I was going to and before lunchtime I had the five year licence. Actually saw a lass fail her reaction test after not pressing the brake pedal quick enough despite three attempts. The staff at Pranburi have always been helpful and tolerant in my experience.

[perfectswing]

The renewal of my 5 years driver's licence was long overdue, to be exact 2 1/2 years (shame on me). I'm sure I was stopped by the police a couple of times but lucky enough they didn't notice. We went to the Cha-Am office and my wife (Thai) humbly apologized to the lady at the counter. After a few minutes of friendly chatting I was explained the following procedure: First I had to watch a video at a computer in the corner of the waiting room showing a Thai instructor who explained the Thai Traffic Law with English subtitles (takes roughly one hour). Then the real difficult part started, I had to complete a "written test" on a computer. Fortunately they let you practice on a computer (outside the test room) with question and answer, so you can at least get a feel for it. I'm telling you some of the questions are really tough to answer. I have failed the first real test by a short margin but got another chance and finally made it. To be honest I was really relieved when I had my driver's licence with another 5 years validity in my hands. When I offered the lady to keep the change of 100 Baht for their "Tea box" she refused, 'no have "Tea box" we are Government office'. One thing is for sure I will not miss the next 5 year extension again. Without my wife I guess it would have been more complicate.