You have 3 months to get a license... what if it laps?

[monsta]

Hi Guys,

As per the regulations, within your first three months of living in Australia you must apply for a license

from the RTA in NSW

If you are an Australian permanent resident or hold a permanent visa under the Commonwealth Migration Act 1958 and you intend to stay in NSW, you are not considered to be a visitor. As such, you are allowed to drive in NSW on a current overseas licence for a maximum of three months after arriving in Australia. If you wish to continue driving, you must obtain a NSW driver licence.

http://www.rta.nsw.g...al_drivers.html

What happens once you let those three months lap? Has anyone been in this situation?

Cheers

Edited May 21, 2012 by monsta

[nicse]

Then you stop driving until such time that you do the test. Your have 5 years from my understanding to change your license.

[monsta]

Then you stop driving until such time that you do the test. Your have 5 years from my understanding to change your license.

But if you fail the test, do you then you have to get a learners permit?

[Voyager]

Then you stop driving until such time that you do the test. Your have 5 years from my understanding to change your license.

Hmm, thats not how I understand it. As far as I can see, if you don't get your license within 3 months, you have to start from scratch with a learners permit.

My question is from when does the 3 months start? For Canberra, they say "within 3 months of taking up permanent residency". So does that mean 3 months from your 1st visit to Australia to "activate" your visa (usually a look-see holiday), or 3 months from when you land with the intention of actaully residing permanently?

[nicse]

From when you register to live in Australia, take up full time residency, that would be easy to prove because a LSD trip you would have an entry and exit stamp in your passport for the travel, indicating your left. Where are when you arrive full time you will only have an entry stamp. Your next thing is that you have to apply for a tax number, so you only want to do that right before you are ready for it as well as applying for medicare etc, another way to prove when you took up residency.

Hope that helps out.

[21yearsoutofrsa]

What happens once you let those three months lap? Has anyone been in this situation?

You don't have a driving license. This has a few consequences, including insurance. You may not be covered.

[Short&Tall]

As I understand it in VIC as soon as you activate your visa the clock starts ticking. So if you come to validate prior to moving over you could arrive after that intial 3 months is up.

In VIC it is within 3 months of the stamp in your passport. I understand some places are flexible. But the VIC Roads place went was certainly not flexible.

After the 3 months period is up you would have to go through the process as if you were a learner. Drive your car with L plates and a qualified driver at your side, as if you were a new driver.

Then once you have passed you would be subject to the P plate process where new drivers need to put P plates in their car and stick to certain requirements for a period of time.

As a overseas licence holder you pay extra insurance. I phoned the insurance company when OH passed his test and we got a nice rebate paid back.

[candivw]

We never paid extra insurance on our RSA license we are with Alliance

[Lyn]

In the ACT - well when we landed in 2008 on PR - we had 3 months to get our licence. My suggestion, book early for your road ready test, and then your driving test. My driving test was four months after we landed and there was no problem.

My understanding if you let it lapse - you start again. With L plates, then your P's - a real pain - its way simpler to just get out there and do it - one less thing to worry about. And in the ACT that little piece of plastic is accepted everywhere as ID. Really worth sorting out asap on arrival.

[21yearsoutofrsa]

You don't have a driving license. This has a few consequences, including insurance. You may not be covered.

The point I'm making is that if you are involved in an accident and you don't have a valid license (be it foreign or Australian)(which is the case if you have not done your convesion in the required time) your insurance company will be very concerned, espcially as they will have more than likely asked you a whole bunch of questions about your license when they wrote the policy.

These consequences are often not thought about when people consider when they are running out of time to convert, they seem to be more interested of the consquences if they are stopped by the police.

The consequences of been in an uninsured accident are far greater than been stopped by the police.

Edited May 21, 2012 by 15 years out of RSA

[slabbert]

well i am embarressed to say i can speak from experience :blush:

not sure how it works in the other states but here in NSW this is what happened to me....

I was in such a dwaal when landed that it took my brain about 2 months to surface from the trauma of leaving loved ones

that by the time I called to book my test they only had a date post the 3 month windown (3 months from date landed to reside permanently not activation date)

So I had to go onto L's till my test but once I passed my test I was on full licence not P's

Best to go to your intended states road traffic authority website and try find the answers directly from the source

Cheers

[sbhennops]

When your licence expires in Qld and you have not changed it over, you have to go on L's and then P's and do the hard yards. The test and driving is not difficult, so don't hesitate. You can practice your test online at the department transpost website, so go for it.

[Voyager]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'm due to spend a weeks holiday in November (probably Canberra and Brisbane), but that won't give me time to do the license thing. I'll just have to hold thumbs that when I actually arrive (possibly sometime late next year) that they'll take that as the date that I've "taken up residency" and I'll do the test then.

