ARC validity/Driving licence bollocks

I read through some old posts but didn’t really find an answer (things probably change over time anyway)

I went to get my motorcycle licence at shilin the other day. They wouldn’t let me take the test because my ARC is only valid for 363 days (Aug 28 2008 - Aug 26 2009). They even told me if I had arrived on the 27th they might be able to let me :fume: or if my visa was issued in taipei (it was issued in san fran because i was on vacation there at the time)

this just seems like the most retarded thing i have ever heard. i tried to ask why and got the standard taiwanese answer of “it is the rules, it is not my responsibilty to decide”

I saw three different people at shilin and they all kept saying the same thing. i asked at the department of motor vehicles on bade road too and they said the same thing. wankers

so is this just taipei city that has this ridiculous rule? if i go to banciao or taoyuan would i be able to do the test? anyone else have any experience there

No such problems here in Hsinchu. I got my licence for both car and motor cycle about three years ago and they are valid for the same period as your ARC. Every year when my ARC is re-newed I simply go down to the DMV and they renew my licences within 5 minutes. No problems at all. .

BTW< I honestly can’t see what your visa has to do with it. All they need to see is your ARC.

[quote=“Mugatu”]I read through some old posts but didn’t really find an answer (things probably change over time anyway)

I went to get my motorcycle licence at Shilin the other day. They wouldn’t let me take the test because my ARC is only valid for 363 days (Aug 28 2008 - Aug 26 2009). They even told me if I had arrived on the 27th they might be able to let me :fume: or if my visa was issued in taipei (it was issued in san fran because I was on vacation there at the time)

this just seems like the most retarded thing I have ever heard. i tried to ask why and got the standard taiwanese answer of “it is the rules, it is not my responsibilty to decide”

I saw three different people at Shilin and they all kept saying the same thing. i asked at the department of motor vehicles on bade road too and they said the same thing. wankers

so is this just taipei city that has this ridiculous rule? if i go to Banqiao or Taoyuan would i be able to do the test? anyone else have any experience there[/quote]That is the rule; all over Taiwan as far as I know. If your total ARC validity is for less than a year, you can’t get a license. I think it’s an actual law, not just a regulation, and I’m pretty sure there’s no local wiggle room.

[quote=“Anubis”]No such problems here in Hsinchu (Xinzhu). I got my licence for both car and motor cycle about three years ago and they are valid for the same period as your ARC. Every year when my ARC is re-newed I simply go down to the DMV and they renew my licences within 5 minutes. No problems at all. .

BTW< I honestly can’t see what your visa has to do with it. All they need to see is your ARC.[/quote]You mean that when you first got your license, the total valid period (not just remaining period) on your ARC was less than a year? That surprises me. Still, maybe the new law hadn’t quite come into effect by that time. I can’t remember exactly when it was passed.

[quote=“joesax”][quote=“Anubis”]No such problems here in Hsinchu (Xinzhu) (Xinzhu). I got my licence for both car and motor cycle about three years ago and they are valid for the same period as your ARC. Every year when my ARC is re-newed I simply go down to the DMV and they renew my licences within 5 minutes. No problems at all. .

BTW< I honestly can’t see what your visa has to do with it. All they need to see is your ARC.[/quote]You mean that when you first got your license, the total valid period (not just remaining period) on your ARC was less than a year? That surprises me. Still, maybe the new law hadn’t quite come into effect by that time. I can’t remember exactly when it was passed.[/quote]

I’m not sure I quite understand. :eh:

Im my case: I received my ARC on the 20 January 2005. I went to the DMV in the following days and took the tests and so on. I was issued with a licence. The following year, I received my renewed ARC on 20 January. Went to the DMV and asked for a renewal of my licence. Just a stamp on the back with a new expiry date, the same as on my ARC. Took 5 minutes. Did the same in 2007, 2008, 2009. No problems. Maybe we’re just lucky here in Hsinchu. Or maybe the local DMV is not aware of the new law? :pray:

[quote=“Anubis”][quote=“joesax”][quote=“Anubis”]No such problems here in Hsinchu (Xinzhu) (Xinzhu) (Xinzhu). I got my licence for both car and motor cycle about three years ago and they are valid for the same period as your ARC. Every year when my ARC is re-newed I simply go down to the DMV and they renew my licences within 5 minutes. No problems at all. .

