2015. 12. 1: Personal Experience in Getting Correct Vietnamese Drivers License

I wish I have not yet again wasted my whole morning hours today.

After a not so short talk on the phone with a Korean Consulate in HCMC staff who is supposed to know better about drivers license laws in Korea, I went to the Korean Consulate building in downtown HCMC this morning.

I talked with the staff that I talked on the phone as well as a Consular(?) in charge, and explained in detail why my Vietnamese license should include category C, and categories A2 and A3, not just A2 and B2 as written in the receipt paper that I got from transportation office in HCMC last week.

After about an hour of talk and discussions, they told me they will send appropriate official document to Vietnamese transportation office and let me know.

They told me it might take some time to see the effect since the document will have to go to Ha Noi central government initially and then down to all local governments to take effect.

I just hope I do not have to waste another hours of my time dealing with un-listening Vietnamese staffs in government offices.

I also told them I do not need to spend time trying to make this Vietnamese system work correctly personally since I was already promised to be issued a A2, B2 license by Dec. 8th which is all I need to drive my 300cc motorbike.

But, I look back all the wasted hours that I spent for this and realize that the only way to make the time not go to waste is to invest a little more of my time yet to right the system however trivial that may be.

I reall like Vietnam, and I want to make a small but meaningful change to this place that makes me happy.

Now foreigners can bring an Internaltional Drivers' License from abroad and drive here legally.

But for people who intend to stay longer than one year, it is still advisable to get Vietnamese Drivers' License from their oversea's License following proper procedures: (1) Go to local Peoples Committee and get official notarized translation of original driver license; (2) Go to Consulate from respective countries and get Consulate official stamp for your applications to the transportation office; (3) Go to the local transportation office and submit the application.

Of course, you have to wait one to five days in between.

So, it means you will have to wait one to two weeks to get your local license if everything goes well.

Well, it did not go well for me the first time.

I got A1, B1 license as most people from Korea get.

But, I did not know I got the wrong license and I drove my big bike illegally without realizing that.

(While I was doing other things, I just received a call from the Consulate staff that they made a official document and sent it to Vietnamese transportation office.

He said I can get a photocopy of the document if I come to the Consulate any time when convenient.

Such a surprise!

Definitely shows how Koreans are such "PaliPali" (hurry hurry in Korean) people.

I call at 9am this morning and had a meeting at 10am at the Korean Consulate building this morning, and I received this call at 4:45PM wowow!)

(to be continued)