# UAE Driving License with RAK FZ Visa - it's good fun!!



## miami_hurricanes

Useful information (or not) on obtaining a UAE driving license if you hold a RAK FZ visa. Think you can get it in Dubai, nope 

The following is required to obtain your UAE driving license

1. Original and photocopy of passport
2. Original and photocopy of visa
3. One passport sized photo (bring two just in case)
4. Sheet of FZ headed company paper
5. FZ trade license
6. Company stamp
7. Emirates ID card and copy (front and back); or paper from EIDA showing you applied for the ID card
8. Home country driving license and copy (front and back)
9. AED 40 typing fee (yes, with a real typewriter!!!)
10. AED 205 license fee
11. Eye test certificate - this can be obtained at any opticians, I did mine at Marina Mall - it's AED 100 and you need two passport sized photos.
12. Patience

*ID Card*
You'll need to go to an EIDA centre armed with AED 40 for the typing fee. Once you have your application form the front desk will give you a number to await your turn in the waiting room. Once called you will have your photo taken and pay the fee AED 300 and then have your fingerprints taken. After this you will be given a piece of A5 paper that has your unique unified number on it.

It takes 3 days for this info to get to the police computer in Abu Dhabi and your ID card takes approx. 30 days to receive.

*Your Driving License*
Armed with either you Emirates ID card or A5 paper with the unique number from the ID authority (having waited at least 3 days if you decide to take the paper and not wait for the card)...

1. Try to present all your documentation mentioned above including the A5 sheet of paper from the identity authority or your ID card, to the man at the front desk at the driving license centre. He won't help you, that would make too much sense so proceed to step 2.

2. Go through the front door of the licensing department (remember, this is in RAK) and turn immediately to the right and follow the signs to 'typing' where you hand over all the documentation mentioned above. Using a real typewriter your permission letter will be typed on your headed paper and pay the AED 40 typing fee. When the typing is complete and you've paid you'll be told to visit the man at the front desk in step one, this time he'll be more helpful, if not perplexed as to how you managed to get something typed without seeing him first.

3. In between the typing centre and front desk man, whip out the company stamp and sign the paper.

4. The man at the front desk will be pleased to see a signed/stamped letter and tell you that your home country driving license needs to be approved by the duty manager and will point you at a room to find said manager, you may be sent to several rooms in this process - smile. Once you find the duty manager he will write on the letter confirming that the license is original (I guess that's what it says). With a wave of his hand you'll be sent back to the front desk.

5. The front desk man will provide a (drum roll)......CARDBOARD FOLDER (jackpot!!!!)......and staple your photo to the front and stamp it.

6. Take this folder back to the typing pool, they will type something in Arabic on the front and seem perplexed that you've made it this far and are still smiling. When the typing stops it's eye test time.

7. Leave the typing pool and go next door to the eye test room. State that you have an eye test certificate and the person there may or may not have you take an eye test. I didn't have to but heard it consists of looking at a giant E on the wall and stating whether it's facing left, right or upside down. Anyway, setting aside the giant E, the eye test person will write on the front of the card and stamp it. For the record, the giant E I saw was backwards.

8. Huzzah!!!! You now have all the documents, stamps and info you need so return to the front desk guy.

9. The front desk guy will tell you to take a number and go to the waiting area. Once called, hand over your folder, original driving license and the AED 205 fee. In about 15 minutes you'll be issued your driving license and will have negotiated yet another interesting bureaucratic process.

This process took me about 45 minutes start to finish. Within our organisation I was the 10th person to obtain my license - the guinea pigs who went first took 5hrs and steady improvement was made so when it was my turn it was a breeze. This is the process we identified and experienced, living in Dubai and holding a RAK FZ residence visa, being told we had to obtain our licenses from RAK. It may change (shocking, I know), it may get slicker, it may have gained extra steps but as with all UAE civil service processes just smile and go with the flow.

Good luck.


