Korean Job Discussion Forums

[K1020]

Alright, step by step:
get your licence certified at your embassy, if it's American (California right?) then you can walk from the embassy to the Seoul Global Center(http://global.seoul.go.kr/ `Living `driving).
At the Global center they will get you started, the medical exam is an eye check which they booked at a nearby clinic they use constantly; they gave me a map and called the clinic in advance with what they needed.
I returned to the Global center with the results and they took my old licence and issued me a Korean licence immediately.
If you are not interrupted by their lunch break the whole process can be very quick.
Photos can be made in gwanghamun station at a photo booth.
Good luck!

[jmadtownweb]

[Ruthdes]

I rented a car in Jeju less than a month after getting my Korean driver licence. The small companies wouldn't rent me one due to the newness of the licence and my low-level Korean making it impossible to explain that I'd had my Australian licence for over 10 years. I then went to the Avis desk and I was able to convince them to rent me a car. Photocopying your home licence is a great idea. May have helped me out at the time.

Some other points:

* Get the extra insurance (with Avis, there are two choices, the cheaper of the two is what I usually get). The insurance included in the rental price is only injury insurance. If you have an accident, you'll have to pay for all repairs and plus for the time the rental car is off the road. It's only an extra 10 or 20K won for a few days.

* Unless the test wording has been changed in the last two years, I found that it wasn't written in English, it was written in some of the least decipherable Konglish I've ever had the pleasure to read. I failed the first time due to not having studied, and being unable to understand what some of the questions were actually asking. I then used a US Army driver licence information page http://8tharmy.korea.army.mil/g1_AG/Programs_Policy/PublicationsRecords/Publications/USFK_Pam_385-2__Guide_to_Safe_Driving_in_Korea_English.pdf
and the Korean RTA info http://eng.rota.or.kr/Eng/Main/main.jsp
page which were both very helpful. I could obviously understand the American information with no problem, and the Korean page was written in the same Konglish as the test; combined, I worked it out. Some questions are fine, but others are like "what???"

* If you go back to your home country, just take your e-ticket to the office you got your licence from and they'll give you back your home licence. I've read on here in the past that they'll then take your Korean licence, and you can swap them back when you return, but they didn't do that to me; they just gave me my home licence back. I've had both my licences for 18 months now, but like so many things in Korea, it probably just depends who's working that day and what they feel like doing.

* It's really cheap and easy to get an international driving permit from your Korean licence. You do it at the same place you get your Korean licence. Take a passport size photo and fill out the form. Total time about 15 minutes and cost was about 8,000 won in August 2012. I don't know about other countries, but it was way cheaper to do it here than it was when I did it in Australia.

Have fun in Jeju! Renting a car was an awesome experience there, and if you can speak/read a bit of Korean, the satnavs are great. There's a feature where you can put in the phone number of the place you're going and it will find it and direct you there.