Driving license in Romania

I did this last summer.  I wrote about it on my blog:  http://odessatoma.blogspot.ro/2011/08/w … n.html?m=1
that is the link to the blog on changing your d.l.

Hi everyone!

While going to your Romanian driving school (those who did it), did you manage to find Romanian road legislation rules in English?

I was recently told about some mysterious CD of road legislation and tests in English and I'm hunting for it everywhere. Only one school in Bucharest had it , but I'm in Brasov

I will appreciate any links and help: theory exam is soon:)

Thanx!

Julia

Hello everybody!

I am wondering if you have get the driving license here in Romania or not yet? If yes, How was the "english" test? I have heard that is google translated :-S.

[Moderated: Off Topic.]

You could exchange you foreign driver license to the Romanian one. Following website has some information that can help you out.

Website : Wikiprocedure.com

Look under "Romania"

If anyone has located the Romanian rules in English I would appreciate knowing where to get them..

It seems the exam can be taken in English but if the rules are only available in Romanian that kind of defeats the purpose!!!

Australians and New Zealanders should be aware that that these two countries are NOT on the list of 85 countries that can exchange licenses with Romania.

(Looking at the relative vehicle death rates by country they clearly wish to train you in deadly driving techniques before allowing you more than the initial 90 days :-)

So far I have asked three embassies, NZ and Ozzie to Romania, Romanian to NZ, and got three different answers - only the NZ embassy answer agreed with the Romanian Traffic police website (translated by Romanian collegues.

Wonderful !!

A couple of years ago i was involoved in a 'traffic offence' and i was pulled by the police, after this we decided it was better to swap my UK licence for a Romanian one, but when we made enquirys i was told it was not possible, and that i needed to get a European licence instead, to this day though i still havn't done this.

The trouble in this country is, when you go to one official office of enquirys they then send you to another one, who then send you somewhere else, and to be honest i dont have the patience for that.

However if i do commit a 'traffic offence' and i am unlucky enough not to meet a corrupt policeman (like last time) he will take away my licence for three months, and after this it will be sent back to the country of origin, (the UK) i must then get on a plane and go to fetch it back from the DVLA, at a high cost obviously. And all this just for crossing over a pelican crossing.

As I said Australian and New Zealand drivers licences CANNOT BE EXCHANGED FOR ROMANIAN licenses.

UK licenses can. (trips to the DVLA notwithstanding)

See Appendix one

Preschimbarea permiselor de conducere nationale eliberate de autoritatile comptente ale altor state cu documente simiare Romanesti.

(Ordnual MAL nr. 163 din 10 /08/2011)

There are 85 countires listed including some places with shocking driving standards. But not Australia and not New Zealand.

The NZ Embassey to Romania (based in Brussels) told me that they hadnt noticed !!!

Hello again!

I've written here almost one year ago. Wow.

The good news is that I've passed the exam and got my driving license. The bad news is that the English theory exam test questions are not only Google-translated, but nowhere to be found

I have failed my first theory exam because of approximate test question translation I was presented during the test.

I had to learn a bit of Romanian and most of theory test questions by heart in order to finally pass my theory exam in Romanian.

If anyone is interested in tips and "war stories", don't hesitate to contact me. I hope I've saved a bit of your time.

Cheers,
Julia

Hi Julia

Thank you for this information (I think :-))

After 45 years of accident free driving I was hoping not to have to sit another license - I already have two - including a UK license but they will not reissue it as I am not currently resident in the UK.

Its true. I have been driving over 45 years in at least 10 countries with no accidents -  but I come to Romania and my license is no good!

Having seen the driving in Bucharest I think the issue may be that I need training in how to crash!!!!

Regards

Hi smithandjones,

Good luck if you'll embark on this exam adventure.

On the bright side, the practice exam is not that hard and at least for me it counted that I was a "courteous driver", which "angry Bucharestian" style of driving wouldn't qualify for:)

And, after some crash training in Bucharest, one can be ready for pretty much anything, including 200km/hr driving in Dubai, African desert driving, Mongol rally...

J.

Hi,friend have u got the driving test In English now in romenia,

Unfortunately no on English tests. There are rumours and comments in different places on the web but nothing concrete sorry. Plus I also understand the english in the test is poor so you can get the answer wrong anyway.

At the moment I am learning to drive.
My instructor speaks English pretty well, and he says the test will be in English as well.

He send me English learning materials (Ordenance, regulations and traffic signs) and a iso with test questions.

Website is http://www.autoscoala.ro/

Hope this helps anyone

Hi WiedemS,

Welcome to Expat.com

Thank you for the link you suggested; I am sure it will be very helpful to the members.

Good luck with your driving test

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Expat.com Team

Hey Wiedem S,

Is there a chance to get just the materials (including the test questions)?
I am currently finishing my driving school, so I dont want to subscribe, but I am in a research of the materials..

Thank you very much in advance!

Iv

Send me your email and i will send the materials. If anyone else wants them pm me and i'd be happy to help.

