Upon repatriating to Australia, I went to the RTA in Wynyard to convert my Swedish drivers license to a NSW drivers license. According to my reading of the rules on people immigrating to Australia, I would be issued with a full NSW licence.
For those that haven’t experienced the wonders of the NSW licensing system, there are four levels of license – learners, red provisional, green provisional, and full. Obtaining a full license takes roughly the same period of time as an undergraduate university degree, but in my opinion still fails to train good drivers. Having driven for more than the required period of time for a full license I didn’t want to drive with unnecessary restrictions.
During my initial enquiry I was told that as I had previously held a NSW driving license, my time driving in Sweden did not count. Thus I would be returned to the red provisional license I held prior to moving to Sweden.
In other words, if I had never got my NSW drivers licence, I would be issued a full license. But as I held a red provisional red before leaving Australia, I would have to return to this level.
I obviously wasn’t happy, and questioned the reasoning. The officer at the RTA told me that I was obviously not able to understand, and asked if I need her supervisor to explain the rules to me. Hoping for a more reasoned discussion, I said yes.
For the next 10 minutes I waited while they reviewed all the paperwork. Mercedes, the supervisor, came and saw me and said the guidelines were unclear what should happen in this situation, but to leave the matter with her and she would call me. In the mean time I should get a translation of my license, which has to come from NSW Government’s Community Relations Commission.
European driving licenses have been designed so that they do not need to be translated. There is a set of standard numbers across the European Union to identify the various bits of data (eg. 1 is surname, 2 is given names). However, for 75 AUD the NSW government takes 14 business days to translate a European license to English. I know someone is being ripped off here …
After two weeks Mercedes called me back. She said she had some luck with the policy review board, and to bring everything in and she would tell me more. After waiting the final couple of days for the NSW Community Relations Commission to do their thing, I put everything together and headed back to the RTA.
Mercedes told me that the policy review board wanted me to go back to my red provisional license, but she was able to successfully argue my case. After paying an additional 157 AUD for a five year license, I was on my way – full license in hand.
