So, renewed my licenses today & Mrs N didn’t. Here’s what happened..........
I prepared a pack for each of us before setting off.
Mine:
- Copy biometric page of passport
- Copy extension page of passport
- Certificate of watching 1 hour video
- Medical certificate with top half filled in
Mrs N:
- Certificate of watching 2 hour video because her license expired over a year ago (remember this bit)
- Medical certificate with top half filled in
Stopped at the local clinic to get medical certificates completed but couldn’t do as doctor was on holiday so went to a clinic next Non Sung market. No problem except they didn’t want my part filled in copies so filled out new ones. Quick blood pressure check, on the scales & 100 baht (each) later, we’re off to DLT office just up the road.
First mistake, we thought lunch was 1 to 2 for some reason, don’t know why, we hadn’t checked. We arrived at 12:15 & it was lunch
We’d walked past a completely empty desk at the top of the stairs & went straight in the office where a few people were milling about. A lady in a uniform said it was lunchtime & we should just sit & wait which we did.
12:45 the desks were manned so I handed in the packs at desk 2. Mistake number two, they’d omitted to tell us we needed a number from the now manned desk outside so out Mrs N goes & queues for about 15mins.
The lady checks the packs & tells us mistake number three, I was assuming both car & bike licenses were issued on the same application but she wanted another copy of my pack so off down stairs. 3 baht a copy hardly breaks the bank but another queue at the desk was mildly irritating. She checks my pack again & gives me a number so I’m good to go but this is where it gets a bit weird. She checks Mrs N’s pack & says her certificate to watch the video is wrong because it’s only for the 1 hour. I guess she’d muddled all the papers with mine as it clearly had my ID number across the top so checked what she’d given me but no certificate enclosed. She couldn’t tell me where it was but strangely just said it wasn’t needed for me.
Mrs N was not allowed to proceed so blamed me for the wrong certificate.
Now I might be a bit dumb on occasion but the correct certificate was definitely in her pack. I’ve got a bit of OCD with applications, the packs were in clear plastic envelopes with everything held in place by bulldog clips. I remember reading the words “lack of renewal for more than one year” so I knew which certificate to put in which pack. Never mind, no use arguing.
I join the queue for the tests & waited about 10 mins which was mainly down to an old fella in front who couldn’t do the reaction test so was eventually taken to one side & the clerk did the test for him. TIT.
My only problem was when going through the traffic light sequence I kept saying Amber & he would only accept Yellow, but no great shakes.
Over to the pay counter, 505 baht for the car, 255 baht for the bike & over to the photo booth. There was about 10 people in front of me but as soon as I sat down a senior looking lady came across looked at the queue & called one of the clerks from the testing area to come over & open a second booth. They flew through the photos & I was walking out about 5 mins later with two licenses good until January 2027.
Driving home at 2:15 & if I hadn’t fannyed about with extra copies & Mrs N’s debacle, about 50 mins in total for my application.
In the car, it transpires Mrs N had been chatting to the lady in the information desk & she said she could print off a new certificate. She tried to access the system but said her ID card was not registered which was strange.
Got home dreading having to play the 2 hour video again but I couldn’t log on either. I tried a couple of iterations & finally discovered seeing as I’d been using Google Chrome with translate it was changing her birth year into the Gregorian calendar & it needed over typing with the Thai year when signing in. Mrs N always says her birthday in the Gregorian calendar too so this must have been why there were problems earlier.
Logged in & it remembered the questions & video & let me just print off the certificate again. Bonus
Back to Non Sung tomorrow.
Lessons learnt
- Yellow book/ID number were needed to register to watch the video beforehand. This in itself makes them worthwhile to me
- Yellow book was accepted as proof of residence so no trip to the other side of Udon to immigration.
- Get a queue number from outside no matter what they tell you inside
- Motorbike & car are treated as two completely separate applications
- Don’t hand in applications for your significant other at the same time as papers WILL get mixed up.
- Ask for your bulldog clips back
Finally, I went in the DLT website last night to check what was needed & it had a banner saying all services related to driving licenses have been suspended since 30 March 2020. I was in two minds whether to make the trip until I remembered FrazeeDK had recently applied so thought I might as well go.
Mrs N was not allowed to proceed so blamed me for the wrong certificate.
