renew drivers license

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Whistler
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Re: renew drivers license

Post by Whistler » March 11, 2021, 9:03 pm

sometimewoodworker wrote:
March 11, 2021, 8:21 pm
Giggle wrote:
March 11, 2021, 12:51 pm
NK procedure is quite different.
Step 1. Go to the Driver's License office and explain you need to renew.
Step 2. They hand you a form to take to Immigration and complete, despite showing them your Yellow book and pinkie.
Step 3. Take the form to Imm where they take it and inform you they'll call you when its finished -- in about a week.
Step 4. When Imm calls a week later, go pick up the form and take it to the Driver's License to complete the process.
Step 5. Drivers Branch will schedule you for a day in the future (about a week) to take your test.
Step 6. Arrive at Drivers branch to take your test.

Ahh paradise.
Or avoid all that and take a drive down to Udon as you can renew in any DLT office.
Which DLT office?

Central Plaza is closed
AEK hospital closed

Apart from Hwy 2 where are the others?


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Re: renew drivers license

Post by Whistler » March 11, 2021, 9:10 pm

sometimewoodworker wrote:
March 11, 2021, 8:21 pm
Giggle wrote:
March 11, 2021, 12:51 pm
NK procedure is quite different.
Step 1. Go to the Driver's License office and explain you need to renew.
Step 2. They hand you a form to take to Immigration and complete, despite showing them your Yellow book and pinkie.
Step 3. Take the form to Imm where they take it and inform you they'll call you when its finished -- in about a week.
Step 4. When Imm calls a week later, go pick up the form and take it to the Driver's License to complete the process.
Step 5. Drivers Branch will schedule you for a day in the future (about a week) to take your test.
Step 6. Arrive at Drivers branch to take your test.

Ahh paradise.
Or avoid all that and take a drive down to Udon as you can renew in any DLT office.
Giggle, you appear to be in a world of your own.

- If you have a yellow book and/or pink card, you do not have to go to immigration.
- DLT does not give you the form, immigration does this
- Immigration issues on the spot, a few minutes and 500 bhat
- Take the form to DLT they process in a few minutes while you wait
- The test is done at the same time as DLT process your renewal, takes a few minutes

If you have all of your paperwork it is not that hard, the issue is knowing what paperwork to gather.

As for woody, which DLT office?

Central Plaza is closed
AEK hospital closed

Apart from Hwy 2 where are the others?
I had a bumper sticker in Texas that read 'Beam me up Scotty'. I often wish I could find one in Udon Thani

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tamada
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Re: renew drivers license

Post by tamada » March 11, 2021, 9:15 pm

Whistler wrote:
March 11, 2021, 9:10 pm
sometimewoodworker wrote:
March 11, 2021, 8:21 pm
Giggle wrote:
March 11, 2021, 12:51 pm
NK procedure is quite different.
Step 1. Go to the Driver's License office and explain you need to renew.
Step 2. They hand you a form to take to Immigration and complete, despite showing them your Yellow book and pinkie.
Step 3. Take the form to Imm where they take it and inform you they'll call you when its finished -- in about a week.
Step 4. When Imm calls a week later, go pick up the form and take it to the Driver's License to complete the process.
Step 5. Drivers Branch will schedule you for a day in the future (about a week) to take your test.
Step 6. Arrive at Drivers branch to take your test.

Ahh paradise.
Or avoid all that and take a drive down to Udon as you can renew in any DLT office.
Giggle, you appear to be in a world of your own.

- If you have a yellow book and/or pink card, you do not have to go to immigration.
- DLT does not give you the form, immigration does this
- Immigration issues on the spot, a few minutes and 500 bhat
- Take the form to DLT they process in a few minutes while you wait
- The test is done at the same time as DLT process your renewal, takes a few minutes

If you have all of your paperwork it is not that hard, the issue is knowing what paperwork to gather.

As for woody, which DLT office?

Central Plaza is closed
AEK hospital closed

Apart from Hwy 2 where are the others?
I take it you've never tried to renew a Thai DL in Nong Khai? Giggle aint sh*ttin' here. NBLP maybe be on a different planet but unless they've changed very recently, it's a whole other UNIVERSE in the NK office!

I recall that the Pattaya DL office didn't accept yellow books so one was forced to get a letter from Immigration regardless. Since in most cases the yellow book was ostensibly the same as the blue book for the residence (they are linked), can you imagine a local government office refusing to accept the validity of a blue tibian bahn for a local?

On second thought, scratch that. TiT and YMMV probably applies as much to the locals as it does to us guests.
Last edited by tamada on March 11, 2021, 9:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Whistler
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Re: renew drivers license

Post by Whistler » March 11, 2021, 9:19 pm

is this Udon Thani Forum or Nong Khai forum
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tamada
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Re: renew drivers license

Post by tamada » March 11, 2021, 9:27 pm

Whistler wrote:
March 11, 2021, 9:19 pm
is this Udon Thani Forum or Nong Khai forum
Hold on a minute while I check...
Whistler wrote:
March 10, 2021, 10:39 am
Did mine yesterday.

