JetBlast Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 Hello, When I move to South Australia in a few months I will be looking at getting an SA driving licence. I am on a 489 visa, I do believe I can use my British licence whilst on this visa, however I think it will be better to get an SA licence. It can be used as proof of identity and may result in cheaper insurance and any car rentals etc. Looking at the form here, it talks about the overseas licence being surrendered (but an exemption may apply). Will they actually take my British licence of me? I rather they didn't! Secondly, I might struggle with the evidence of identity requirement found here. I don't think I have anything listed under the primary documents. There is "current Australian visa" however I don't a physical visa to present. I do have a grant letter, but the passport number is different as I renewed it, I still have the original though. Would this be ok? I am no different to any other new immigrant. The vast majority won't have the other documents and have an electronic visa like I do. Many Thanks for your time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rammygirl Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 They didn’t take our UK licence off us but once you are no longer permanently resident in the UK it isn’t valid anyway. When we go to UK and hire a car we use our SA driving licenses as overseas visitors. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenki75 Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 7 hours ago, JetBlast said: Hello, When I move to South Australia in a few months I will be looking at getting an SA driving licence. I am on a 489 visa, I do believe I can use my British licence whilst on this visa, however I think it will be better to get an SA licence. It can be used as proof of identity and may result in cheaper insurance and any car rentals etc. Looking at the form here, it talks about the overseas licence being surrendered (but an exemption may apply). Will they actually take my British licence of me? I rather they didn't! Secondly, I might struggle with the evidence of identity requirement found here. I don't think I have anything listed under the primary documents. There is "current Australian visa" however I don't a physical visa to present. I do have a grant letter, but the passport number is different as I renewed it, I still have the original though. Would this be ok? I am no different to any other new immigrant. The vast majority won't have the other documents and have an electronic visa like I do. Many Thanks for your time. Hey JetBlast, you have 3 months in Australia to drive on your U.K license (rules by SA government). Near the end of the 3 months you should have the 3 pieces of ID. You can take your U.K passport and visa info to the office they should be able to look you up on VEVO, your credit or debit card from a bank with your name printed on it and signature finally a bank account statement. I'm sure by 3 months you will have rented a place and have bills, so you should have more than enough documentation. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JetBlast Posted March 25, 2019 Author Share Posted March 25, 2019 Thanks for the replies folks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 23 hours ago, JetBlast said: Hello, When I move to South Australia in a few months I will be looking at getting an SA driving licence. I am on a 489 visa, I do believe I can use my British licence whilst on this visa, however I think it will be better to get an SA licence. It can be used as proof of identity and may result in cheaper insurance and any car rentals etc. Looking at the form here, it talks about the overseas licence being surrendered (but an exemption may apply). Will they actually take my British licence of me? I rather they didn't! Secondly, I might struggle with the evidence of identity requirement found here. I don't think I have anything listed under the primary documents. There is "current Australian visa" however I don't a physical visa to present. I do have a grant letter, but the passport number is different as I renewed it, I still have the original though. Would this be ok? I am no different to any other new immigrant. The vast majority won't have the other documents and have an electronic visa like I do. Many Thanks for your time. Hey, I have just been down to dept of transport and the lady advised me that there was no need for me to get obtain a full Aussie DL at the moment whilst on my 489 visa. She took details, passport, visa grant number, address and a photograph and then provided my wife and I with FP numbers which we can now use to buy and register cars. She printed me off a copy of the details on an A4 sheet and wrote the FP number on a small sticker which I've stuck on the back of my uk licence. This process was free and took around 5 mins to complete. As as I was there with my wife and 2 bored and restless kids this is the option we went with at the time. This is not to say we couldn't have obtained full Aus licences if we had wanted too. Regarding ID, I required my passport to open a bank account, nothing else. The assistant then printed off my bank account details with my address on it which wad useful for ID purposes, i.e enrolling my son at school. They required, passport, proof of address in local area and copy of visa details. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JetBlast Posted March 26, 2019 Author Share Posted March 26, 2019 Thanks.I will try and get a full licence anyway. When I was there on my working holiday visa many places didn't accept my UK licence as proof as ID. They will take my passport but I don't want to keep carrying that around. I would rather they have a small card in my wallet.Thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveandKirsty Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 All useful info as we are doing exactly the same in a few weeks. We plan on getting the full DL as soon as we can too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
path2aus Posted March 28, 2019 Share Posted March 28, 2019 On 26/03/2019 at 18:25, JetBlast said: Thanks. I will try and get a full licence anyway. When I was there on my working holiday visa many places didn't accept my UK licence as proof as ID. They will take my passport but I don't want to keep carrying that around. I would rather they have a small card in my wallet. Thanks again. Getting a full license is pretty simple. I was able to swap out my US license for a full SA license pretty easily when I came here. The things you need are , address proof, ID proof (Which is you PP), your UK or US license and a filled out Application form. It is pretty simple and takes probably an hour. The license will be sent in a mail though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.