How to obtain a local driving licence?

Maadi Expat, Thanks for sharing the info. it does seem very difficult. my understanding is that if an expat has a residence visa he or she can NOT use an international licence to drive a vehicle in Egypt as it is against the law, we must obtain a local licence to be able to drive legally. Under any circumstances, I would not drive here on an international Driving Licence for one main reason and that is, for god bidden, if I get involved in an accident and regardless of the outcome of the accident, I might go to jail as I would be driving illegally if I have a residence visa and drive on an international licence.
I might go tomorrow myself to the Traffic Department which is located in The Zahra Al Maadi to find out myself how to obtain one.
I will keep you updated of any developments.
Cheers

Nassman.

i have been told to show up at the local driving office with a International driverlicence and a medical taht show my blod type, i will then get a Egyptian licence.

but let see what you find out today, please share. as i will be getting up there next week.

Hi
I must say that it is proving to be a pain. I have been this afternoon to the local Traffic Department which is located in the middle of nowhere (10 minutes from the big Carrrefour by taxi) but was told by one of the saff that I must go to the 'Al Gazeera' Traffic Department which is the only department that can issue a driving licence for non Egyptian nationals. I was also asked to get a medical check and eye test certificates which I got them from Al Rayan Hospital, this is in Maadi but I was also told most hospitals provide this service - Al Rayan was very cheap, only EGP45 but you must have 4 passport size photos, your passport and they do the rest. this was very quick, I was out of the hopital within 10 minutes, they were very helpful and knew what to do. all you need to do there is tell them you want medical certificates for Egyptian Driving Licence and they do the rest.

well, this was the first stage.

I will be going to Al Gazeera Traffic Dept tomorrow and see what happens. I promise, I will keep you all updated of any progress.
Cheers
Nassman

Very useful information Nassman, thank you for sharing

Thanks, Nassman. Have you gone to Al Gazeera and got the license ? For how many years ?

Nassman wrote:

Hi
I must say that it is proving to be a pain. I have been this afternoon to the local Traffic Department which is located in the middle of nowhere (10 minutes from the big Carrrefour by taxi) but was told by one of the saff that I must go to the 'Al Gazeera' Traffic Department which is the only department that can issue a driving licence for non Egyptian nationals. I was also asked to get a medical check and eye test certificates which I got them from Al Rayan Hospital, this is in Maadi but I was also told most hospitals provide this service - Al Rayan was very cheap, only EGP45 but you must have 4 passport size photos, your passport and they do the rest. this was very quick, I was out of the hopital within 10 minutes, they were very helpful and knew what to do. all you need to do there is tell them you want medical certificates for Egyptian Driving Licence and they do the rest.

well, this was the first stage.

I will be going to Al Gazeera Traffic Dept tomorrow and see what happens. I promise, I will keep you all updated of any progress.
Cheers
Nassman

Hi again
I am afraid it is not very good news. I must start with saying it is really frustrating and I mean it.
I did go to Al Jazeera Traffice department and was told that I need to provide the following documentation.
1. all relevant medical certificates - I said I have them all ready.
2. I need my original Passport - I said I have it ready with me
3. a prove of my address in Cairo - I said I have the original rental contract (that has been legalised and approved by the local Government land regisrty office) and 2 utility bills NUT I was told that this is not sufficient, the officer repeated that they do not recognize this as a proof of an address. The officer insisted that I must obtain a letter from the british embassy to prove that 1. I am a british citizen 2. to approve my address in Cairo???? yes, I was asked that can you believe this.
I immediately called the British embassy and explained the situation and clearly said to the embassy staff that I do not live at the embassy so, how can the embassy confirms to the traffic department that I live at an address somewhere in Cairo despite the fact that I have a rental contract that has been legalised and approved by a government office. The embassy staff said well, this is the traffic department requirement and that the embassy is more than happy to provide a letter against a fee of 700 EGP yes 700 EGP!!!! I personally find it shocking.
once again, if this is the law here, I must respect it and do what I need to do legally. However, after I get a letter from the embassy, my fear is that the Traffic Department might ask me to provide another document or might say the letter from the embassy is not required or suffecient. if this happens then I will simply give up and use taxis.
I am very sorry if I sounded very pessimistic but what can I do.
Finally, I would really appreciate any input from those expats that actually have obtained a local Driving Licence.
Many thanks to all

You are in Egypt guys!