Friend advised doing it at Nong Bua Lamphu about the same distance for me than the one on KK Road. mistake!

I had my medical, passport and old license but they needed permission note from Immigration with my mug shot. The answer is almost certainly TIT, but if you have a visa and you have a picture in your passport, why the letter? Of course if you have Yellowbook/Pink card then you do not need the immigration letter. What on earth does immigration have to do with holding a driver's license?

Drove to Udon, had photo taken, by this time Immigration was closed for lunch.

Got letter from Immigration, 500 bhat for simply confirming what was already in passport.

Drove to License place on Hwy 2. Reaction test, colour blind test front on and colour blind test using peripheral vision.

Photo taken, license given 505 bhat.

took about 5 hours if in OZ it would have taken 10 minutes.
Is this the Udon Thani Forum or the NBLP forum?

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sometimewoodworker
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Re: renew drivers license

Post by sometimewoodworker » March 11, 2021, 9:37 pm

Whistler wrote:
March 11, 2021, 9:03 pm
sometimewoodworker wrote:
March 11, 2021, 8:21 pm

Or avoid all that and take a drive down to Udon as you can renew in any DLT office.
Which DLT office?

Central Plaza is closed
AEK hospital closed

Apart from Hwy 2 where are the others?
In the Udon area there is only 1 other that I know about, the main office in Nong Sung.

However as I mentioned you can go to any DLT office anywhere in the country.

The next nearest is in Kumphawapi but they are possibly less good than Nong Sung
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Whistler
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Re: renew drivers license

Post by Whistler » March 11, 2021, 9:54 pm

sometimewoodworker wrote:
March 11, 2021, 9:37 pm
Whistler wrote:
March 11, 2021, 9:03 pm
sometimewoodworker wrote:
March 11, 2021, 8:21 pm

Or avoid all that and take a drive down to Udon as you can renew in any DLT office.
Which DLT office?

Central Plaza is closed
AEK hospital closed

Apart from Hwy 2 where are the others?
In the Udon area there is only 1 other that I know about, the main office in Nong Sung.

However as I mentioned you can go to any DLT office anywhere in the country.

The next nearest is in Kumphawapi but they are possibly less good than Nong Sung
so going to ANY Udon DLT means you can go to the ONLY DLT office?
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jackspratt
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Re: renew drivers license

Post by jackspratt » March 11, 2021, 10:27 pm

I guess it depends on how you define the "Udon area" - but everyone I know from Ban Dung does their MDL business at the DLT office in Nong Han.

Which is <33km from the centre of Udon.

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sometimewoodworker
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Re: renew drivers license

Post by sometimewoodworker » March 11, 2021, 11:12 pm

Whistler wrote:
March 11, 2021, 9:54 pm

so going to ANY Udon DLT means you can go to the ONLY DLT office?
NO. you can renew in any DLT office. means that you can renew in any DLT office.
If you re-read my post I said
You can take a trip to Udon, (because) you can renew your license in any DLT office.
I did not say you can use any Udon office, the Nong Sung office is one, it is open

In the Udon city area AFIK there is 1 office open at the moment, there are many in other places in Thailand you can us any of them as long as they are open, some are, some are closed.

Of course you can sit outside the closed offices and whistle ;)
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Bandung_Dero
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Re: renew drivers license

Post by Bandung_Dero » March 12, 2021, 6:48 am

jackspratt wrote:
March 11, 2021, 10:27 pm
I guess it depends on how you define the "Udon area" - but everyone I know from Ban Dung does their MDL business at the DLT office in Nong Han.

Which is <33km from the centre of Udon.
It was confirmed by my Step Daughter who renewed her license at Sawan Daen Din (Sakon Nakhon Province) yesterday I can do it there if I want to. She obtained the procedure for me to renew without a Yellow Book = Easy.
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Niggly
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Re: renew drivers license

Post by Niggly » March 29, 2021, 6:19 pm

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
  • Copy yellow book
  • Copy pink ID
  • Certificate of watching 1 hour video
  • Medical certificate with top half filled in
  • Originals
  • Old licenses
Mrs N:
  • Copy blue book
  • Copy ID
  • Certificate of watching 2 hour video because her license expired over a year ago (remember this bit)
  • Medical certificate with top half filled in
  • Originals
  • Old license
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.
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FrazeeDK
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Re: renew drivers license

Post by FrazeeDK » March 30, 2021, 11:53 am

here's a spinoff on the driver's license renewal. Question, do you have any other things "linked" to your driver's license number which in most cases (not all) is based on your passport number. So, say if you have a Big C Card that is/was linked to your license number and you renew your license and your passport was a new one your license is updated with the new passport number. "oh, you want your Big C Discount?" "yes please..." "hmm, you license number doesn't match what's in our system." Gotta take my passport with me to Big C and try to update their Database...
Dave

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Niggly
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Re: renew drivers license

Post by Niggly » March 30, 2021, 12:38 pm

Although Mrs Ns application won’t really apply to readers of this forum, I have a little observation.........

