The One With Aldacron

If you are an expat in Korea with a foreign driver’s license and a resident ID, it’s a piece of cake to get a Korean license. Just a quick physical exam and a written test. That’s it. That’s what I learned today. After 18 years in the country, I finally decided to go for it.

Keep in mind that I’m an American with a valid American driver’s license. I can’t say if the process is the same for other nationalities. And if you don’t have a valid driver’s license, you’ll need to go through a longer process, including an actual driving test.

You’ll need to bring the following to the testing center (I went to the one near Samseong station, in Southern Seoul):

• your resident ID
• your foreign driver’s license
• your passport
• three passport-sized photos
• 17,000 won (22, 000 if you don’t bring photos)

At the testing center near Samseong sation, the place you need to go is on the 2nd floor of the main building. Look for the number dispenser with the yellow sign and English instructions at one end of the long counter. If you didn’t bring any photos, you can get a set of 9 for 5,000 won there on the 2nd floor, in the back side of the room. When your number is called, hand in all of your materials. They’ll make copies of your ID, driver’s license, and passport. You’ll get a few pages, to which they’ll paste the photos, to fill out some redundant information, all clearly stamped in English and circled so you don’t get confused. You’ll be instructed to fill out the paperwork and come back.

Once the paperwork is filled out, grab another number and wait. Yeah, that part sucks. You’ll be doing a lot of waiting. When it’s your turn, you’ll be asked if you want to take the written test today. If you do, you’ll get the paperwork back and you’ll be sent out to two places. The first stop will be on the first floor at the Revenue Stamp desk. You’ll need two 6,000 won stamps (it’s actually two pairs of 3,000 won stamps). Next, you’ll need to paste these on one of the pages you have. It’s clearly marked. Then, you head outside to the long building with the blue roof that runs along the side of the parking lot. In the middle, there’s a sign marked in both Korean and English, “Physical Exam”. Inside, you’ll hand your paperwork in at the counter and pay 5,000 won. Then, you wait in line to go in the back. Once inside, you’ll hand your paperwork to a doctor and you’ll be in a group with several other people. You’ll all be asked by the doctor to squat, then repeatedly open and close your hands where he can see. After standing, you’ll go one-by-one to take an eye exam. Once that’s done, you stop by a desk where someone will ask you to read a couple of numbers in a red/green test. Then, they’ll tear off a section of your paperwork and send you back to the second floor of the main building.

Back on the second floor, take another number and wait. When it’s your turn, you’ll be asked for your foreign driver’s license again. You won’t get it back (more on that below). Then you’ll be sent down to the other end of the counter where, presumably, you’ll have to take a number and wait again. In my case, I’d been speaking Korean with the lady I’d been dealing with and she completely lost me at this point. So, she me walked me down to the right place and I was handled immediately when there was an opening. The lady there took my paper work, did something with it, asked me if I wanted to take the test in English (then teased me for saying yes), then gave the paperwork back and asked me to go to the fourth floor. There, I went into the PC room, handed in my paperwork, turned off my cellphone, received my test tag, and sat down at the terminal the guard led me to.

The written test is 20 questions. You have 50 minutes to complete it. After a few screens of instructions, you click the start button and off you go. The terminal has a touchscreen and a mouse, so you can use whichever method you’re comfortable with. I had been told a couple weeks before, when I first visited to ask about what I need, that there is no study guide for the test. That’s not a big deal, though. Most of the questions I got were common sense. However, I did have a handful that were quite specific about policies and regulations. Those I just had to guess at. The real issue was the English. I was worried about taking the test in Korean because my vocabulary is weak. But the English version is, in a word, horrid. After all my years in Korea, I’m good at understanding Konglish. But this was some sort of alien tongue that defied my existing language skills. Really, it was bad. I was confused about some of the questions and/or answer choices even after parsing them several times. With a little patience, though, it’s possible to get the general idea. Ultimately, I passed the exam with a score of 85. So despite the annoyances, I only missed three questions. Blind luck, I suppose.

When you hand in your test tag, your paperwork will be returned to you and you’ll be sent back to the second floor to, once again, take a number and wait. This time, you’ll hand in your paperwork for the last time. You’ll get a reciept and will be told to come back in an hour to pick up your new license. I started this morning a few minutes before 11:00 am. I got to this point by 12:20, so I had to be back by 1:20. Not bad at all. I walked over to COEX Mall and had lunch at On The Border.

Back at the testing center at 1:15, I grabbed a number and waited for the last time. It was a short wait this time, as many people in front of me didn’t show up. By now, the woman I had been dealing with was gone and someone else had replaced her. She gave me my shiny new license and wished me well. I asked about my American license. Again, my limited vocabulary failed me. What I did understand is that the next time I decide to go to America, I should come to the testing center with my airline ticket and they will return my American license. The rest, particularly the reason why, I didn’t quite understand. So I’ve asked my wife to call next week and get the details. I’ll be sure to post that here.

All told, it was a quick, painless process. Not at all what I expected. Aside from the surprise of not getting my American license returned, it was actually a fun experience. If you’ve been waffling like I did for years, just go for it.