Let me explain how it works. You are a foreigner and officers expect money from you.
Your company PR has never been to the transport depart. and did not even bother to look into the matter. They are lazy or they expect a fee!

Get the medical cert. you need then go back to the office, find the person who is responsible for issuing the driving licence, than say you need it urgently and you are ready to pay.

But I would suggest to bring with you an Egyptian lawyer, actually he might be able to get you the licence without any document.

It is a very corrupted country, it does not matter which party is at the gov.

I know of people who got a licence without even having one!!

Let me ask my lawyer and get back to you on how to get the license.

PS You mention about respecting the law. Which law? 90% of rules in Egypt are there for display, nobody follows them, even those who are supposed to enforce them.

If you want to live here, you have to change mentality or you will never get anything done.
Actually following the bureaucratic process might hinder you from getting the licence.

If you go to an office and anybody tell you go to come back tomorrow, this equals to = I need money. It does not actually means you have to go back the day after.

If anybody tells you it is too difficult = they need money or they cannot bother.

I agree! lol i was going to post that maybe they needed to offer a bribe. because it does work. and also a lawyer is a good idea but they cost money too and there are too many greedy lawyers.

i think having a connection such as an egyptian friend whose a cop can also help but still have to pay something. :-) one of the reason i like egypt is money talks and not much money lol.

erikabrio wrote:

You are in Egypt guys!

Let me explain how it works. You are a foreigner and officers expect money from you.
Your company PR has never been to the transport depart. and did not even bother to look into the matter. They are lazy or they expect a fee!

Get the medical cert. you need then go back to the office, find the person who is responsible for issuing the driving licence, than say you need it urgently and you are ready to pay.

But I would suggest to bring with you an Egyptian lawyer, actually he might be able to get you the licence without any document.

It is a very corrupted country, it does not matter which party is at the gov.

I know of people who got a licence without even having one!!

Let me ask my lawyer and get back to you on how to get the license.

PS You mention about respecting the law. Which law? 90% of rules in Egypt are there for display, nobody follows them, even those who are supposed to enforce them.

If you want to live here, you have to change mentality or you will never get anything done.
Actually following the bureaucratic process might hinder you from getting the licence.

If you go to an office and anybody tell you go to come back tomorrow, this equals to = I need money. It does not actually means you have to go back the day after.

If anybody tells you it is too difficult = they need money or they cannot bother.

im not being sexist but hpow do you think most of the egyptian girls got licenses? you think they actually KNOW how to drive? lol they have connections.

its all about ---> Money talks!

layla1313 wrote:

im not being sexist but hpow do you think most of the egyptian girls got licenses? you think they actually KNOW how to drive? lol they have connections.

You need to offer money. An amount in Egyptian pounds is not much in EUR or GBP.

You also need connection in gov. / police as Moe explained.

There are plenty of cheap prostitutes in Egypt, somebody in a high position can have them for free if they want. They do not need expatriates, especially if they are nationals of a western country.

I find your comment sexist and rather offensive towards women, and you are a woman yourself!

Thanks to all who participated in this thread. This is a gentle reminder that the thread is about ‘how to obtain a driving licence’ so, could we all please stick to the point in this regards and not have an argument about something not related to this topic.
Cheers

Hi Nassman. I always need "Residence Certificate" from the embassy for any formal documents like to get free tax in original country, banking purposes, etc. That certificate has also to be renewal from time to time. They asked me and my husband)same documents as yours. Nothing else. Don't worry. It's normal. You will pay more expensive if you use agent (about EGP 1000 - 1250). I've got local driving license 6 months validity instead of 10 years. The only question is: WHY ? All my expat friends have got 10 years. But they did it before revolution. So, is the rule changed after revolution ?? So now I have to go back to the Traffic Dept to renewal. Good luck. Please tell me the progress.

