A Thai driving licence as a foreigner: converting yours, the papers, the fees

Two situations, two answers. Visiting, you drive on the licence from home plus an International Driving Permit. Living here, you get a Thai licence — and if you already hold a valid licence from home, you convert it rather than learn from scratch.

Driving as a visitor

Thailand’s Ministry of Transport lists three groups of foreigners who may drive: holders of a Thai licence, visitors with a valid International Driving Permit (IDP), and drivers with a licence from an ASEAN country. The Thai embassy in London adds what to carry: the IDP together with your passport and your national licence.

The official pages we checked give no time limit for driving on an IDP.

Getting a Thai licence when you live here

What the Department of Land Transport’s office manual asks a foreigner to bring:

• Passport, original and a copy
• Proof that you live here — one of: a certificate of residence, a work permit, or a document showing your address in Thailand issued by a Thai authority, your embassy or an international organisation, issued no more than a year before you apply
• Medical certificate, issued no more than a month before you apply
• Your licence from home, still valid, for the same kind of vehicle — car for a car licence, motorbike for a motorbike licence. If it is not in English, your embassy translates or certifies it into English or Thai. An IDP is accepted too.

The certificate of residence usually comes from the immigration office covering where you live. Your landlord’s TM30 notification of your address is the starting point, so make sure it has been filed (our 90-day report and TM30 guide explains it). Your embassy can issue one too — both routes are named by the Board of Investment and by the Thai embassy in London.

The Royal Thai Embassy in London says the temporary licence is for people on an “appropriate visa, except tourist visa”. If you are here visa-exempt or on a tourist visa, ask the office before you collect documents.

The online course and the fitness test

Foreigners converting a valid licence do a one-hour online course at dlt-elearning.com instead of the five-hour classroom course, and bring the certificate it gives you (both the government’s information office and the immigration office in Phetchabun list it).

At the land transport office you sit a short physical fitness test before the licence is printed. Book your visit through the DLT Smart Queue app or gecc.dlt.go.th rather than turning up.

From Tytus’s own licence. I brought the International Driving Permit I had been issued at home for my car licence, and the office swapped it one for one for a Thai car licence — no written test, no driving test. The motorbike was a different story. I had assumed a car licence covered a scooter too; it does not. With no motorbike licence from home, I went through the full process: a test on a computer, then a practical test on the office’s course. Bring a motorbike for that — the office did not provide one, and every one of the twenty or so people taking the test with me arrived with their own. Ideally have someone who already holds a licence ride it there for you.

If you have no valid licence from home, it is the full process: the fitness test, five hours of training, a written test you pass at 90% or more, and for a car a practical driving test. Everything has to be finished within 90 days of applying. Training days are limited — the Chaiyaphum office, for example, runs new-driver training on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays only — so book early.

What it costs

	Fee
Temporary car licence (2 years)	200 THB + 5 THB form
Temporary motorbike licence (2 years)	100 THB + 5 THB form
Renewing a 5-year car licence	500 THB + 5 THB form

The first licence is a temporary one, valid two years under the Motor Vehicle Act; the next is valid five years. Car and motorbike are separate licences, each with its own fee — a car licence does not cover a motorbike.

Add the medical certificate, translations and the residence certificate, which vary by clinic, embassy and office.

Age

At least 18, or 15 for a motorbike of up to 110 cc.

Before you go

• Check which categories your licence and IDP actually cover. A car-only licence converts to a car-only Thai licence; the motorbike means the full test.
• Take originals and copies of everything.
• Check the dates: the medical certificate expires a month after it is issued, the residence document a year after.
• Keep your licence from home valid until the Thai one is in your hand.