BTW< I honestly can’t see what your visa has to do with it. All they need to see is your ARC.[/quote]You mean that when you first got your license, the total valid period (not just remaining period) on your ARC was less than a year? That surprises me. Still, maybe the new law hadn’t quite come into effect by that time. I can’t remember exactly when it was passed.[/quote]

I’m not sure I quite understand. :eh:

Im my case: I received my ARC on the 20 January 2005. I went to the DMV in the following days and took the tests and so on. I was issued with a licence. The following year, I received my renewed ARC on 20 January. Went to the DMV and asked for a renewal of my licence. Just a stamp on the back with a new expiry date, the same as on my ARC. Took 5 minutes. Did the same in 2007, 2008, 2009. No problems. Maybe we’re just lucky here in Hsinchu (Xinzhu). Or maybe the local DMV is not aware of the new law? :pray:[/quote]The OP’s problem is nothing to do with renewing a license. It’s about getting one in the first place. In order to take the test, you need to have an ARC with a total valid period (issue date to expiry date) of a year or more. Your first ARC was valid for a year. People whose ARCs are valid for less than a year can’t take the test.

Apparently it was a law that was introduced a few years ago now that ARCs must be valid for a year from the date you wish to obtain a license.

It wasn’t a problem for me when I first got my license in 2000.

But with my ARC and my company, they always renew your license a least a month before it expires, so that when they give it back to you, it still has the original expiry date, plus a year of course which means this new ARC is actually valid for 13 months. This is the time to get your license then to get around this rule.

Just too bad thay want all the foreigners to ride around for a year unlicensed. Lots go home after their one year, some stay. If you stay, just need to wait a year to get your license.

And I have never had problem renewing, even when overdue by 6 months.

[quote=“TaipeiSean”]Apparently it was a law that was introduced a few years ago now that ARCs must be valid for a year from the date you wish to obtain a license.[/quote]Not quite. Apparently the law is a little ambiguous but its intention was to mean that the ARC must have a total validity of a year (not a year from the date you want to get a license). And that’s definitely how some (most?) DMVs interpret it. However, a few people have reported that their local DMV interprets it in the way you said; that your total ARC validity effectively needs to be over a year.

I think that the law is pointless even when interpreted correctly. I really don’t know what students on six-month ARCs are supposed to do.

ok, seems like i have no choice. that just seems insane to me though. i dont even know why my arc is valid for 363 days and not 365, but i also cant see how it makes any difference.

[quote=“joesax”][quote=“TaipeiSean”]Apparently it was a law that was introduced a few years ago now that ARCs must be valid for a year from the date you wish to obtain a license.[/quote]Not quite. Apparently the law is a little ambiguous but its intention was to mean that the ARC must have a total validity of a year (not a year from the date you want to get a license). And that’s definitely how some (most?) DMVs interpret it. However, a few people have reported that their local DMV interprets it in the way you said; that your total ARC validity effectively needs to be over a year.

I think that the law is pointless even when interpreted correctly. I really don’t know what students on six-month ARCs are supposed to do.[/quote]

I thought for that case they think you should do it with an IDL which you bring from your country and than get it stamped. In Austria you get a IDL which is valid for one year, so it would cover exactly that time anyway. Not sure if that is the same everywhere thought.

[quote=“mingshah”][quote=“joesax”][quote=“TaipeiSean”]Apparently it was a law that was introduced a few years ago now that ARCs must be valid for a year from the date you wish to obtain a license.[/quote]Not quite. Apparently the law is a little ambiguous but its intention was to mean that the ARC must have a total validity of a year (not a year from the date you want to get a license). And that’s definitely how some (most?) DMVs interpret it. However, a few people have reported that their local DMV interprets it in the way you said; that your total ARC validity effectively needs to be over a year.