Before I had my driving licence valid as long as my residence visa was valid, now I have to renew it after 7 years (my residence visa is valid for 5 years).

indobe wrote:

Hi Nassman. I always need "Residence Certificate" from the embassy for any formal documents like to get free tax in original country, banking purposes, etc. That certificate has also to be renewal from time to time. They asked me and my husband)same documents as yours. Nothing else. Don't worry. It's normal. You will pay more expensive if you use agent (about EGP 1000 - 1250). I've got local driving license 6 months validity instead of 10 years. The only question is: WHY ? All my expat friends have got 10 years. But they did it before revolution. So, is the rule changed after revolution ?? So now I have to go back to the Traffic Dept to renewal. Good luck. Please tell me the progress.

AGAIN! The reason why you get 6 months it is because the officers need money. You guys do not want to understand, that the reasons of your difficulties lies in the fact that you need 'wasta' and money to complete legal procedures in Egypt.

You will find a person being refused, another getting 6 months, another one getting 10 years.
The one getting 10 years understands how to deal in public offices the others do not.

I went to the land registry and I had the same problem. Told to come later, then, afternoon, then tomorrow. Tomorrow never comes. They just wanted 100 EGP and they processed immediately, skipping the queue  as well.

Please stop asking yourself questions, why and when. This is not UK, or Germany, or USA.
This is how things work here.

After all, if you considered the high fees asked by UK agencies for example to fetch you a document,
such as when you need an attested document. Embassy attestation starts at 90 GBP, while what is given to the embassy is really 20 GBP. You will get your doc fast tracked.

While it is not advertised as 'bribe' it is very close to it. So while in Egypt you can negotiate the price of a service, in UK you won't even be able to do that.

sadly most of things in egypt works with money
sometimes 100 l.E can make you finish you staff in 15 mins
instead of 5 months

i still remember the time i want to travel to Malaysia
it takes me 3 weeks going to Abbasya to do some staff to get one paper and i couldn't get it!
silly enough that paper was a proof that my older brother died (may god bless his soul)!
cause he died in  Saudi Arabia
they want an Egyptian paper that says he died not a Saudi Arabian one!
i talked to one of my friends and his father is a VIP in Egypt
with one call i met another VIP a he give someone an order
and that paper with all other papers in 2 hours without paying anything
the other papers takes minimum of 5 days

Geely wrote:

Before I had my driving licence valid as long as my residence visa was valid, now I have to renew it after 7 years (my residence visa is valid for 5 years).

I still have positive point of view that I've got 6 month driving license regarding to my previous residence visa that was valid only for 3 months. Now I've got new one, so hopefully I'll get 10 years driving license. It's true that money talks but not all stories are always about money.

If we want to stop bribe, people must also cooperate by not giving money to speed up the process. Respect police man, respect traffic lights (STOP when it's RED, respect other cars way/line....., don't drive towards opposite way, don't reversing in the high way because missing the turn, etc ........ (sorry, this is already out of topics). Just, please stop blame the corrupted officers and about money talks because actually people themselves raise the corruption. They will feel better to give some money to ease the process.

I tink that an interational licence is ok to drive here without any problem
That what I am doing

No, amarka. You must convert to local one if you're resident.

Waw thanks for the info Indobe,

I really dont know that, I have even already been stoped by a police & I show him my contry licence & it was OK

still I need to do it also, May be we can orgnise our self to do it all together to make more easy ??

Wow excellent advice hun x

(Moderated: Please avoid leaving your phone number on the forum)

Hi Nassman, did you get your local driving license? How did you get it? Can you please share the procedure？ I have residential certificate too. Now, I am trying to apply an local driving license. A little bit confused. Hope can get your help.

Hi, does anyone know how long the procedure takes if you have all the documents till you actually get your license?

@erikabrio peace be upon you.

Believe in ALLAH (GOD) and the judgment day and do good deeds.

Don't use fornication to get what you want that will be better for you in this life and the hereafter.

Hello Samir,

Thank you for your message but unfortunately @erikabrio will not see it since he has been inactive for quite a few years.

Do not hesitate to check the Egypt forum. You may interact and participate in more active discussions.

Cheers,

Yoginee

Expat.com team

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