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## Moe78

Wow! Sounds like good fun to be had by all! Almost as good as taking the family to an amusement park  Since you're from the UK, I assume you have a UK passport/citizenship and UK DL? You would think it would be easy to transfer the license!


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## miami_hurricanes

Oh yeah, there's a good time to be had for all..... ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages. We have a mix of American and UK passports and DL's in our org so nothing out of the ordinary. Somewhere around person 5 or 6 in our group they started asking for the company trade license but the rest of the process has been relatively static.

Best part about it was going to Al Hamra afterward to stock up


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## el78

Thank you for this invaluable information for future readers there is now one extra step in the process!! The licence needs to be legally translated into Arabic!! Of course it does ... Apparently new rule in last two days.
I would suggest getting this done beforehand but if you need to get it done there is a a legal translator nearby. Continue from the traffic authority towards RAK. Go straight across the clock tower roundabout. Then at the first traffic lights you come to go straight across but be in the right hand lane as you need to take the first side road to the right, there is a mosque and then a building to the left of the mosque. Go through the archway in the middle of the building, take the right hand door and lift to the 2nd floor. Al Awael Legal Translation. A very nice man will then translate your licence but charge 100 AED so it might be better to get it done beforehand. 
Otherwise follow the above advice with a smile and you will have a licence !


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## Tropicana

i am glad you posted it in so much detail as it will be good stuff for many newcomers.

OTTH you are lucky you didnt have to do the whole classes and tests routine for 4 months. 

If you were British but held a licence that was not Briths you wouldnt have been able to exhange easily....


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## MarkMK1

*A couple of additional tips*



el78 said:


> Thank you for this invaluable information for future readers there is now one extra step in the process!! The licence needs to be legally translated into Arabic!! Of course it does ... Apparently new rule in last two days.
> I would suggest getting this done beforehand but if you need to get it done there is a a legal translator nearby. Continue from the traffic authority towards RAK. Go straight across the clock tower roundabout. Then at the first traffic lights you come to go straight across but be in the right hand lane as you need to take the first side road to the right, there is a mosque and then a building to the left of the mosque. Go through the archway in the middle of the building, take the right hand door and lift to the 2nd floor. Al Awael Legal Translation. A very nice man will then translate your licence but charge 100 AED so it might be better to get it done beforehand.
> Otherwise follow the above advice with a smile and you will have a licence !


Huraah! I just got my license, having followed the advice of my predecessors, to who i am of course indebted (just wish I had bothered to read el78 pointer on 'legal translation' beforehand, sound advice!) 

The Al Awael office is as described but I would add, it's next to the large Central Post Office which itself is next to the Mosque. (so 3rd building along from the lights) The building itself looks like an unimpressive 3 to 4 floor residential type block above some shops and restaurants facing on to the main road. Don't look for the 'Al Awael' office sign outside until you find the elevator!, which is where you will see it stuck on the wall beside the elevator door on the left, oh and I wouldn't ask in the shops and restaurants they didn't have a clue!

The Egyptian gentleman who I presume to be the owner is as described, very polite and hospitable despite my earlier reservations before entering the building, he informed me it would take just five minutes once he had passed my UK DL and passport to his colleague to type out, which it did to my very pleasant surprise, I paid my 100 Dhs and headed back to the DLCentre. 

My final comment before ending is, when I arrived at the DL centre at 12.30pm having checked the opening times on the website - 7.30am - 2.30pm (Ooh I am so naive!) Only to be told politely by 'The Man' at the front desk that it was too late for today and that I would do better to come back in the morning! not from Dubai it wouldn't!!! (1.5 - 2 hrs driving time!) Once he knew this fact he was far more obliging and then as described above I got my License  oh and just in case anyone doesn't know 'legally translated' means just that, so don't get the Arabic person in your office to do it, its formal and Attested. Good Luck and smile, the whole World's better place for it!


