Getting my new driving licence

By Administrator, on Tuesday, 16 October 2007

Getting my new driving licence

Panama goes digital :)

About time too, the old licences looked really cheap and nasty, any kid with photoshop could have produced an edited version that would pass inspection.

And, as usual here in dealings with the government, the expat community is in a state of total confusion due to the amount of conflicting information circulating the various groups, and the lack of official information being made public, combined with different answers to requests for information, even from the same office in subsequent calls. Hopefully the following, based on my own experience, will help. Or possibly add to the confusion.

Don't worry folks, it's not just us expats, half the Panamanian population is confused too. Some having an easy time and others still trying to fight their way through beaurocracy. It's just that they have had more practice standing in line and make a social ocaision of the performance..................

The problems many Panamanians are currently facing apparently stem from a decision earlier this year. The private company that has the contract to produce the licences collected the information from the ATTT on all current licence holders and combined it with the digital records already held by the government when they issued the new digital cedulas. This was done at the end of May. However, a decision was made to only produce licences ready for collection, for those people that were 'Paz y Salvo'. In other words, no outstanding fines at that point in time.

So now we have a situation where many Panamanians are arriving at their designated collection point, finding no licence ready to collect, and having to go to another office to clear old fines. Then back again with their Paz y Salvo chit to start the process, and a wait of several days for production.

Queues, queues, queues.......... but a fact of life for many here, unless they can afford a lawyer to provide someone to stand in line for them.

Now enter the expats, having been told we were to wait till the 15th of october to apply for our licences. Bear in mind that we only have until 31st of october to complete the process, because it has been decreed from some ivory tower that all old licences become invalid on 1st November.

Phoning around various transito offices, I have been told to:

a) Go to the ATTT office in Pedregal to enter information, wait a couple of days and collect licence from Allbrook Plaza.

b) Go to AutoDepot on Tumba Muerto to do the whole process.

c) Don't worry about the law, it probably won't be enforced. (Try telling that to a Transito on the side of the road :) )

d) Not really sure what process you need to do, but you have to get your licence sorted before Nov or you get fined.

e) Go to the Autoshow this week at Atlapa, and see if the ATTT stand there can help.

Interesting selection of answers, all from official sources, but the last one seems the most promising, and at least there could be something interesting to see while waiting. So off we go.

Phoning ahead, we found that the Autoshow opened it's doors at 3pm and was open until 10pm. Cost $3. OK, lets go down about 4, because we should be ahead of the worst of the traffic, the initial entry queue should have passed through, and being a Monday not too crowded. Mistake #1, Monday was the 15th, payday. Just about every car in Panama was on the road, if only to buy gas before they spend it all on beer. And the car park was packed to overflowing.

Eventually, Izzy dropped me off near the entrance about 5pm, and took off in the car as she had to be at the University for 7 and we had already wasted an hour getting across town and trying to find parking. No point in her coming in.

Paid my 3 bucks entrance, walked through part of the show, which seemed to consist mainly of insurance vendors and banks offering credit, to find a queue that extended up the stairs from the lower hall where the ATTT stand was. Almost entirely Panamanians who had been put through the mill of paying old fines before being issued their new licences.

Putting on my best 'Dumb Foreigner' face, I walked past the queue, buttonholed an attractive young lady who looked as if she was attached to the clusterf*** at the stand. Gave her a big smile and asked if I was in the right place. Dunno which part worked, the dumb part, or the winning smile, but she took my licence, disappeared behind a computer screen, returned with a couple of questions about next of kin, address confirmation, and blood type. Escorted me to the photo area and passed me to the front of the line there for new digital picture and signature and that was it, 10 minutes tops, come back in 45 minutes to collect your new licence. Ya gotta love this country. The queue still extended up the stairs, but I was happy sitting at the bar with my new aquaintance watching the proceedings. She deserved a better meal and drink, but couldn't leave the area for too long. Most of the following information was gleaned from our conversation.

The line mostly seemed happy enough, there were several attractive girls promoting various products to give the fellas something to look at and chat to. 'Talk to the face guys, the ears are higher than your focus ;) '

Chatting with my new friend, it seems that many expats don't know what type of Carnet/Cedula they have, using the 2 terms interchangably even though they are very different officially. If someone has a Cedula, it means they have been here a while and have aquired residency through either investment or marriage, and the card they hold is digitally produced and has a number beginning with E (for Extranero) or Z (for Zonians), entered into the Panamanian system. However, many expats refer to their jubilado card as a cedula, even though it is only a form of tourist carnet, with no expiry date. Thes cards are similar to the old driving licence, a polaroid photo, cheap plastic encapsulation and normally show the holders foreign passport number. In my case, I still only hold a carnet, which took 13 months to get, and I am only in the 1st year of provisional residency, despite being married to a Panamena and having a son born here. Eventually I will qualify for a Cedula, but it takes a while.

For folks with a proper cedula, they need to go to the office designated by the 1st letter of their 1st name to collect their licence which has already been produced, so long as they had no outstanding fines back in May. Or go to Pedregal ATTT office to check for fines and obtain Paz y Salvo. The same rules as for Panamanians.

For all the other expats with encapsulated polaroid photo carnets, you can exchange your licence at the show so long as you have a clean record and it is current. The computer system at the show can check your record to see if you are clear. If you do have outstanding fines, you have to go to Pedregal ATTT offices, clear the fines and get a Paz y Salvo. Then either go back to the show, or out to the new office at Allbrook Plaza ( behind the Rey supermarket in Allbrook, not the ATTT office at Allbrook bus terminal). And bad attitudes have a habit of affecting the computers, leading to incomplete records and extra office visits.

And finally, as always there will be exceptions. Folk who got a new Cedula after the end of May fall between the cracks, along with people who have allowed old licences to expire, or have got a 1st licence between the end of May and now. For expats, either ask at the Show this week or contact the Allbrook Plaza office. In my experience both of these locations are trying their best to make the system work. Unfortunately, information takes time to filter down through the government systems and is a bit like the game of chinese whispers, with many different answers or interpretations from both the transito offices and also the newsgroups, by the time it gets down to local level.

So, I now have my shiny new licence............. took about an hour in total and zero cost. The next performance is going to be very different though. Getting my wifes' licence sorted out. A whole new ball game as she comes from the interior and her licence was issued in Santiago. And she is not 'Paz y Salvo' according to the computers. Despite the fact that she got her licence replaced in May 2005, was 'Paz y Salvo' back then, and has only driven my Landrover or our Chevy Cavalier since, she somehow has fines and additional penalties for 2 offences in a Nissan Sentra during the last year. And apparently, even though the Nissan is supposedly registered in her name since April 2006, she is also responsible for other fines attached to it going back to 2003. Wish I knew where it was, I could sell off the Cavalier. Unfortunately my new found friend is unable to help, but we have to clear up all the old issues before her office can do anything. Either pay for someone elses fines, or try to convince the system that she is not the owner of the Nissan. Que Sera Sera.

And the show. $3 bucks was all it was worth, I only saw 3 stalls selling accessories, most of the space was taken up with main dealers with the latest models (for here) on display, banks offering up to 10 years of credit to finance the purchases ( rediculous considering the life expectancy of cars here) and insurance agencies. I could have seen all of it in under an hour unless I was in the market for a new car.