How I got my foreign driving licence
Discussion
Thought you might be interested; all foreign licences are valid in the UK for 12 months, although after that you are supposed to get a practical test unless your licence was issued in certain countries (EU, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, etc.)
This was in Indonesia.
Process:
1) go to get 'medical', which consisted of blood pressure and colour blindness (red and green dots with numbers) in small shop in front of the police station. I have about a -1 short-sightedness which means I need glasses to drive, but I forgot to bring mine, and this was not tested. This cost about £1, and could not really be failed as it's just issued by a private place.
2) go to get 'psychological test'. Again private and you could not really fail because you could just take the test again immediately. It was just like 'when you are in traffic, do you (a) get very angry (b) sit calmly?', and similar questions. About £5.
3) pay driving test fee, about £6 for car and £5 for motorcycle.
4) wait around for a while
5) wait around some more
6) do theory test (one each for motorcycle and car). this had some text on screen, but you only needed to say if the vehicle was driving correctly or not. E.g., undertaking, going too fast past the junction. The passing grade was 20 out of 30, and there were only true/false answers, so you'd struggle to fail, but it did time out after 20 seconds, so you'd only really fail if you didn't bother to answer.
7) go do practical test (in theory). In room with police man. I spoke to him in Indonesian, which I speak fluently. We chatted briefly he asked how long I had driven a car, I said about 18 years. He did not ask about my motorcycle experience (a total of a few hours in total on 125cc underbones driving along a quiet road). He said 'the test is just driving around some cones, but you don't need to bother'. [note, I was told before hand that the test, which is indeed driving around cones, reversing up a hill and other such silliness in the police station car park, is easy to fail, but you could pay a £10 bribe and just get the test passed anyway.] I have a British licence but nobody checked it.
8) they took my photo and gave me a separate motorcycle and car licence (each card with photo). I did say I needed glasses on the form, but it doesn't seem to have noted that.
This practice varies from place to place, but it is my understanding that most (?) people don't actually do any kind of test, just varying levels of bribes through agents to get the licence.
This was in Indonesia.
Process:
1) go to get 'medical', which consisted of blood pressure and colour blindness (red and green dots with numbers) in small shop in front of the police station. I have about a -1 short-sightedness which means I need glasses to drive, but I forgot to bring mine, and this was not tested. This cost about £1, and could not really be failed as it's just issued by a private place.
2) go to get 'psychological test'. Again private and you could not really fail because you could just take the test again immediately. It was just like 'when you are in traffic, do you (a) get very angry (b) sit calmly?', and similar questions. About £5.
3) pay driving test fee, about £6 for car and £5 for motorcycle.
4) wait around for a while
5) wait around some more
6) do theory test (one each for motorcycle and car). this had some text on screen, but you only needed to say if the vehicle was driving correctly or not. E.g., undertaking, going too fast past the junction. The passing grade was 20 out of 30, and there were only true/false answers, so you'd struggle to fail, but it did time out after 20 seconds, so you'd only really fail if you didn't bother to answer.
7) go do practical test (in theory). In room with police man. I spoke to him in Indonesian, which I speak fluently. We chatted briefly he asked how long I had driven a car, I said about 18 years. He did not ask about my motorcycle experience (a total of a few hours in total on 125cc underbones driving along a quiet road). He said 'the test is just driving around some cones, but you don't need to bother'. [note, I was told before hand that the test, which is indeed driving around cones, reversing up a hill and other such silliness in the police station car park, is easy to fail, but you could pay a £10 bribe and just get the test passed anyway.] I have a British licence but nobody checked it.
8) they took my photo and gave me a separate motorcycle and car licence (each card with photo). I did say I needed glasses on the form, but it doesn't seem to have noted that.
This practice varies from place to place, but it is my understanding that most (?) people don't actually do any kind of test, just varying levels of bribes through agents to get the licence.
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