I think that the law is pointless even when interpreted correctly. I really don’t know what students on six-month ARCs are supposed to do.[/quote]

I thought for that case they think you should do it with an IDL which you bring from your country and than get it stamped. In Austria you get a IDL which is valid for one year, so it would cover exactly that time anyway. Not sure if that is the same everywhere thought.[/quote]
But students get six-month ARCs which they renew as many times as needed for the duration of their study. Surely no-one in the government thinks that foreigners just come here to study six months of Chinese and then go home?

Maybe they think they will come for one or two semesters and than, when they have the longer vacations go home for some time before starting the next semester. So they can get another IDL. But that’s also just guesses and to be honest there are a couple of laws out there where one can just guess what they were actually thinking when they put them up.

Most likely a case of one hand not knowing what the other is doing…

I got around this sucky rule by sitting my license a couple of days after my ARC renewal, which was a couple of weeks before the commencement of the new year. So, for a few days, my ARC was valid for more than a year.

Personally, I think this particular ruling is a case of incorrect translation or something. I believe the intent was for licenses to be issued for “up to 1 year maximum within the ARC validity” but someone translated it as “only applicable for ARC valid for 12 months minimum”, which hardly applies to anyone.

You might like to try sitting it out at Taoyuan. I find the staff out there to be very helpful.

[quote=“Truant”]I got around this sucky rule by sitting my license a couple of days after my ARC renewal, which was a couple of weeks before the commencement of the new year. So, for a few days, my ARC was valid for more than a year.

Personally, I think this particular ruling is a case of incorrect translation or something. I believe the intent was for licenses to be issued for “up to 1 year maximum within the ARC validity” but someone translated it as “only applicable for ARC valid for 12 months minimum”, which hardly applies to anyone.

You might like to try sitting it out at Taoyuan. I find the staff out there to be very helpful.[/quote]
See my post on the previous page. Apparently not all DMV offices (mis)interpret the rule that way.

The OP’s problem is that the whole validity of his ARC from issue date to expiry is less than a year. So there’s nothing he can do to get a license. It won’t help to go to a friendlier office.

[quote=“joesax”][quote=“Truant”]I got around this sucky rule by sitting my license a couple of days after my ARC renewal, which was a couple of weeks before the commencement of the new year. So, for a few days, my ARC was valid for more than a year.

Personally, I think this particular ruling is a case of incorrect translation or something. I believe the intent was for licenses to be issued for “up to 1 year maximum within the ARC validity” but someone translated it as “only applicable for ARC valid for 12 months minimum”, which hardly applies to anyone.

You might like to try sitting it out at Taoyuan. I find the staff out there to be very helpful.[/quote]
See my post on the previous page. Apparently not all DMV offices (mis)interpret the rule that way.

The OP’s problem is that the whole validity of his ARC from issue date to expiry is less than a year. So there’s nothing he can do to get a license. It won’t help to go to a friendlier office.[/quote]
Yeah got that. My point was some of the more “rural” offices may be less familiar with the rule and might interpret it with more reasonable logic as opposed to the Taipei offices who probably deal with foreigners on a daily/weekly basis.

No trouble here in Hsinchu.

No trouble with what? Getting a license when you have less than a year remaining on your ARC? Or getting a license when the ARC was only ever valid for less than a year anyway?

My experience for a NEW license:

Taipei, 2005: No test without ARC valid for over 365 days in total, from date of issue to date of expiry. Rejected!

Taichung, one year later: No mention of such a law and happily received license in spite of not satisfying the 365-day rule. Renewals have not been a problem, either.

[quote=“beef eater”]My experience for a NEW license:

Taipei, 2005: No test without ARC valid for over 365 days in total, from date of issue to date of expiry. Rejected!

Taichung, one year later: No mention of such a law and happily received license in spite of not satisfying the 365-day rule. Renewals have not been a problem, either.[/quote]
Oh well, that’s good news. I remember Plasmatron saying a couple of years ago that a friend of his had fallen foul of the “one year remaining” misinterpretation, at the Beitun Rd DMV in Taichung. Hopefully they’ve fallen back into more relaxed Taichung ways now.

By the way, I’m not aware that ARC length has ever been an issue for renewing licenses. As far as I’m aware, the rule we’re talking about only applies for new licenses.