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When to renew a driver's license


johnpat

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On 5/23/2019 at 7:14 AM, johnpat said:

  When you have a 5 year driver's license it expires on your birthday.   When you renew that license it will expire 5 years after your next birthday.    So it would seem wise to renew your license shortly after it expires on your birthday thus giving you an effective 6 year license.   

Does this work in practice  or if you renew shortly after your birthday do they give you 5 years after your previous birthday?

 

Terry Lee was given a 11 year License I have seen it with my own eyes they screwed up I assume the dates 

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2 hours ago, Jambo said:

Thanks but your a little late in responding as I renewed my two licenses a couple of weeks ago and I did use Mots Services who saved me all the paperwork and the need to go to Immigration for the residency certificate.

You still have to visit the center behind Regents School but having a confirmed appointment put me with the first 20 or so applicants for processing. There appeared to be a couple of hundred Thai's without appointments.

Only just saw this thread. How long did the whole process take you? 

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22 hours ago, Esco said:

Only just saw this thread. How long did the whole process take you? 

I had a meeting at Mots office in Soi Khoutalo ( next to the Gold shop just past the railway line) who took down the basic details.

It was Terry Lee who suggested using them as his licenses ( yes, 11 years by mistake) were due to run out a couple of weeks before mine and he discovered that because of Covid they were weeks behind and it had become essential to have an appointment which Mots organised. We both seem to have the same aversion to visiting Immigration etc.

Mots got me an appointment for the 5th October and in the interim completed all the paperwork and visited Immigration to obtain my resident certificate which entailed them completing a TM30 on my behalf.

On the 5th October they took me to the center and as I had an 08:00 am appointment, along with about 20 others, we jumped ahead of a huge queue of Thai's. It takes about 3 hours to complete the formalities of:

1. Watch the video

2. Perception test etc. ( new guy doing these and he seemed to rush through. I did not realise I had even completed one of the tests before he shouted "Next."  😀

3. Queue to pay ( Mrs Mot reimburses)

4. Queue to have photo taken

5. Wait to collect new licenses.

Mrs Mot waited downstairs then returned me to her office where I had parked my own car.

I could have done all this myself but it is absolute barely controlled chaos in the license center and without a Thai speaker ( who knows what is going on and where to go next) I would have been lost. They took away all the administration hassle and that was good enough justification for me. 😀

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On 10/27/2020 at 9:19 AM, Jambo said:

I had a meeting at Mots office in Soi Khoutalo ( next to the Gold shop just past the railway line) who took down the basic details.

It was Terry Lee who suggested using them as his licenses ( yes, 11 years by mistake) were due to run out a couple of weeks before mine and he discovered that because of Covid they were weeks behind and it had become essential to have an appointment which Mots organised. We both seem to have the same aversion to visiting Immigration etc.

Mots got me an appointment for the 5th October and in the interim completed all the paperwork and visited Immigration to obtain my resident certificate which entailed them completing a TM30 on my behalf.

On the 5th October they took me to the center and as I had an 08:00 am appointment, along with about 20 others, we jumped ahead of a huge queue of Thai's. It takes about 3 hours to complete the formalities of:

1. Watch the video

2. Perception test etc. ( new guy doing these and he seemed to rush through. I did not realise I had even completed one of the tests before he shouted "Next."  😀

3. Queue to pay ( Mrs Mot reimburses)

4. Queue to have photo taken

5. Wait to collect new licenses.

Mrs Mot waited downstairs then returned me to her office where I had parked my own car.

I could have done all this myself but it is absolute barely controlled chaos in the license center and without a Thai speaker ( who knows what is going on and where to go next) I would have been lost. They took away all the administration hassle and that was good enough justification for me. 😀

A service up here is asking for 3500 for this and I think 4500 for a MC license (which requires 2 days, different tests).

Can I ask what they are asking in the place you went in Patts ?

The service here charges 500 for 90 day reporting (same as what they charge in Patts) and 1,500 for the residency requirement which I think is reasonable. I was a little bit taken back by the 4,500 for the MC D.L.     I might try to tackle this myself, but if it gets too stressful I'll just walk and eat the 4,500.

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9 hours ago, Glasseye said:

A service up here is asking for 3500 for this and I think 4500 for a MC license (which requires 2 days, different tests).

