Getting a Driver's License in KSA

I had an license from Texas in the USA, and it was not hard to get my license. I am not sure if you will have to take a test or not given your circumstances, but the first step is to get the permission letter from your employer. They have to give you a letter of authorization in order to obtain a driver's license. You must also have a letter from a clinic that states your blood type. If you have something from your physical that states your blood type, this will work. If not, the driving school can do a test, but it is hit or miss if they will be available when you get there...so it is best to already have this

Once you have the letter and proof of blood type, you must take it to a driving school. Here in Riyadh there are two schools off of Dammam road in the Sahafa area. Dallah School and North Riyadh Driving School. One is as good as the other i have heard. When you arrive, there will be probably 20 people out front offering to interpret for you. If you choose to have them assist, they will basically take you through the entire process, and charge a small fee. Typically the driving license costs around 420 - 450. SAR, if you use one of these guys, they will take around 50 SAR to assist you, but will likely ask for the entire 500 up front, as they have to pay certain fees at certain steps in the process. You can also bypass these guys and have a friend who knows Arabic help you, or you can completely bypass the guys and go to the front desk and ask for translation and they will send you to the official translator desk to assist. This also costs a fee... Al of these ways work just about as well as the other, and they all end up costing about 500 SAR total...

Regardless of how you choose to get the stuff translated, your first stop will be the front desk to get an application and a folder. They will charge 5 SAR for the folder, and ask to see your iqama to fill out part of the form. You then take that to window 5 i believe, and that guy will look at your iqama and native driving license, fill out some of the forms, and tell you where to go next. He will also charge somewhere around 50 SAR.

Basically at each step in the process you will be told where to go next. If you do not have a friend who has done it before, i advise you take the guys in front up on their offer. Also, i suggest you negotiate with them. 50 SAR is a good going rate. They will probably ask for 100 SAR at first, depending on the color of your skin...be persistent, you can get them down to 50.

I had some friends from Australia who had to take the driving test. It was in a manual car, and involved pulling forward about 100 ft around a small curve, then reversing back to the start...and that was it. They also said like 10 people failed in front of them.