At any rate, the university has a traffic police officer who comes to the campus every day or two. Today, he was 45 minutes late. Then he told me that I could go to ANY Regional Transit Authority outlet in Dubai to transfer my file to Sharjah, then get Sharjah to renew it. The RTA website has dozens of outlets listed, so I chose one that was listed as being in Festival City Mall in Dubai. I thought that would be great because I could get everything done and then go for dinner. I got to the mall and was told that the RTA outlet was a couple of kilometers away, so I flagged down a taxi and went there only to be told that they could not do it there. I had to go to City Center Mall. After hiking along a deserted road for a kilometer or two, a taxi came by and took me to City Center. At City Center, I got an eye check up (5 minutes) and then went to the RTA outlet at the mall and walked away with a brand new license 5 minutes later. I didn't need to change anything to Sharjah. I can drive in the UAE with a Dubai license. It was frustrating getting to the right location, but, once I was there, it was quick and easy - and, yes, it looks like any other driver's license photo - nothing to write home about.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
New driver's license
When I first moved to Dubai more than ten years ago, I got a Dubai driver's license. It was good for ten years. When I came back to the UAE last August, I rented a car for 6 months; then I bought a car. The rental agency had a copy of my driver's license. The car dealer had a copy of my driver's license when I bought the car a couple of months ago. The insurance agent had a copy of my driver's license. No one noticed that my license expired last year in September. For almost 6 months, I've been driving with an expired driver's license. Part of the problem was that the Dubai Traffic Authority had an old address, so they couldn't contact me to let me know. The other problem is that I, like most people, don't look at the expiry date on my driver's license very often. Fortunately, I didn't have any accidents, but every day that I drive in the UAE, I think I could easily have one.
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2 comments:
Hi,
I am a canadian citizen..planning to come to dubai on a work permit..can I get a UAE drivers license based on my Canadian Driver license (over 10 years)..or do I need to go through the whole process...
I got my license more than ten years ago, so things may have changed; at that time, I had to take an eye exam and answer some pretty basic questions about driving. I did not have to take the driving portion of the test. It was all pretty easy and relatively painless.
If you have had a car in Canada, ask your insurance company to give you a letter attesting to your good driving and you can get a discount on your insurance here.
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