Today my husband, Trevor went for his driving test. Yes, that's right! It's like being 16 all over again. Here in Qatar you can no longer easily transfer your US driver's license over to a Qatari license. When you first get to Qatar you can get a temporary driver's license. But once you receive your resident permit then it is not valid and you must do your driver's test and it's a multi-step process. First you have your picture taken, then you go for your eye exam. If you pass your eye exam then you make an appointment for the road sign test.
The road sign test is a verbal test of which you must say the answer that they are looking for otherwise you will fail.
If you pass the verbal test then you move onto the next step. You are divided into two groups, each in a separate bus; one for the manual drivers and one for the automatic drivers. This is really important to know because no one told us this: The type of car you test in goes on your license and you are only licensed to drive this type of vehicle, so make sure it matches the type of car you own. This will be marked on the back of your license (example: vehicle-car, automatic). If you take the road test in a manual car, you are licensed to drive both a manual and automatic, but not vise-versa.
The 2nd step in the sequence is a parking test with cones and a hill stop (Americans can skip this part). Once you pass the first 2 steps in the sequence, you can take the driving test. The bus full of people waiting to test follows the car around as each person is tested. This process can take a few hours. If you pass this part of the sequence you pay $250 Riyals ($67.50USD) and they issue you a driver's license that is good for 5 years. If you fail any part of this sequence you have to return at a later date to retake the test starting with the step you failed and yes, you pay again. You can only fail the 3rd step (the driving portion) twice! Did I mention that men and women are tested separately? What a process right?
Trevor passed, by the way!
The road sign test is a verbal test of which you must say the answer that they are looking for otherwise you will fail.
If you pass the verbal test then you move onto the next step. You are divided into two groups, each in a separate bus; one for the manual drivers and one for the automatic drivers. This is really important to know because no one told us this: The type of car you test in goes on your license and you are only licensed to drive this type of vehicle, so make sure it matches the type of car you own. This will be marked on the back of your license (example: vehicle-car, automatic). If you take the road test in a manual car, you are licensed to drive both a manual and automatic, but not vise-versa.
The 2nd step in the sequence is a parking test with cones and a hill stop (Americans can skip this part). Once you pass the first 2 steps in the sequence, you can take the driving test. The bus full of people waiting to test follows the car around as each person is tested. This process can take a few hours. If you pass this part of the sequence you pay $250 Riyals ($67.50USD) and they issue you a driver's license that is good for 5 years. If you fail any part of this sequence you have to return at a later date to retake the test starting with the step you failed and yes, you pay again. You can only fail the 3rd step (the driving portion) twice! Did I mention that men and women are tested separately? What a process right?
Trevor passed, by the way!
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