Put on Your Thinking Caps

Just when we think most permits, forms, licenses and registrations have been taken care of and we're done having to deal with government bureaucracy and important documents sent to us in Dutch, we receive another e-mail explaining yet another complicated procedure we must go through. This time the instructions are for obtaining a driver's license and, fortunately, they are in English. We thought we would share with you the little game we call "Decipher what these instructions really mean and what we're supposed to do about it." Here is what we received from our relocation agent this week in response to our question about turning in our US driver's licenses for Dutch ones:

Below is the US driving license exchange procedure:
Step one:
At the Town Hall buy an Extract from the population register "Uitreksel GBA" ( costs Euro 11) and a Medical declaration "Eigen Verklaring" ( costs Euro 19). The medical declaration should be filled out, signed and sent to the CBR, the Town Hall will provide a pre-printed envelope with the address. You should bring your passport and a copy of US driving license. I can do the first step if I have a Power of attorney to obtain the extract from the population register on your behalf.

Within 10 days you will receive a letter from the CBR (bureau for driving license) returning your Extract and a grey card called "Verklaring van geschiktheid " stating you are allowed to drive in the Netherlands. Once you have that we have to go back to the Town Hall for the step 2 of the exchange with the following:
1. Residency card
2. passport
3. your ORIGINAL US driving license
4. 2 passport size photos
5. The card you get back from CBR " Verklaring van Geschiktheid"
6. copy of the letter from the Tax Office granting you 30% tax ruling
7. application form which you will receive at the Town Hall.
8. approx. Euro 52 (but I have to double check the price with the Town Hall )
It takes 4 weeks before you will have your Dutch license sent to your home address by registered mail. In the meantime you will have a letter from the Town Hall stating that your original driving license is being exchanged.Your ORIGINAL driving license will be sent to the issuing US state department, please try to find out if it is possible to request a duplicate US license prior to the exchange in your State as it depends on the State what they will do with the original US licenses sent to them. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Did you figure it out?

When we receive instructions like these we have to put our thinking caps on and usually read the instructions at least three times before we are almost sure we understand where we need to go, what we need to bring, and how much money it will cost us. In this case, for one of us to obtain a Dutch driving license it will cost approximately €82 and for some reason we must turn in a "medical declaration" in order to drive a car. Apparently Erin can still use her US driver's license since her residency card has not yet appeared (even though 3 weeks ago our HR contact at the office informed us that the Dutch letter we received meant everything went through OK and she should be receiving confirmation about when to pick up her residency card "shortly").

In the meantime, John will be the guinea pig in dutifully fulfilling all required steps and hopefully obtaining a Dutch driving license. No wonder many expats we have talked to simply forgo exchanging their US license for a Dutch one and take the chance that no one will ever ask to see their driver's license.