Renewing your driver's licence from home, abroad

In this third part in the series on motor vehicle and driver's licence transactions, Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) looks at the process of renewing a driver's licence.

It is illegal to drive in Jamaica without a current driver's licence. Driving with an expired licence is the same as never having been issued with one.

Your driver's licence expires every five years on your birthday. However, you have the option of renewing it up to 30 days before it expires, so you don't have to be in the tax office on your birthday.

To renew your driver's licence, ideally you should take your expired document to any of the seven Revenue Service Centres (RSC), as the physical permit is produced only at these locations.

At the RSC, you will be asked to complete a Driver's Licence Renewal Form (F7), after which you will pay the fee of $4,500 for a private licence, or $6,000 for a general licence. A motorcycle licence renewal costs $3,450.

Together with the fee and F7 form, you must hand in your expired or nearly expired driver's licence. After completing this process, you will be photographed and your new licence issued.

REGULAR TAX OFFICE

If you are unable to visit a RSC to have the licence renewed (or even to apply for a driver's licence), you may visit any tax office. There you will carry out the same procedures as you would at a RSC.

However, rather than have your photograph taken, you would need to take with you notarised passport-sized photographs, no older than six months. The tax office will then dispatch your documents to the RSC to have the licence processed.

This process is usually longer, as the tax office will allow requests to accumulate before they send the prospective renewals off to a RSC for processing. The RSC would usually return the licence to the originating tax office for collection by the applicant.

This can take up to three weeks.

There is no age limit on driver's licence renewals. However, persons who are over a certain age may incur challenges to obtain coverage from their insurance companies.

A driver's licence may need to be renewed while the holder is out of the country. The licensee should delegate a person who is in Jamaica to transact business on their behalf. Following this, the F7 can be downloaded from TAJ's website and completed by the licensee.

The application form should be filled out and signed by the applicant in the presence of a notary public. Otherwise, an authorised Jamaican Embassy/ High Commission protocol officer must sign or affix his stamp/seal to the form.

A recent passport-sized photograph of the licensee should also be certified and stamped by the authorised officer, who should also verify that the person is literate. Photographs must not be more than six months old.

Having done this, an authorisation letter for the person delegated, the expired driver's licence, notarised form and photograph must be submitted to the collectorate for processing.

Processing will take place once the fee, depending on the licence type, is paid. The person delegated must present a proper ID.

For more information, you may contact, you may contact the TAJ Customer Care Centre at 1-888-tax-help (829-4357), or visit www.jamaicatax.gov.jm.