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## Thunderbird1

miami_hurricanes said:


> Useful information (or not) on obtaining a UAE driving license if you hold a RAK FZ visa. Think you can get it in Dubai, nope
> 
> The following is required to obtain your UAE driving license
> 
> 1. Original and photocopy of passport
> 2. Original and photocopy of visa
> 3. One passport sized photo (bring two just in case)
> 4. Sheet of FZ headed company paper
> 5. FZ trade license
> 6. Company stamp
> 7. Emirates ID card and copy (front and back); or paper from EIDA showing you applied for the ID card
> 8. Home country driving license and copy (front and back)
> 9. AED 40 typing fee (yes, with a real typewriter!!!)
> 10. AED 205 license fee
> 11. Eye test certificate - this can be obtained at any opticians, I did mine at Marina Mall - it's AED 100 and you need two passport sized photos.
> 12. Patience
> 
> *ID Card*
> You'll need to go to an EIDA centre armed with AED 40 for the typing fee. Once you have your application form the front desk will give you a number to await your turn in the waiting room. Once called you will have your photo taken and pay the fee AED 300 and then have your fingerprints taken. After this you will be given a piece of A5 paper that has your unique unified number on it.
> 
> It takes 3 days for this info to get to the police computer in Abu Dhabi and your ID card takes approx. 30 days to receive.
> 
> *Your Driving License*
> Armed with either you Emirates ID card or A5 paper with the unique number from the ID authority (having waited at least 3 days if you decide to take the paper and not wait for the card)...
> 
> 1. Try to present all your documentation mentioned above including the A5 sheet of paper from the identity authority or your ID card, to the man at the front desk at the driving license centre. He won't help you, that would make too much sense so proceed to step 2.
> 
> 2. Go through the front door of the licensing department (remember, this is in RAK) and turn immediately to the right and follow the signs to 'typing' where you hand over all the documentation mentioned above. Using a real typewriter your permission letter will be typed on your headed paper and pay the AED 40 typing fee. When the typing is complete and you've paid you'll be told to visit the man at the front desk in step one, this time he'll be more helpful, if not perplexed as to how you managed to get something typed without seeing him first.
> 
> 3. In between the typing centre and front desk man, whip out the company stamp and sign the paper.
> 
> 4. The man at the front desk will be pleased to see a signed/stamped letter and tell you that your home country driving license needs to be approved by the duty manager and will point you at a room to find said manager, you may be sent to several rooms in this process - smile. Once you find the duty manager he will write on the letter confirming that the license is original (I guess that's what it says). With a wave of his hand you'll be sent back to the front desk.
> 
> 5. The front desk man will provide a (drum roll)......CARDBOARD FOLDER (jackpot!!!!)......and staple your photo to the front and stamp it.
> 
> 6. Take this folder back to the typing pool, they will type something in Arabic on the front and seem perplexed that you've made it this far and are still smiling. When the typing stops it's eye test time.
> 
> 7. Leave the typing pool and go next door to the eye test room. State that you have an eye test certificate and the person there may or may not have you take an eye test. I didn't have to but heard it consists of looking at a giant E on the wall and stating whether it's facing left, right or upside down. Anyway, setting aside the giant E, the eye test person will write on the front of the card and stamp it. For the record, the giant E I saw was backwards.
> 
> 8. Huzzah!!!! You now have all the documents, stamps and info you need so return to the front desk guy.
> 
> 9. The front desk guy will tell you to take a number and go to the waiting area. Once called, hand over your folder, original driving license and the AED 205 fee. In about 15 minutes you'll be issued your driving license and will have negotiated yet another interesting bureaucratic process.
> 
> This process took me about 45 minutes start to finish. Within our organisation I was the 10th person to obtain my license - the guinea pigs who went first took 5hrs and steady improvement was made so when it was my turn it was a breeze. This is the process we identified and experienced, living in Dubai and holding a RAK FZ residence visa, being told we had to obtain our licenses from RAK. It may change (shocking, I know), it may get slicker, it may have gained extra steps but as with all UAE civil service processes just smile and go with the flow.
> 
> Good luck.


Sorry to laugh at your expense! but I enjoyed your sense of humour and patience.


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