How to get a Drivers License in Bangkok

Table of Contents

Avoiding the Police and validating your Insurance #

The saying goes, ’there are only two guarantees in life, death and taxes’, and in Thailand, this is frequently demonstrated as uninsured motorbike accidents and requests for cash payments to be slipped under a policemans clipboard.

Before getting into why it is essential to get a license in Thailand once you move over, let’s highlight the dangers of not.

Rental agencies are happy to rent a scooter or motorbike to you with nothing more than a photo of your passport and a decent deposit. But unless you are authorised to ride on Thai roads, you may face some significant consequences.

Your health and/or travel insurance may not provide coverage if you are breaking the law. If you are found riding without a license (also drunk or without a helmet), and you end up in an accident, do not expect your insurance to reimburse your expenses or cover liabilities to others and their property.
To the police, you are simply a fast-moving cash bag, looking to be collected.

International Driving Permits #

One common misconception is that an International Driving Permit (IDP) will fully cover you during your stay in Thailand. This may be true for most tourists; however, it is not as robust as you might expect.

International Driving Permits are governed by three international conventions:

The 1926 Paris International Convention relative to Motor Traffic
The 1949 Geneva Convention on Road Traffic
The 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic

Thailand is a signatory to the 1949 Geneva convention. This is unusual as most other countries that signed the 1949 Geneva convention also signed the 1968 Vienna convention.

The 1949 convention has a few limitations compared to the more common 1968 convention.

The IDP is only valid for one year
Within that year, the IDP can only be used exclusively for the first 30 days you are in the country
There are weight limits on the motorbikes and cars you can legally drive.

While a policeman on the street may not notice the difference, your insurance company will most likely know the fine print. Having a license issued for more than a year, driving around more than 30 days after you entered the country, or simply driving a car or bike heavier than the allowed limits may invalidate your license!

Just get your Thai drivers license (if eligible) #

If you are eligible for a Thai driver’s license, you are best spending the time and effort in getting one. Not only does it save you from headaches on the road, but it also makes it easier to travel and get around. Strictly speaking, you should have your passport with you at all times. A Thai driver’s license is an acceptable alternative and allows you to leave your passport at home.

Even travelling domestically is almost impossible without a passport or driver’s license. Domestic flights as well as interstate trains and buses may deny you boarding without suitable identification. Leave your passport at home and minimise the chance of losing or damaging it by bringing your Thai license!

The process to convert your foreign driver’s license to a Thai one is mainly aimed at people in Thailand on a long visa. You are expected to have completed at least your first 90-day check-in at immigration and provide a residence certificate.

But this is Thailand… I will not say it is impossible for someone on a tourist or other short term visa to get a license. There are stories floating around of people who state they have! But I have never met any of these lucky folks to find how they sweet talked their way to get one of these.

Requirements #

Here are the requirements:

Long-term visa (NON-B/O, Education, LTR, Elite, etc.)
- You must have completed your first 90-day check-in.
Residence certificate from immigration
- Most embassies are not issuing this anymore (but it is worth emailing them).
- You MUST go to the right immigration centre (based on which district issued your visa… Look at the stamp).
A medical certificate
- This is VERY simple. It is basically checking if you have a heartbeat.
- Paperwork, identification and more paperwork
- Bring your originals. There is a cheap photocopier service on the ground floor of DLT who know exactly what is needed.
Patience
- Expect this to take a few hours over two separate days.

Booking the appointment - Prerequsites #

( Skip down to the next section if you dont enjoy my rants)

Before going in I needed a residence certificate. I went to the Australian embassy, and was politely told they do not issue these anymore. I would need to have Thai Immigration issue a certificate.

I headed out to Immigration Division 1 at Chiang Wattana and was turned away as I didn’t have a 90-day stamp. A few weeks later, I headed out again to get the certificate, and once again asked for the residence certificate and was told it could not be issued on the same day (although I have since heard others have had luck with this). No worries, I went back the following week, but was told that the systems weren’t working. No worries, I waited a few days and went back out. This time I was told that my visa was issued by another district, so I would need to go to Chamchuri to get the residence certificate. This simply dumbfounded me. I have been here multiple times over the past few months, first to get my visas issued, and then to do the 90-day check in. Now I was told that another office had ‘issued my visa’, and I would need to go to their office (where I had never been before), and ask them…

… Stubbornly, I ignored their nonsensical advice and the following week, I once again went to Chiang Wattana and was once again told by a different officer, that I would have to visit the Chamchuri office. FFS!

In total, I have made more than 10 trips out to Chaing Wattana (which is a minimum of a 1,000 baht return taxi ride from the Sukhumvit area each time), first to get my visa, do the 90-day checking and then to stubbornly attempt and get this letter… But this would be my last time I visit this place!