We arrived at 10:15 & there was no queue for a number outside whatsoever. We went inside & even though there were a few people (I counted 30 but some will have been accompanying), they really flew through the visits to each station.
This seems to tally with my visit yesterday, the queues had built up over lunch & when dealt with disappeared. They even moved a person off the Physical Test station to Pictures because there was no one waiting.
I suspect the people inside this morning were the tail end of when they opened. There were no queues again while I sat watching, walk ins were dealt with immediately.

My take from this is next time I have to visit, it will be mid morning or afternoon session as everyone seems to get there for the opening time
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Drunk Monkey
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Re: renew drivers license

Post by Drunk Monkey » April 8, 2021, 1:26 pm

Here is some current accurate info as a heads up for anyone about to renew their DLs in the coming weeks /months.

I wasnt looking forward to renewing both my Car n Motorsai license as heard Nong Soon on HW2 KK rd was very busy due to the AEK / Central offices now being closed .. also due to covid they dont allow you to watch the vid at the office only on line for which you need a yellow house book and/or pink ID card.. more hoops to jump thru ...SO .. an option as i have just done today and it worked out splendidly ..

Was given the heads up by a Brummie mate over Sunday lunch to use the Nong Han transport office which is located about 25kms up HW 22 going towards Sakorn Nakorn about 3 kms before you get to Nong Han on the left side .. it is sign posted in Thai when 1km away and easy to find on google maps n their FB page.

Took 20 - 25 mins to get there .. arrived 8:45 am (Seemed like a lot of ppl already there but counted only 16 doing DLs renewals with others doing other stuff like car book transfers , vehicle mods registration etc etc ).
Temp check at front door.
Girl at door checked docs n gave me an ORANGE q card (for license RENEWAL) and a form which just needed my full name and phone number.
Went in handed docs to counter 2 kept the orange q card.
Went upstairs 1st floor
Signed in again for covid.
Did a traffic light colour test
Into AC room watch vid 45 mins .. excellent viewing ;)
Movie time over back downstairs and paid at counter 2 total 760 bt ( 505 car / 255 Mc)
Wait 10 mins name called photo taken
Wait 5 mins name called pick up 2 new 5 yr licenses n out the door at 10:30 am
Brilliant

DOCS ** a set for each license car and mc (so 2 immo letters n 2 med certs)

Passport copy picture page and current visa page
Letter from Immo confirming address cost (500bt x 2 from Udon immo day before) give them the originals
Medical cert done at a clinic near Immo day before 120 bt

I went at the peak time and still a quick n painless service .. the second vid viewing was only 4 ppl in room so maybe better to avoid the first session n go for the second or third in the afternoon.

Hope that helps any members and only posted as an option to the big and very busy Nong Soon transport office. ..in the future i shall use this office for anything regarding transport , vehicles etc , buying selling name address changes green books etc , also an MOT station on site and small Thai eatery n smoothie stand...nice friendly helpful staff.

DM ... good to go another 5 years of joyous Thai motoring ..
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Bandung_Dero
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Re: renew drivers license

Post by Bandung_Dero » April 17, 2021, 7:28 am

Looks like the DLT have applied restrictions again re license renewal:
BANGKOK (NNT) - The Department of Land Transport (DLT) has announced it is suspending driver training and drivers license testing across the country from April 16th onward in an effort to stifle the spread of COVID-19, but will continue extending licenses that don’t require testing and will allow expired licenses to be used until June 30.
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joepai
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Re: renew drivers license

Post by joepai » April 17, 2021, 2:23 pm

I was born with nothing and still have most of it left

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Niggly
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Re: renew drivers license

Post by Niggly » April 17, 2021, 2:29 pm

Does your insurance still cover you (& any third party) if you are driving without a valid license?

It’s alright saying DLT are shut & the RTP are not to prosecute but insurance companies are notorious for finding excuses not to pay out
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Khun Paul
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Re: renew drivers license

Post by Khun Paul » April 17, 2021, 2:44 pm

This is Thailand they insure people without even checking if they have a licence, for instance Porobor, insures your vehicle 3rd party risks never have I ever given them my driving licence details .

if the Insurance companies started insisting on that , there would not only be people driving without a licence but also thousands more without insurance !

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Re: renew drivers license

Post by Doodoo » April 17, 2021, 2:47 pm

Insurance companies are not there to check for licenses They are not the Police They sell insurance and thats it

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Niggly
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Re: renew drivers license

Post by Niggly » April 17, 2021, 2:47 pm

^ You both know this as a fact then?

Insurance is still valid & they will pay out if necessary even if you have an expired (non valid) license.

You heard it here first folks, thanks for confirming
Last edited by Niggly on April 17, 2021, 3:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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