Study urges Kuwait to make foreign drivers take driving tests every two years
Kuwait is mulling limiting the validity of foreigners’ driving licences to two years and making drivers take a driving test every time they apply for a renewal.
Under the new regulations, a foreigner’s driving licence will be renewed alongside the residence permit, valid for two years, Kuwaiti daily Alam Al Yawm reported on Sunday.
However, the licence will be renewed only if the foreigner submits evidence of a high salary and a university degree and successfully passes a new driving test, the unnamed sources told the paper.
Failure to present the evidence or to pass the test would automatically cancel the driver’s right to renew his or her licence.
A traffic directorate study concluded that the application of the new rules would result in the cancellation of 300,000 licences.
Kuwait had amended its procedures for getting new driving licences and imposed new conditions that stipulated that applicants must have lived in Kuwait for at least two years, hold a university degree and earn a minimum salary of KD 400 ($1,385).
Housewives with children, doctors, professors, teachers, nursing staff, translators and interpreters, accountants, managers, counselors, journalists, company heads, university students, technical staff, engineers and diplomatic staff were exempted from the regulations.