Has anyone managed to exchange their UK licence for a Romanian one? How was the process? On paper (according to the police website) is seems a fairly straightforward procedure, but experience tells me that it could be made more complicated than it need be.

And my experience was right...real pain in the backside. I strongly recommend to anyone thinking of renewing their licence that they go back to the UK (or wherever) and 'live' there for a week and apply for one like that. May cost more flying back but it's a lot less hassle. In case you really decide to get one here, you need:

1. 2 lei 'timbru fiscal' from the post office
2. 10 lei postal mandate paid to your sector's police (costs 15 lei with charges, from the post office)
3. A police report from your sector's designated station, acquired with 1 and 2 above, plus ID (passport), residence papers, photocopies of them. Issued immediately.
4. A receipt showing you've paid the driving licence fee to the CEC bank. 68 RON.
5. A declaration made in front of a notary public that you have no other licences, have made no other applications, aren't banned and so on. Costs about 40 lei.
6. An authorised translation of your current licence (about 25 lei) stamped and signed by a notary public (about 40 lei).
7. A medical certificate from an authorised medical centre or hospital stating you are fit to drive. Price varies from place to place, about 150 lei on average. Make sure they state you are fit for ALL categories you wish to transfer to your new licence.
8. Photocopies of your passport, your driving licence, and your certificate of residence.
9. A completed application form.

You then take these to the police centre in Pipera and some [Moderated: no offensive terms here pls]will check and stamp everything. Best to take a good Romanian speaker with you if you don't speak Romanian as they invariably make sure they the person they put on the counter they have specially for people with foreign licences has no language skills whatsoever (not to mention manners or civility). If she's satisfied you deserve a renewed licence, she'll issue you with a receipt which you can use to prove you can drive (they'll keep your original licence) until the new licence is ready.

They won't tell you how long this will take and expressly state you are not allowed to phone them to ask if it is ready, so you'll have to take time off and go up there repeatedly, stand in line, ask the orifice on duty to check, and repeat until it's ready.

Not including any potential loss of earnings and transport costs, it al comes to about  60 GBP, so about double the cost of getting it done in the UK. With hindsight, I think I'd jump on the early flight to Luton, do it in the post office there, grab a pint and a bite, and catch the evening flight back. Not that much more expensive and certainly more pleasant and less time consuming. If you have one of the new passports (issued in the last five years) then I think you can do it all online anyway.

Maykal. [Moderated: no vulgarity here pls] but its something i still need to do, after reading that though i am not so keen.

I hate doing these official things here in Romania, it takes so long to do them and they push around from different place to place, none of the people you deal with are halpfull at all, unless your a Romanian, but my wife doesn't like to do these things either.

We are looking at buying a new car soon, but will want to buy one from outside Romania, and then register it here, but its all so complex with all these new taxes and laws and different number plates, its not even simple to buy a romanian registered car anymore.

Anyway, lots to moan about with the system here, but i shan't go off topic too much

Hi Daz,

Don't think these people are nice to Romanians either, to be honest, it's just that the locals have less red tape to get through as they don't have to worry so much about officially stamped translations and equivalency documents, and stuff like that. The trick is, apparently, to have a 'pila' at the institution, someone you know (or who knows someone you know) and then things generally become a bit easier.

Collecting the documents for the Romanian licence wasn't too bad, to be honest. The bank is straightforward, as was the post office (although I had a 'pila' there who helped me fill in the forms correctly), and the notar and translator are private companies so you don't get the attitude. The police report wasn't too bad: wouldn't say 'friendly', but at least he wasn't a complete James Hunt. It was only the stuck-up [Moderated] spawned from the foetid [Moderated]-stained [Moderated] back end of a [Moderated} frustrated [Moderated] of a woman at the counter in the traffic police building who really got my goat. If you do change your licence here, just start the process a good three months before your UK one expires to make sure you don't get left unable to drive while you wait for the new one. I'll post again when I finally get mine to give you some idea of how long it might take. Maybe I'll get lucky and it'll only take a couple of weeks, rather than months.

There are companies/individuals who'll do all the legwork for registering a car for you. I don't think it's too costly, certainly not if you consider all the stress of doing it yourself and the potential loss of earnings if you have to take time off work to do it.

We currently run a Bulgarian registered car, but the car is very tired now, i bought it three years ago and it needs too much doing to it now to keep it as a viable option, however the prices of second hand cars here are ridiculous, i only want to spend about a grand (£1000) on a different motor, simple Opel Vectra estate, or an Astra estate, these are easy to find cars here, but the owners expect more money than that, plus even if its on Romanian plates the new owner (me) must pay a tax, so we are thinking to bring another one from Bulgaria again, and then register it here in Romania in time, its alot of hassle having a Bulgarian registered car with the insurance and ITP, we knew a man on our street who goes into Bulgaria alot and he was doing this for us, but it turns out he has been ripping us off with the insurance, we had to insure our current car this week, he quoted 90 euros, for three months insurance, but my wife talked with a friend who suggested we find a Romanian insurer on the net who insures Bulgarian cars, this she did and we got a much better deal from them, 85 euros, for 6 months insurance. We have the ITP anyway for another 10 months or so. But our Ford Escort as i said is dying.

