Kuwait driving License time line

If you or your company have a wasta then it is "transferrable". If you are going by the book, then you are expected to take a driving test to get your license (if you have all the prerequisites of course).

For where I work, everything goes through the Kuwaiti Ministry of Defense (I work for a US based company, but that is who our contract is through).  In order to get our driver's license we first need our Kuwaiti Civil id, and then we can apply.

As of this very day I have been in the country for about 50 days and have not yet received my civil id.  I'm told it might take a couple more weeks (inshallah) and that the process is longer than usual because of the KMOD aspect of it.

After that I'm told my driver's license application process should be "quick" and within two or so weeks I should have that as well (inshallah).

There is one guy at work who keeps having problems with his name being spelled wrong, and apparently the company doing all our applications has had to resubmit his paperwork three times.  It's been three months and he still doesn't have his license yet.

Now there is ANOTHER guy at work whose contract does NOT go through the KMOD and he can drive with his UK license (same, I think, if he had a US license).  Until his application for his civil id starts...

All in all, there are a million difference scenarios with different timelines it seems.  Everyone at work has gone through it at some point and everyone helps us out so it's not so bad.  Plus there are a million cabs here. I don't think I've waited more than two minutes for one, and they're relatively cheap.

Good times.