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Converting South African drivers license to Australian one


Farrow

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Hi all

Arrived in Sydney on Sunday afternoon and gave myself a day to sort all the necessary things out(medicare, bank account, TFN), my last stop was the RTA. Went there will all the necessary documentation and all seemed to be going well until once again we were inconvenienced by the South African RTI...its seems because our South African license only has our initials and surname we will need to get a letter from the South African RTI confirming our license and FULL NAME before it can be converted, not looking forward to trying to get the letter from our RTI, I can only imagine what a mission it's going to be.

Has anyone else managed to convert their license successfully? Did you also have to get confirmation from the South African RTI?

Thanks

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Will be watching responses to this one veery closely - this will be my headache next week

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Just try again, im sure you will get it 2nd time. Prolly just an anal official. :jester: :jester:

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Hi all

Arrived in Sydney on Sunday afternoon and gave myself a day to sort all the necessary things out(medicare, bank account, TFN), my last stop was the RTA. Went there will all the necessary documentation and all seemed to be going well until once again we were inconvenienced by the South African RTI...its seems because our South African license only has our initials and surname we will need to get a letter from the South African RTI confirming our license and FULL NAME before it can be converted, not looking forward to trying to get the letter from our RTI, I can only imagine what a mission it's going to be.

Has anyone else managed to convert their license successfully? Did you also have to get confirmation from the South African RTI?

Thanks

I converted mine at Castle Hill offices 2 months ago and they did not ask for what you described in yor post.

If I rember all I had was passport, visa details, and local bank card with my name on it.

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Maybe I should give Castle Hill a try then. The RTA office I tried was in Haymarket, Sydney Central.

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Precisely! What would the guy do if there were ten Doe, John's? All marked Doe, J? LOL At least its not like SA, where your ID book had to contain some cash, AND the guy behind the glass was asleep/not there (same thing) or you wait for 5 hours to be told you're in the wrong queue. then you move queues and get told in fact that the first queue was the right one! I have experienced this in SA.

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Try Thornleigh, it is small and very quiet office,I've used them often and my wife converted her licence there, same process as mine.

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We converted ours a few weeks ago at the Bondi branch and were not asked for that. When we first arrived they just wanted a bank statement to verify our address which we could only get after we had had our accounts for a month.

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It's all dependent on the branch you go to. Some will ask for it and some won't. Maybe take your green bar coded ID book along, if you have it still, your South African drivers license will have your ID number on it which hopefully should correspond to your ID book, unless of course the traffic department or DOHA have stuffed that up as well.

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Another question... if we plan to land in Sydney then Drive to Brisbane. What do we do about our drivers liscence.

Can we convert it in Sydney and it will be valid in QLD or should be get an international temporary liscence from the AA here is SA, drive with that and then only properly convert our liscences when we arrive in QLD?

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I went last week to one in Sutherland Shire (Kiora Centre) and they did not ask for anything like that. It took us less than an hour to walk out with our NSW licenses. Try another branch I think.


Another question... if we plan to land in Sydney then Drive to Brisbane. What do we do about our drivers liscence.

Can we convert it in Sydney and it will be valid in QLD or should be get an international temporary liscence from the AA here is SA, drive with that and then only properly convert our liscences when we arrive in QLD?

Tammy, if you plan to live and work in Queensland you should do all formalities in Queensland. Each state is like a separate country. You have 3 months to convert your RSA license to the license of the state you are in. If you are travelling on holiday or business in different states your own state license is totally acceptable.

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You can drive on you South African license for three months and as BriD says if you're going to live and work in QLD then convert here. You will also need to prove residential address which you will only be able to do once you have a rental agreement or some nice friends that are willing to fill in the proof of address form that Transport and Main Roads in QLD accept if you don't have any other way to prove your residential address

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Thanks BriD and HEOJJ.. so if we spend a week in Sydney then drive up to QLD and then convert out liscence it will be fine, and if we get stopped on the way and produce our RSA Liscence it will acceptable? Feels weird to be worried about traffice cops ha ha ha !

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You may have to produce your visa grant letter or passport to prove that you haven't been here more than three months but your RSA license is perfectly acceptable.

BTW the cops here are polite and friendly and only out to get you if you break the law and even then they are considerate and pleasant to deal with.

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Very grateful for this information. We were actually researching it last night. Just wonder though while we are on 173 (Temp) Parent Visa if we will be allowed to convert our driver's licences? Maybe we need to wait until we convert to Permanent Visa. Just a thought.

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Very grateful for this information. We were actually researching it last night. Just wonder though while we are on 173 (Temp) Parent Visa if we will be allowed to convert our driver's licences? Maybe we need to wait until we convert to Permanent Visa. Just a thought.

Good question! I hadn't thought of this one, Jamie.

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Very grateful for this information. We were actually researching it last night. Just wonder though while we are on 173 (Temp) Parent Visa if we will be allowed to convert our driver's licences? Maybe we need to wait until we convert to Permanent Visa. Just a thought.

According to QLD Department of Transport and Main Roads anyone staying in the country longer than 3 months is required to convert (if you are from a country on the list) or complete the drivers test if you aren't.

I would say that anyone who has the right to reside and work in Australia, whether it be permanent or temporary is required to get an Aussie license for the state you live in.

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Thanks HEOJJ. That makes sense.

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According to QLD Department of Transport and Main Roads anyone staying in the country longer than 3 months is required to convert (if you are from a country on the list) or complete the drivers test if you aren't.

I would say that anyone who has the right to reside and work in Australia, whether it be permanent or temporary is required to get an

Aussie license for the state you live in.

I wonder if that's right...I always believed it's only within 3 months of PR. We drove on our SA licenses for years on our temp visa.

But of course things change. Does anyone know for sure?

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Just an update guys, been to the rta a few times this week, apparently you are only allowed to drive for 3 months on your SA license, but I doubt they actually going to go through the trouble of checking when exactly you entered the country. With my license I had to do the knowledge test before they converted my SA license as I failed the knowledge test about 12 years ago when I was here and didn't bother after that. So I did the knowledge test and they gave me a full license straight away.

Edited by Farrow
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Just an update guys, been to the rta a few times this week, apparently you are only allowed to drive for 3 months on your SA license, but I doubt they actually going to go through the trouble of checking when exactly you entered the country. With my license I had to do the knowledge test before they converted my SA license as I failed the knowledge test about 12 years ago when I was here and didn't bother after that. So I did the knowledge test and they gave me a full license straight away.

Is the knowledge test the same as the learner's license, Farrow? I haven't heard that term before.

Also, do you have PR? Just wondering if that is a factor (still).

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Hi, yes it is the same as the learners test, if you google "rta knowledge test" you will find an online demonstration test on the rta site which have all the same questions in the actual test, and yes, I have PR.

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Hi, yes it is the same as the learners test, if you google "rta knowledge test" you will find an online demonstration test on the rta site which have all the same questions in the actual test, and yes, I have PR.

Thanks Farrow

So I'm still not convinced you have to convert on a temporary visa ;)

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Confused? I thought we (South Africans) had to redo the driving test?

Which state are you coming to Shaun? The SA license is now simply being converted by most if not all states. We live in Qld and it has been converted for about a year now.

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