Even thought about bringing in a car from the UK, but it works out just as expensive as buying one from here by the time its been driven here and registered here.

Simple Vauxhall Astra estate, £500 in the UK, but fuel, taxes, insurance, etc etc brings it upto about £1000 give or take depending on fuel, then there is the problem of my wife sitting on the (proper) wrong side of the car, as she is the main driver now, this she insists is not a good thing and wonders how much it is to change a British right hand car to left hand drive. That is not worth it i dont think.

So if we buy a car from outside of Romania, its probably cheaper to register it here than it is to buy one with Romanian plates and then pay this new tax, the tax is reclaimable from the government, but it can take upto a year to get your money back, and for a Euro 2/3 car its about 650 euros.


Gone wildly off topic, sorry everyone

Daz's new wheels!

Problem solved! UK second-hand car market prices and no RHD/LHD conversion costs!

Maykal wrote:

Daz's new wheels!

Problem solved! UK second-hand car market prices and no RHD/LHD conversion costs!

Link doesn't work for me mate, just loads of text, dont think i have the right program on this anciant pc to view it!

It was one of those single-seater Messerschmidt three-wheeler cars, remember them?

Well, the saga of the driving licence continues. After waiting a week, the police called me and I had to go all the way up to Pipera again because there was something else I needed to sign, so off I went. They told me now they had heard back from DVLA it shouldn't take long, a week, ten days max. Now, one week later they've called me again. The photo they took (they have a camera in the kiosk there) didn't come out right, so they want me to go back again! Third trip up there, plus at least one more to pick it up. That's assuming they haven't fouled up something else. Still got about 2 weeks left on my UK licence, so here's hoping there's nothing more...

Ah yes, thats the little three wheeler with the canvass body?

I suppose i could import a Reliant Robin! wonder what the tax would be on that!

I just plugged the data into one of those websites which calculates the 'timbru de mediu' and apparently a Robin would cost about a quid to tax...

Got my licence. So, took two weeks from the date of initial application once I had all the relevant documents. Ok, that's me done, no more bureaucracy for another couple of years hopefully.

Please can you help me because I've started to learn for cat "A "(motorbike) and this school which I attend doesn't have anything for preparing for theoretical test on english.
Without test samples from which you already learned I'm lost.

Once again please help me
Thank you Zack

Hi Zack,

I was only renewing the licence, I didn't have to take the test again, so unfortunately I don't have any samples. Sorry!

Hi Zecio,

Don't know if you solve it with your problem but here is something that can help you. Are questions and legislation.

DOWNLOAD:

http://hotfile.com/dl/23656054/880f607/ ... o.rar.html

DOWNLOAD:
http://hotfile.com/dl/23750181/8985fc9/ ... 9.rar.html

Program is identical with the examination software.

Admin password: circulatiarutiera.ro
Is last version from march 2009, with all modifications from legislation
Languages: Romanian, English, German, French and Hungarian.

How to do it:

1. Unzipp,
2. Enter the new folder, open the application start.exe to start the program, choose your language, then you will ask for the license code,
3. Open application called Keygen.exe from the same folder, where you write to Registraton Number  the code displayed 0x ... , click Generate, and then it will generate a code of same type to be copied in the box where the program asks the license code self examination.
4. Right click on start.exe, send to desktop (create shortcut), to access more easy from desktop.

If you will have an error  to activate series "can not locate the microsoft visual fox pro library support" please
move the keygen in the program folder and  run it from there.

Wish you good luck !

One more thing. As much as i know in 19 jan 2013 were some small modification in legislation. You can ask to your school what are the modifications because you will not find updated programs with them.

Hi Soniarma,

Thanks for your effort   but those links are not available?!
I've tried several times but I couldn't reach any links. It would be a great thing but....doesn't work

Regards

Sorry!

Didn't check if links still working. Were many persons who said they use it so i thought are still available. I will keep looking. 

Hi again Zecio!

Seems that is no way to find tests or a book in english.
The only solution that i see is to ask one romanian friend that knows english to help you.
Use this link-  http://www.drpciv.ro/info-portal/signIn.do - to create an account and to have acces to official questions in romanian. Then your friend can help you with translation. Is the only way i think.

I really don't get how they offer the option to have exam in english but no option to prepare for that exam.

Best of luck!

Hi Soniarma,

   the software you were suggesting I am afraid is only in romanian and hungarian. It is a shame because it could easily be translated into english as well. ( i have had a look at their website www.circulatiarutiera.ro)

Bye

I know is just in romanian. If you will read my complete message will see that my suggestion was to find a romanian friend to help him/you. That means to translate for you and help you to study.

I agree with you is a shame they don't offer the information in english. They promissed will do this but...is Romania so things will be done slowly  .