Required Procedures 1. A long-term visa is required, such as a tourist visa or a work visa; visas issued upon arrival are not acceptable. 2. Prepare two 2-inch white-background, bareheaded photos. At the first Thai agency located at the entrance to the street leading to the Immigration Bureau, ask a local Thai person to help you fill out the forms. The fee is 60 baht per form; if you don’t have photos, it will cost 140 baht. Fill out as many copies of the proof of residence form as you need. Just multiply the price by the number of forms yourself (this is not inside the Immigration Bureau). If you plan to live in Thailand long-term, it’s best to have several dozen 2-inch bareheaded photos developed and brought with you from China. 3. Go to the Immigration Bureau to get a queue number, wait in line, and obtain a certificate of residence. If you are applying for both a car license and a motorcycle license at the same time, you will need two certificates of residence. Each certificate costs 300 baht. 4. Health certificate: You can go to a local clinic to obtain a physical examination certificate. The fee is 200 Thai baht—one for the motorcycle and one for the car. They may issue the certificate right away, or they might just go through the motions before issuing it. If you’re only preparing to take the test for one vehicle type, it might be 100 baht. Those are all the procedures you need to prepare before registering. Once everything is ready, you can go directly to the Vehicle Administration Office to register.You will be informed of the specific class times when you register. The process for obtaining a driver’s license is as follows: The driving school instruction lasts only two days. Day 1: Arrived at the Driver’s License Office at 8 a.m. It was a pretty dull day. First, we had to learn to identify the colors—make sure you can say “Red,” “Yellow,” and “Green.” Next came some basic reaction-time tests; they were all very straightforward. Finally, the staff collected our passports, let us watch a series of videos, and then returned them. We ended up watching about six hours of footage—once in Thai and once in English. Towards the end, someone will come by and hand you a very thin traffic-regulation handbook, which is basically useless. I was there from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m., then I packed up and went home. So here’s a friendly tip: bring a power bank and pass the time by playing games. Day Two: Arrive at the Vehicle Administration Office at 8:00 a.m. It’s a full day. Let me emphasize this—three times: direct on-road test, direct on-road test, direct on-road test. Because the testing area is extremely small, the first part of the exam is for motorcycles. An examiner will lead you through the course once, after which the official test begins. All the tasks are very easy, so passing is no problem.Item two: the driving test. Again, the examiner will walk you through the test route and the examination rules before the test begins. The driving test can be a bit challenging for female drivers. There are three main maneuvers: parking at the curb, parallel parking, and navigating a narrow passage. In the afternoon, you’ll take the written exam on traffic laws. If you pass both the motorcycle and car road tests in the morning, you’ll need to take the traffic-law exam twice—one for each vehicle type. If you only pass one, you’ll only take the exam relevant to that vehicle class. On the same day, you can obtain your full driver’s license and officially become a licensed driver.

The mandatory training course for Thai driver’s licenses is now available online. The e-learning courses are accessible at the website www.dlt-elearning.com, which is compatible with computers, tablets, and smartphones. To proceed with the physical ability test, please contact your local Department of Land Transport and inform them of your results. The period from the date you pass the exam until your driver’s license is issued is 90 days. e-Learning courses are only available if your license is due to expire within one year or if you are renewing it less than 90 days in advance. Please keep this in mind. Alternatively, you may go to the local Land Transport Office where you originally obtained your license. Typically when you obtain your first driver’s license. The validity period is two years. After two years, it can be renewed for another five years. As of the time this article was written, the renewal fee was 505 Thai baht.The list of documents required to renew a driver’s license is as follows: Original two-year Thai driver’s license Non-immigrant visa Passport (original and copy) Current residential address in Thailand Original certificate issued by the Embassy/Immigration Bureau (valid for one year) or work permit (with confirmed current residence), along with a copy Medical certificate from a clinic or hospital (in the prescribed five-disease form) (valid for one month)