A few days later, I went to Chamchuri, was ushered straight to a service window at the back of the office, paid a few hundred baht and told to come back after lunch. After a delicious ramen in the office eatery, I returned and was handed both certificates with absolutely no fuss (one was required for my bike license, and a second required for my car license). I had spent less than 5 minutes in the Immigration office!

Next, I needed a medial certificate. Luckily, there is one just before the entrance to DLT. Jump on the BTS to Sapan Khwai and exit north from the station (on the eastern side of the station). You should walk down some stairs, and find yourself under a bright orange ‘Kerry’ sign. Keep following this road up for about 5 to 10 minutes, until you see a discreet little green ‘doctor’s office'.

It is not easy to find, but on the day I went, there was a ‘Gang of green Grab riders’ lining up to do the same thing I was doing. The office is set up with waiting chairs out the front in the street front, and a large table for visitors to fill out a form. There was a woman managing things, and she called me over, spoke just enough English to help me fill out the form and then asked me to sit in the inside waiting room… The ‘waiting room’ is a kind way of describing a random line of chains cutting through the middle of the room, to a portable partition, where a single doctor sat, one-by-one calling patients to sit next to him for the checkup.

He also spoke just enough English. Asking me how I felt and took my blood pressure. A few ticks on the form, a signature and a rubber stamp later, I was out the door. All up, I was in and out in under 15 minutes, and it only cost 150 baht.

Booking the appointment - DLT #

I walked the 2 minutes from the doctor’s office to Chatuchak DLT. They had a large awning set up out the front. It was marked specifically for foreigners, only had a few people in line and, as I quickly found out, staff with fantastic English.

I presented all of my documents and original documents. A few moments later, they nodded, and flipped out a calendar to make my appointment. They asked if I could wait …. SIX WEEKS! Having battled for so long to get the prerequisites all sorted, I explained that the residence certificate and doctor’s certificate were only valid for 4 weeks. The DLT umm’ed and ahh’ed for a bit, then offered an appointment in about 3 weeks.

Not ideal, but better than nothing! I took it, and we organised a time and date to come back. She made two piles of my documents and made it very clear I had to bring them all back, in the order they were.

The big day – Getting my Thai driver’s license in Bangkok #

Finally, the day came and I went back out to DLT Chatuchak. I returned to the ‘foreigner tent’ out the font, they confirmed my stacks of documents were untouched, and asked me to inside and up to the first floor.

First Floor #

I went up, and it was your typical Government office. I took a ticket at the door, then waited for your number to be called and went to the window it indicated. There were MANY people waiting, but the office was also well staffed, and the line moved quickly.

They checked all the documents that were checked earlier and quickly sent me up to the second floor

Second Floor #

The next floor was the physical test. By this stage, there is a long line of people, following the same curving line on the floor. The line eventually makes it inside the testing room, and as you shuffle along the floor line, you can see the stations all set up.

Colour test
- A traffic light is set up in the room, with each of the three light positions having a bulb which could be any of the three colours. A random light will flash a random colour, and you have to call out the colour.
- Pretty simple.
Depth perception
- Next up there were two candles in a box 5 meters away. One candle is stationary and the other moves forward and backwards. You have to stop the moving candle when it is in line with the stationary one.
- This one felt a little trickier, but they seem to have a fairly wide acceptance range. I witnessed a few people after me have a fairly large gap between the candles and they were still progressed.
Reaction test.
- Another easy one. When the traffic light goes red, stomp your foot on the button to ‘break’.
- I think the allowable delay was about 0.2 seconds, and you will be given 3 attempts to beat this time.
Peripheral vision.
- I found this one easy, but a few struggled with it.
- You place your chin on point, and forehead has to rest on a bar. Once you are in position, they will light up LEDs from what feels like behind your ears. You must keep your chin and forehead in position, eyes straight ahead, and call out the color of the LEDs they are using.

Once all the tests are finished, they give you a card, and you follow the floor line up to level 3.

Third Floor #

So while everything is a little different here, this was the weird floor!

The final station is to into a small cinema and watch about 30 minutes of graphic car crashes and road safety messaging. The audio was in Thai, but it rotated between English and Thai subtitles every 10 minutes. Once the room was full, they stamped a card and directed us out and back down to the first floor.

Here, I once again grabbed a ticket, waited in line and finally got called up to the ‘pink desk’. She checked my papers again, checked my card, asked for two lots of payment (one for the motorbike license, and one for the car license). Then I waited 10 minutes while they printed out both cards and sent me on my way.

All up, it took about half a day, but I was happy to walk out with the cards in hand!

Frequently used #

It has surprised me how often I have used my driver’s license.

‘Random’ police checks have become enjoyable, as the ‘hard cop’ acting drops as soon as they see it, and we have a friendly chat about what I’m doing in Thailand. It is like they become an entirely different person.
Not having to take my passport with me everywhere I go is just so much less stressful.
I’ve been lucky and been able to show my driver’s license to get discounted entry into National Parks. I don’t think this is a formal arrangement, so please don’t expect it every time.