[Chocaholic]

The three months definitely only start from when you arrive to live here permanently, not from the date of your validation trip, so don't worry about this November holiday, rather just enjoy and have a good look around.

[nicse]

All the website contain sort of the following statement (except WA which the date starts from the date the PR is issued),

If you are an Australian permanent resident or hold a permanent visa under the Commonwealth Migration Act 1958 and you intend to stay in XYZ, you are not considered to be a visitor. As such, you are allowed to drive in XYZ on a current overseas license for a maximum of three months after arriving in Australia. If you wish to continue driving, you must obtain a XYZ driver license

Nowhere does it say after 3 months that you cannot convert your license. If you want to continue driving after the 3/6 month period (Dependent on state), you will have to convert your license. So the problem you have with a RSA license is that it is not recognized for automatic conversion and requires you to undertake some form of testing. This leads to an interesting problem, if you do not convert it within the required timeframe you are not allowed to drive which will cause issues when trying to practice for the test or take the test, because you will not be authorized to drive, hence the reason for needing L plates or a learner license to give you that right. So in some degree it is correct that you will run into an issue and have to "redo" your license if you fail to convert in time or fail the test.

Now if you have a foreign driving license from a designated country, then even if the 3 months passes and you have not converted, you only obligation is to stop driving until you convert, nowhere does it say you cannot convert your license and then start driving again, they only requirement is that license be current or not expired by more than 5 years.

So in the case of both my wife and I, we still hold valid UK licenses which are due to only expire in 2017, given that and 5 years after expiry, we have plenty of time still to change our licenses.

So it all depends on your circumstances, they only exception to the 6 month rule is WA, which start from the day your PR is granted in Pretoria.

The following link is provided which has link to all license authorities per state http://www.immi.gov.au/living-in-australia/settle-in-australia/to-do-first/apply-drivers.htm

[Tsunabi]

I did my licence test(write and drive) 1.5 years after we landed and since my SA license hasn't expired at that time(well kinda did but told them in SA its valid 6 months after expiry), I got a full Oz licence, no P or L plates.

I'm in Qld.

[JellyTots]

Would anyone know what happens in the case of an Aus citizen? Would I be treated the same as a permanent resident?

[blondiejhb]

What happens if you fail your drivers test within the 3 month period after arrival? Can you just redo the test or do you go back to being a learner driver?

[Rosie]

We got our drivers in Canberra within 2months.

1 practiced our learners online.

2 we took driving lessons and reviews through an approved driving school who signed us as competent (6 lessons/reviews). He issued our drivers license. All we had to do is go collect our driving card.

It's a safer route...

[Orion25]

Hi There,

We landed 25 Jan 2012, and both hubby and I left the licence to last minute due to stress of maybe failing anyway we did our knowledge test and passed with flying colours and that was before our 3 month expiry was up, and we booked our licences 2 weeks later after each going for a driving lesson with a great guy Mick from Trek driving (he lives opposite us, so he squeezed us in on Sundays)

We both got our licences within the last 3 weeks and we have been here 4 months. They did not ask to see when we took up residency, they just wanted to make sure our SA licences were still valid. We can now drive a 4.5ton truck, tractor and bus that seats up to 12 people. So we are very happy. We are also not restricted to Automatic only as our SA licence was unrestricted even though we used an automatic for our test.

My 2c worth get your licence out of the way ASAP, it is such a relief and a great feeling to be "legal".

T

[Voyager]

We got our drivers in Canberra within 2months.

1 practiced our learners online.

2 we took driving lessons and reviews through an approved driving school who signed us as competent (6 lessons/reviews). He issued our drivers license. All we had to do is go collect our driving card.

It's a safer route...

Hi,

May I ask what the lessons cost?

Thanks.

[Rosie]

It may vary between driving schools, but it cost $70 per lesson. A bit pricey, but worth it. The road rules are so different, so you learn a lot. My husband did it in half the lesson that I had. The driving instructor takes you through a friendly user review book and if you fail the review, he tells you what you should do, then tests you again.

[Rosie]

Oh, and for the newbies...carrying a drivers license has its advantages....it's like carrying an SA ID book back home. No Ned to lug a passport around.

[Orion25]

We also paid $70 per lesson, and only had one lesson each, the instructor told us what we needed to work on so we knew where our weaknesses were.

We both had the same tester, and he took us both on TOTALLY different routes. We both passed first time round. It was VERY stressfull but as I have said before, it was well worthit.

T

[MsGee]

In VIC it is within 3 months of the stamp in your passport. I understand some places are flexible. But the VIC Roads place went was certainly not flexible.

It is actually 6 months in Victoria. Check their Vic Roads website.