[jess]

Yet another 'I passed my NZ driving theory test' thread. :D Good thing, since I'm days away from being here a year.

But my OH almost had to take the practical test along with the theory test. His U.S. driver's license was renewed less than 2 years ago, and you are supposed to have held your overseas license for at least 2 years. Luckily, next to the issue date for his license it had an R to show it was a renewal. They decided to let him get through since he was only a couple months shy of the two years for the issue date and they figured he had obviously held a license for more than a few months before getting a renewal. There was a bit of discussion amongst the staff before making the decision not to give him the practical, so I thought I'd mention it here. If you just had a license renewed overseas before coming, you might want to bring something official showing how long you've held the license previously, unless it's written somewhere on your license itself.

(Also our VA license said the class was 'none' which is what they put for the equivalent of class 1 here, but they had to call around to verify what "class - none" meant on our license. It wasn't in their book anywhere, and 'none' makes it sound like it was just a photo ID or something).

[zardell]

:nice1

CONGRATULATIONS.

Another milestone out of the way ................:clap


Julie

xx

[Jenny & Mark]

Thanks for the heads up about the two year renewal, Jess. I will need to bring proof on having the licence for longer than two years.

Cheers, Mark.

[Kim39]

:clap Good on ya folks......piece of piddle isn't it.:yes

Kim

[Trigirl]

Oh dear. I changed mine just before moving out here (got married) so it says that it started from August 06.

[wiki]

Very good advice!

I guess if you had your old one - or a copy of your UK no-claims bonus in your name, that may well convince them that you've had yours for long enough?

[Trigirl]

i had to send my old one off to get the new one issued. and no no claims bonus (i crashed the car a few days before we left just after saying goodbye to all my friends). i do the have insurance docs going back a few years though.

[wiki]

That might be enough - or perhaps you could just write to DVLA, explain the circumstance and ask for a document from them to say when you got your licence. At least you've still got a good 7 months or so before you need to take the theory.

[jess]

i do the have insurance docs going back a few years though.That would probablyhave been enough to sway the nice ladies we had at the AA for the test. You could call where you will be going to take the test later and ask if that will do. Then you'll know ahead of time whether you have to write for more proof.

Although I had no doubt OH would pass the practical, we didn't want to pay the extra $70 for that test!!

[Trigirl]

i have lots of doubts about passing the practical! 15 years on i'm still not sure how i managed to pass my uk one!

[Jo Jo]

i had to send my old one off to get the new one issued. and no no claims bonus (i crashed the car a few days before we left just after saying goodbye to all my friends). i do the have insurance docs going back a few years though.

What a pain. You can get a copy of your Driver Licence Record from the DVLA, though, which should show how long you've held your licence.

http://www.dvla.gov.uk/foi/dataprtc.aspx

[Trigirl]

thank you!!!!

[K&CS]

Welldone! I passed mine 2 weeks ago - the day before I'd been here a year! I like to leave things to the last minute... I noticed that with my UK license - I'd renewed mine 2 years earlier when we'd moved house and she said if I'd been a couple of months later than I'd have had to the practical test. I'd have been extremely miffed as I've been driving for 21 years!

Good of you to let people know your experience (and bad of me not to!). I was just so relieved to pass that I couldn't think about anything else!