Thousands of Expats driving licenses to be withdrawn

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KUWAIT CITY, Oct 10: To solve the traffic jams in the country, the Ministry of Interior will be withdrawing thousands of driving licenses of expats which have already expired, as they are continuing to use them despite their expiry which is in violation of the law. 

A circular will be issued very soon to prohibit driving with an old license although if it is valid. The holders of old licenses will have to replace them with new driving licenses in order to restrict counterfeit driving licenses. Data will be interlinked between traffic department, manpower and residency affairs to detect blocked driving license. Expatriate with an old, invalid license will not be able to renew his residence as he will have to handover the license in order to renew residence.

Many of the expatriates drive with expired driving licenses and on being caught currently they are fined for a fee of KD 5 as it is considered having a driving license which is not renewed. But those who do not possess Kuwaiti license on being caught are deported, reports Al Rai. Around 20,000 driving licenses are granted to the university students, most of them have finished their studies but they do not come and hand over their driving license on finishing their studies. Hence the Traffic department blocks their driving license in order not to renew their license. 

There are around 40,000 expats having driving licenses, but when they change their profession they lose their driving license which is a condition set by the Traffic department. Expats who are generally caught for driving on expired license go to the MOI and pay a 5 KD traffic fine and are also able to renew their residence. 

The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior, Sheikh Faisal Al-Nawaf, had recently requested a study to stop issuing driving licenses to expats in order to place a new mechanism for granting driving licenses. 

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