How to validate dutch drivers licence in DR?

You can drive on the dutch DL for 90 days since your last passport stamp. Then you need a DR license. You can do this the easy or hard way. I took the easy way.

Scott

Escott said:

You can drive on the dutch DL for 90 days since your last passport stamp. Then you need a DR license. You can do this the easy or hard way. I took the easy way.

Scott

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Only 15 days now. Robert did it (get his Dominican license). Do a search, I am sure he posted something about it.

90 days on the license. 15 days on the Tourist visa. I got my Dominican Drivers License for a while already.

Hard way is waiting on lines for 2 days taking the written test and waiting again for the license to be produced. Then you pray the laminating machine doesn't break down like all things Dominican.

Easy way is to find a facilitator that will charge you (75 US bux in my case) and gets it all done in 1 hour somehow. Head of Motor Vehicle took my test for me and I just commented on how well she did while she was doing it.

Hope that helps somehow.

Scott

Read this thread - http://www.dr1.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25624

You can take the easy route, but buyer beware. I went with a friend last week to renew her license. She wasn't in the system, so they refused to renew it.
Yes, she had a perfectly good looking license. She had brought her license in order to avoid the test etc, much like Scott described. Lucky she has never had an accident, otherwise she would have had 1 or 2 other problems.

It really is not worth the risk these days taking the easy route, either with licenses or cedulas etc. Many of the government departments are now really clamping down and going over past records, or in the case of my friend, no record.

Don't say you wasn't warned...

They should just exhange their home country licence for a DR licence. I mean you already know how to drive and held a Drivers license in another country. They should just give it to you. Here in canada, If you have a licence from USA, Japan, Australia, Germany and couple other countries licenses with 2 years driving experience, they will issue you a canadian Drivers license with out any tests.

stallion said:

They should just exhange their home country licence for a DR licence. I mean you already know how to drive and held a Drivers license in another country. They should just give it to you. Here in canada, If you have a licence from USA, Japan, Australia, Germany and couple other countries licenses with 2 years driving experience, they will issue you a canadian Drivers license with out any tests.

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It's exactly the same here. As long as you can get your current license authenticated by your embassy/consulate they will issue you a DR license.

They make US citizens take the test etc, because the US embassy/consulate will not authenticate licenses, ridiculous, but that's how it is. Don't blame the DR, blame your local embassy/consulate if they will not authenticate it.

Robert said:

Read this thread - http://www.dr1.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25624

You can take the easy route, but buyer beware. I went with a friend last week to renew her license. She wasn't in the system, so they refused to renew it.
Yes, she had a perfectly good looking license. She had brought her license in order to avoid the test etc, much like Scott described. Lucky she has never had an accident, otherwise she would have had 1 or 2 other problems.

It really is not worth the risk these days taking the easy route, either with licenses or cedulas etc. Many of the government departments are now really clamping down and going over past records, or in the case of my friend, no record.

Don't say you wasn't warned...

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So you think the head of motor vehicle didn't take my test well enough for me?

There were people selling licenses that I heard about a few years ago but mine came from the Motor Vehicle office. Make sure your facilitator takes you to the Motor Vehicle office, complete with Doctors certificate and what ever else you need to get the license done well.

I also didn't have to TRADE in my US license. I have both.

Scott

Escott said:

So you think the head of motor vehicle didn't take my test well enough for me?

There were people selling licenses that I heard about a few years ago but mine came from the Motor Vehicle office. Make sure your facilitator takes you to the Motor Vehicle office, complete with Doctors certificate and what ever else you need to get the license done well.

I also didn't have to TRADE in my US license. I have both.

Scott

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They all come from the Motor Vehicle Office. That is they steal the card and print it with your data without actually leaving any records of having done that. Come four years you go to renew your license and you're not there.

Pay somebody at your own risk.

P.S. I have a friend that works in the License Dpt. Yes, he told me some people did this. Yes, you will lose your money. Yes, if you have an accident the insurance company will run your license through the database, if it's not there you have a fake license, no matter how pretty it looks.

Escott said:

So you think the head of motor vehicle didn't take my test well enough for me?

There were people selling licenses that I heard about a few years ago but mine came from the Motor Vehicle office. Make sure your facilitator takes you to the Motor Vehicle office, complete with Doctors certificate and what ever else you need to get the license done well.

I also didn't have to TRADE in my US license. I have both.

Scott

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By all means, take Scotts advice.
As I said, don't say you haven't been warned...

I think I ought to give a more extensive explanation of what my friend Nelson told me.

When you go to get your license for the first time you have to jump through a series of loops (so to speak), all of which will leave a paper trail that at the end will be kept in your record. Since my friend worked at the record department (now he doesn't) he was asked to produce these papers whenever somebody wanted to check if a license was real.

About 6 years ago all was converted into a database, which made it much easier to check the records, but the paper trail still exists. Things could have changed, but when I got my license in the pleistocene I remember I didn't need a health certificate. I got a blood test, done on the spot, an eye exam (that I failed dramatically since I tried to take it without my glasses), a written exam and a driving test. All these leave paper trail, all are kept there. Papers are necessary to create an entry in the database.

Some people with very old licenses had to retake their exams because records had deteriorated (point in case, my aunt, who had been driving for decades with a valid license yet had to take the exam again 6 years ago). If you got a license after they reformed the system you should have no problem been found, provided there was ever a real entry into the database.

What these people do is just print a license. They do not create an entry; for this they would have to bribe too many people in the department, and nobody will pay for it. I am sure it could happen, that somebody gets a real license, but the chances are not so good if you just paid a couple of hundred dollars.

You can drive here ten zillion years without anything happening, but as anyone that has driven here knows, that is pushing your luck too far. I've been to the police station 4 times in my life already (all minor scratches, one with a friend), and trust me, it isn't a nice experience, I wouldn't make it any worse by showing up with phony documents.

Take a gram of sodium chloride with my post and call me in the morning. Your mileage may vary and all that.

A VERY interesting post & quite revealing to a lot of us I am sure. I BELIEVE I have a proper licence, issued after tests & questions & checks etc, .... but is there a way of CHECKING that my papers went through & left this 'TRAIL' you speak of PIB? or do I have to wait until I have an accident (or someone has one with me) to find out?? ~ Grahame.

BushBaby said:

A VERY interesting post & quite revealing to a lot of us I am sure. I BELIEVE I have a proper licence, issued after tests & questions & checks etc, .... but is there a way of CHECKING that my papers went through & left this 'TRAIL' you speak of PIB? or do I have to wait until I have an accident (or someone has one with me) to find out?? ~ Grahame.

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If you have renewed your license without problems then you're OK. Actually that's the best way to find out, better than having an accident that is. :nervous: