Drivers License - The licensing office

Getting a driver's license in Trinidad is an experience. The school provided us with some information, what to bring, what to study, where to go. The first information we were provided was:

1. No appointment needed 
2. Show up at 7am 
3. Bring the fee, our passport, visa and bond (the school has to have a bond for foreign hire teachers)
4. Print and fill out the application 
5. and "go to the back buildings and let a Licensing Officer know that you want to sit the test. If you are successful, you will be told to go to the front building and go to the Cashier to pay for the permit. Once you have paid you will be told to go to a little room to the left past the front door. You'll have a wait (not sure how long), they will call your name, go into the smaller room and take your photo and get the permit. The whole process can take 1/2 day to a full day. Remember no sleeveless tops, shorts nor sandals. Take something to read and a bottle of water. No, the Licensing Office does not open on the weekends. They open at 8:00 a.m. but the cashier closes around 1:00 p.m. or 2:00 p.m." 

With this information in hand,  a group of us went to the licensing office on a Monday. We got there at 7:30 am and waited in line (the wrong line). Thankfully one of us remembered that we were supposed to go to one of the "back buildings" and so we made our way to the correct building. When we entered there was a counter and seats (almost like a jury box). There were a lot of people sitting in the seats, so we sat down. Nothing happened.

About 20 minutes into our sit, I decided to get up and go to the counter and see if we could get more direction. The woman who worked there let me know that she thought we had an appointment already, and then collected our paperwork. She immediately handed back our applications, we had printed them out and filled them out, but they were 2 pieces of paper and she needed it to be back to front, so we had to fill out the application again. Once we had done that she asked us to have a seat and she disappeared. The people in the seats got up filed behind the counter to take the test. Took the test. Left. More people arrived.

It has a STAMP!

Official appointment

At about 11 am she came back and she had appointments for us to take the test. A week later at 10:30 am. She let us know that we would sit the test at 10:30, and then we would wait in another room to get our results. However our results would be available after the cashier closed at 12:00 (note not 1 or 2), so we would need to come back the following day to pay. We could only pay if we passed the test.

A week passed, we went back to sit the 10:30 test. at 11:00 we were brought to the testing area. We had to leave all bags (purses too) on a table and then file into a long cubicle with wooden walls and ancient single arm desks. We presented our paperwork, only the foreigners were required to show identification, we were given a ratty pencil without an eraser, and we sat. The exam was passed out in a manila folder. It had been handled so many times the paper was see through. Mine was difficult to read in places because it had been touched so many times. The test proctor the proceeded to let us know the rules no erasing (she then explained to protocol for changing our answer and we could only change our answer 1 time per question) and DO NOT WRITE ON THE TEST - if we wrote on the test we would be charged to make a new copy, we would forfeit our appointment, we would have to come back another day to make a new appointment). While she spoke softly to 30 of us, business was being held in the room outside of the cubicle, whose walls were only about 5' high in a room with vaulted wooden ceilings. It was hard to hear.

The test had 3 parts: 20 Multiple choice on rules, 10 road signs, 5 hand signals. You can review all the multiple choice questions possible here. You can take a practice test here. I finished the test in about 15 minutes. I was the first person done. This always freaks me out. I hate being first. My friend Christine finished at about the same time, she was a good test taker and reviewed her answers. I was too nervous to do it. I started to doubt all my answers. Finally, a Trini got up, so I did too. I wasn't sure what to do because I wasn't able to hear the proctor before the test when she described what to do.

Wait here to know if you passed

After the exam we went to the adjoining building and waited, and waited, and waited. At about 12:30 they were in. Christine was called up first. She passed. Next I was called up, by my last name. There were 4 people standing at the window. I was asked how I pronounce my first name. I told them 'lee' and three of the women took off. I was told I passed and that they had debated how to pronounce Leigh. We were not given our results. We were told we would need to return the following day to pick them up and pay.

Woo! More stamps!

The next day we showed up at 8am at about 8:10 the office opened. We went to the counter and themanager asked what we needed and then told us to sit. One of the assistants arrived a few minutes later. We went to the counter again and were given our results. We went to the cashier (in a different building) and were able to pay with only a 10 minute wait. We were feeling triumphant. We thought heck, we can be done and back to school in no time. HA!

We went to the adjacent building and sat, and sat and sat. A handful of people were called at about 9:30. Then noone for an hour. Then about every 20 to 40 minutes a new handful of people were called. Some people walked in and then walked to the door where people were called from and they were seen and left with licenses, others went to the door and were turned away. The rest of us sat and waited. At 1 I decided to be brave. I went through the door and asked if it would be possible to know when we would be called as we were teachers and our substitutes were going to leave and the school wanted to know when/if they could expect us back. I guess that worked. She pulled out paperwork, entered something in a ledger and said 10 minutes and I was dismissed. The next group was called about 20 minutes later and we were in that group. We filed into the room. We checked our information and signed a paper, then we signed a ledger, then we sat and 1 by 1 had our pictures taken. The licenses spit out of a machine and huzzah! We had our Trini licenses!

Licensed to drive