Can I ask what they are asking in the place you went in Patts ?

The service here charges 500 for 90 day reporting (same as what they charge in Patts) and 1,500 for the residency requirement which I think is reasonable. I was a little bit taken back by the 4,500 for the MC D.L.     I might try to tackle this myself, but if it gets too stressful I'll just walk and eat the 4,500.

It cost 5,000 baht to renew my two licenses with Mots Services.

It seems a lot but I once spent all day, and I do mean all day, at that bloody licensing center only to have my wallet stolen in a market in Bangkok one week later and having to do it all over again!

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Where I live in Muang Rayong I went to the transport office almost four weeks before my licenses expired near the end of October and they said the first available date to start the process was today (after they expired).  Today after they took my paperwork they told me the next available date for the video and eye/reaction tests is end of December, or I could do it at a driving school.  I went to a school and they've scheduled me for this evening for those.  Then tomorrow I'll have to run to immigration for my residence letters, then either later that day or the next day finish the process back at the transport office.  They're absolutely overwhelmed here.  I need to get it done because there's a short school break at the end of this week and we're driving up to the country house.  I'd rather not do that on an expired license.

Upcountry where I got my current licenses I went in early in the morning and had my licenses before noon.

 

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20 minutes ago, tko said:

Where I live in Muang Rayong I went to the transport office almost four weeks before my licenses expired near the end of October and they said the first available date to start the process was today (after they expired).  Today after they took my paperwork they told me the next available date for the video and eye/reaction tests is end of December, or I could do it at a driving school.  I went to a school and they've scheduled me for this evening for those.  Then tomorrow I'll have to run to immigration for my residence letters, then either later that day or the next day finish the process back at the transport office.  They're absolutely overwhelmed here.  I need to get it done because there's a short school break at the end of this week and we're driving up to the country house.  I'd rather not do that on an expired license.

Upcountry where I got my current licenses I went in early in the morning and had my licenses before noon.

 

It really can be a very different world "Up Country".

When you need to test and tax a car/motorbike in Mae Sot you go into the test center --- In and out in 15 minutes. Drive/ride across to the Licensing office opposite  and your new tax certificate issued in well less than 30 minutes waiting.

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Did my driving license B transfer (international-> Thai) with Mots last week. 

She picked me up 12.30 and brought me back around 3 hours later. 

The whole process went pretty smooth but I was glad I hired her to guide me through it for the 1st time. She kindly got me a coffee as well while I was stuck in there waiting to get called up. 

I only had to do the visual tests (color, reaction and depth) with a group of other foreigners. The Thai fella who ran that part of the show even called a bunch of the Thais to watch the farangs show how its done lol. 

All in all not the most painful experience in my view and happy to walk out immediately with my new license. 

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I finished the preliminaries at the school.  They scanned my thumb and index finger prints when they scheduled me for this.  They had scheduled two hours so TW dropped me off there.  The video is about 45 minutes and the eye/reaction tests take about 15, they scanned my thumb print before these and after both were finished.  I thought "great", I'll call and go home, but no.  Because I'm getting both 4 wheel and motorcycle licenses renewed, I have to be scanned again after I've been there two hours.  They told me I could leave and come back after 6pm.  As our home is on the other side of the city, I decided to avoid an extra round trip and waited.  Fortunately I'd brought my Kindle.

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  • 3 months later...

Thanks for update When you have a 5 year driver's license it expires on your birthday.   When you renew that license it will expire 5 years after your next birthday.    So it would seem wise to renew your license shortly after it expires on your birthday thus giving you an effective 6 year license.

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  • 2 weeks later...

TW just did hers.  She didn't want to go through the backlog and delays that are happening in Rayong so she paid an agent 1000 Baht.  That bounced her to the front of the queue, and he drove her to Chonburi where she wouldn't have to wait for a slot for the video/tests, then finished the process in Rayong.  Worth the money, she had her new 5 year later the same day.

And yes, it was after her birthday so good for nearly 6 years.

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2 minutes ago, bob lt said:

My 2 year Temporary License expires in May this year, not much chance of getting back in time. I understand you can still renew within 12 months without sitting the exam and practical test.

I believe that is correct.

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