Obtaining Permanent Ba Drivers License:

Buenaonda is your appointment on wednesday at ROCA? (also remember to pay the CENAT fee 2 days before your appointment)
 
Hi Tex. could you please give some more details about this "You can then go in and in one day do the whole driver's license process without having to take the practical exam"? What is required? As I understood it a foreign licence, in capital, is only useful if: 1. Legalized nationally in country or embassy, 2. translated with legalization.... but not sure. Monday morning i will go to my comuna drivers license department and show my European license and see what they say..

I just did not take the practical exam when I did it, and I did it at Roca. That was about 5 years ago though, so they might have changed it. I took my U.S. driver's license with me and started through the whole process, just as everyone else did. However, at the beginning of the process, I showed my U.S. license. This in turn allowed me to avoid having to do the examen practico or the charla (which now can be done online anyways is my understanding). I only had to do theoretical, psychological, medical, etc., and then they went ahead and gave me my license in the same day. This will avoid a lot of headaches as taking the practical exam is a pain in the butt. You WILL have to practice as they make you go backwards along a winding path, and if you hit the curb even once you fail the exam. I took my niece to practice and on the first try I touched the curb (would have failed without practice). If you can avoid it and the charla, so much the better.
 
My husband's license expired in January and he was able to take the course online -- as I say maybe because he already had an Argentine DL. It is the "Charla de Renovacion"

http://www.buenosaires.gob.ar/licenciasdeconducir/requisitos/charlarenovacion
 
Hey there for all interested parties:

The latest: Good News: One DOES Actually have to take a drivers test here in Capital, in order to get a drivers license!!!! (This relieves me considerably, for many obvious reasons :)

I specifically inquired about the driving test because I had understood you had to bring your own car and formerly somebody said it had to be a manual etc. In Spanish I used the word "manejar", which is ""to drive" . I asked "y la prueba de manejar?" to which he responded that here in Capital, it was no longer required to take the "prueba de manejar". After registering my alarm he said basically, " at least you have experience" :)

HOWEVER, in class the following day, the teacher began talking about the actual driving test. "prueba de CONDUCIR"…. a synonym for "manejar" (in many Spanish speaking countries) which, according to them meant something entirely different. Apparently the "prueba de manejar" is the exam you would take following your course in DRIVERS ED. And the city of B.A. is no longer requiring that people take DRIVERS ED. :) You must still pass a driving test. The teacher was explaining how "muchos argentinos saben MANEJAR, pero pocos saben CONDUCIR" hmmmmm okay. So apparently a lot of Argentines know how to simulate driving in theory but don't know how to get on the street and do it in the real world, in real traffic.. etc.. :)

As far as doing it all in one day, that is hope and belief. But we'll sseeeeeeee. If anybody finds out differently (before wed. ) please, do tell!
 
So let me get this straight

Can I walk to office of ACA. And they will arrange everything?

classes, written test, practical test, license?

Please confirm?
 
I went with my oldest girl to ACA about 5 weeks ago to look at all of this. Of course, me being over 50, I seem to have a mild form of Alzheimer's and couldn't remember things for sure, so I went to ask her just now to help me remember :)

ACA will handle everything. You pay their monthly membership fee, which is something $400 to $600 pesos a month (it was more for me at 52 than for her at 19). They have a class for theory and for practice, they give the tests, both written and practical. As I and my oldest girl remembers, they do everything to get the license. It was one of the reasons that I considered going there to pay at least a month or two of monthly dues to get my license instead of going through the bureaucracy of CABA to get my license.

As we remember it, paying the monthly dues for ACA itself gets you into the school, although I think at a discount, not completely free. My girl remembers it being free if you're an ACA member, but I remember there being a discount :)

Their main headquarters is at Libertador 1850, where we went one afternoon to ask the specifics. Go in, take a number, and sit down and talk with them to make sure what I'm telling you is true.

Their school for both written and driving is located close to their main headquarters (maybe 10 blocks away or so) at Av. Casares 3955. We went there to sign up for the school (from their headquarters it's pleasant walk through the parks, and it's close to the Japanese Gardens, which we went to after finding out I couldn't sign up for classes yet), which was when I found out I couldn't take the tests until I changed the address on my DNI to reflect the fact that I now live in CABA. They also allow drivers to rent a car for the driving test.
 
No new updates really.. But talked to the comuna drivers license department today to ask about how I can utilize my European drivers license to not have to drive with the principiante-"P" the first 6 months. They said that the only rule regarding driving with foreign (at least European, perhaps Mercosur is different) drivers licences in Argentina is the 90 day tourist permission. In any other situation you need to do the whole legalization business of your foreign card or get a national one... The legalization process is what i wanted to avoid in the first place which is why i started on the route to just get a new Argentine license instead. Of course i could just do the 6 months of "P" but I would prefer not to..

Renting a car might be a different story and also, most seem to say that the police probably wouldn't care and to get an insurance is no problem either.. But I am thinking about if something would happen to me or the car or someone else.. and the insurance company would just say that the drivers license is not valid here (which is true as far as I understand..)

So anyway, I think I am back to the legalization process.. which my embassy had never heard about so not really sure where to start with that..
 
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