Dear Friends,
After a long wait, hardships, confusion, abandonees, frustration and lot more, I got a driving license in Kuwait. I am sharing this information of getting a driving license in Kuwait because it not as easy.
There is some designation in Kuwait which has the grace of getting license with less pain as declared by govt still not aware on which basis, but these designations are assigned to you by your employer as he wishes.
The normal procedures of getting a license are as follows
1.Be a resident of Kuwait for a period of 2 years prior to the application.
2. Hold a university degree.
3. Earn a minimum salary of KD 500.
There are special designations which has got exceptions from the above creiteria.
If you are smart - you should fight for a designation which has got a privilege of getting license with less cumbersome process. If not you will have to wait for 2-Years some times more and if you have your family here or plan to have your family here it will be very difficult for you to survive without a car for local commutation
Some of the designations which I knew are as follows…
o Housewives (Only with Children)(Husbands cannot)
o Doctors
o Professors (Not lecturers, Readers, Principal, Dean, HOD)
o Teachers
o Nursing Staff
o Translators and interpreters
o Accountants (Not Chartered Accountants or any other accountants)
o Managers
o Counselors
o Journalists
o Company Heads
o University Students
o Teaching Staff
o Engineers (Not Assist Engineer)
o All diplomatic staff
The beauty of the above designations are like if you get your designation exactly as the designation as above only then you will get a license with the exception permitted by the govt for example if your designation is a “Asst Engineer” you will not get a driving license or Software engineer you cannot get a license. Your designation should have only the exact character that govt has mentioned. Some companies will lie to you at the time when they take residence that the designation mentioned by them has exception from the govt. Do not believe any one. Once if the residence is made for you in one designation it’s very difficult to change it back to any other designation that your company will not do.
What happens if you do not get any of the above mentioned designations?
You will have to wait for 2-long years before you can prepare your papers for esthimara “Learners License” or it’s the eligibility certificate from the government to permit you to get driving license.
For most of the private companies the esthimera and license has to be applied by the approved company mandhoop only, that’s a big problem.
Most of the company mandhoup are very busy with their day to day work hence to get their appointment to help you to get the license will be a night mare you may have to wait for months or sometimes years or some of the them purposely will ignore you as they think they are one step above humans and helping humans is a sin. Still to the mess if your company HR is not employee friendly really you are in a deep shit.
In spite of this confusions there are lot more procedures to be fulfilled before attempting to submit your esthimera papers to the traffic dept
The normal procedures of getting a license are as follows
1. Be a resident of Kuwait for a period of 2 years prior to the application.
2. Hold a university degree.
3. Earn a minimum salary of KD 500
4. Get the attestation of your degree certificate from Indian embassy as well as foreign affairs
5. Translate the degree certificate to Arabic and will have to get the attestation from foreign affairs
6. Passport Copy with residence stamp
7. 4- Lisence Photograph ( Special I don’t know the measurement any photo studio will know it)
8. Original and copies of Civil Id
9. Get a NOC (No Objection Certificate) from your company that, they don’t have any issues on you to get a driving license.
10. Your company Chamber Of Commerce Paper (Thima-Thokia) for the current year
11. Blood test certificate from any of the clinic
12. Then type the application attach all the above papers (Copies only to be attached with the license application) and on the application your visa sponsors, if it will be your company some authorized personnel who has signed in the chamber of commerce paper will have to sign on the application paper.
13. Paste 10 KD stamp then request your company mandhoop to submit the application whenever he gets the time and you should be with him.
14. On the day you submit your application you will have to take a eye test and attach the supporting documents with the esthimera application
15. Finally when the modhir signs in your application you can collect your esthimera card.
16. You will have to get a trial date in the esthimera card for you to come for driving test
17. After you get the date for your driving and signal test approach any of the private or government driving institute to learn Kuwait way of driving they normally cost 5-KD Per/Hour.
18. You can take as many hours of driving class as you wish until you are comfortable with Kuwait driving , do not take it lightly Kuwait driving is very serious.
19. On your test date take your esthimera and first go for a signal Test where they will ask basic questions about signals, road signs mostly you can pass it easily its better if you get the details from the driving institute from where you learned driving, They will have some simple training materials to teach you about the signal Test
20. Once you pass the signal test you will have to Paste 10 KD stamp for the first time driving test then you will have to take a traffic department authorized car for the driving test by paying 10 KD
21. Mostly there will be a box parking as your driving test. Once after you complete the driving test you will have to come back to the waiting room where you will get your esthimera with the result of pass or fail.
22. If you pass the driving test you will get a white license authorization paper to intimate the other license providing dept to give you a driving license, If you fail they will return back your esthimera with a re-test date on it and you will have to repeat the driving test process as above.
23. Even after you pass the driving Test for most of the private companies their company mandhoup has to collect the license from the traffic department. Hence it depends upon your mandhoop again. You will have to hang behind him or beg him until he collects the license for you.
Kindly take a guy who knows Arabic when you go to any of the government office. If you don’t know Arabic at least even Hindi you are ditched.
I took my lisence the hard way as my company has a dont care attitude towards the employee concern. My designation is "Asst-Engineer" even tough I am a post graduate (MBA). I waited for 2-Years & 6 Months, all the very best for the other company people.
Thanks & Regards,
S.Grace Paul Regan
