Motorcycle Licensing Question: Learner Permit

Hi everyone!

New to forum and just moved to Taiwan on a work/holiday visa for a year. I am from Canada.

I have tried to search but cannot find a clear answer to my question.

Essentially, I am starting new to obtain a motorcycle license (50cc to 250cc size) as a foreigner without a current license to present.

My understanding is that I have to seek a learner permit for 3 months before I can obtain a regular motorcycle license. I attended at the Taipei motor vehicle licensing and completed my green health check form at the Pojen hospital. Unfortunately, Taipei location doesn’t have motorcycle licensing and I was redirected to Shilin location. I decided to study first before attending to ensure pass even though it appears I will be fine based off the online sample testing. I attempted to figure out my question at Taipei location but the language barrier could not produce a definitive answer, trying to call Shilin was basically impossible for me. I have not yet went to Shilin but likely tomorrow or Monday.

Now my question is essentially this, am I taking a written test and getting learning permit, and then in 3 months I go back with a motorcycle and do driving test and then i’m licensed? Or am I wrong and missing something? Also, sometimes I see that a mandatory training course is required to obtain the license? Is this for ordinary motorcycle (50-250cc) or just for the heavy (250+)? Or for both? Basically I just want to know if i’m going only do written part now and get learner permit as I do not yet have a moto to use to test. Also, am I allowed to drive with this learner permit? Forgive me if I missed this info somewhere obvious but I legitimately cannot be sure of what happens exactly when applying new as the official site seems to only say you take written then practical as if at one time.

Thank you for your help or consideration on this topic. :slight_smile:

I’ve never heard of this, it wasn’t necessary a few years ago

You have to attend a video lecture (box ticking), do the written, do the driving test. This can all be done on the same day

You can rent their motorcycle for the test. I borrowed from a friend for practice and the test

250cc+ there is a course, but you need the white plate for a year first. The course is just box ticking if you know how to ride a big bike

Do you have a friend whose bike you can use to practice? Can practice at the actual test track

Where did you hear about this?

TT thank you for your quick reply! :slight_smile:

This available rental would be great right now! Hopefully this is possible at Shilin? It is not mentioned on any of the official website pages that I saw. I did not even hear of this at all until now. Maybe I am a terrible researcher lol

As I have only been here 2 weeks, unfortunately I have absolutely 0 friends or contacts thus far… I need to work on this haha

Multiple places, first I was asked if I wanted to get learner permit by a clerk at Taipei motor vehicle office, she literally said learner permit, but she was not too proficient in English and maybe I misunderstood our convo (or she was referring to cars), she is the one that gave me a piece of paper with the Shilin location because she said no moto testing at Taipei office though. She also said I might have to book test in advance which I am unsure of as well. Here is link to website pages official that also mentions learner permit but it appears on another page that this only refers to cars it might seem now that you say this and I re-read.

MVDIS - About MVDIS for example says this

Sorry, I should also add that I am unsure how to book the test if possible online but I was planning to just go and see what they tell me to do but it seems there is an online system, should I use this?:

I know I know very little, so any knowledge and info is grealty appreciated and I hope to become an active forum member. :slight_smile:

Should be of they have a test track. You might be able to rent for practice, I don’t know. Definitely practice on the bike you will test on. And some are easier than others for the test

Nah, the system isn’t set up for us is all

Colleague?

This might be a case of the person you talk to doesn’t know, so ask someone else (welcome to Taiwan)

If you need a learner permit this is new, or a misunderstanding. Health check, video class (in Chinese, I took a book), written test, riding test, on the road.

Hence the woman at the place that only does cars mentioning it, I think…

Has to be done online. A colleague helped me sort it. Was very busy at that time, some test sites were booked for weeks and months. Probably the people at the Shilin office can help you register online when you go talk to them

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If I am able to rent temporary for this, do they give me some time to practice? I have lots of motorcycle experience but mostly larger bikes and I have only ridden scooters like twice, although they are easier and don’t require shifting or in the same way etc. I’m less worried about familiarity then just having such an option available to me.

Haha I know what you mean but at least Taiwan is friendly and does have English versions and help etc. :slight_smile: even if not the most accessible or clear at first.

Unfortunately, none. I am not yet employed here in Taiwan. I am interested in the teaching field but that is the next subject i’ll be on.

You’re definitely right here. First person I talked to (information desk) sent me to 2nd floor for motorcycle licensing that they did not even have so they information people didn’t even know the information and were as surprised as me lmao

Again, most likely right. I think it’s for cars only and I misunderstood.

I don’t mind travelling to do sooner if needed, any idea about what location is closest but least traffic? Probably something I can ask there or check when online book but i’ll try translating that page and booking the test once I know if there are motos I can use for them there.

Thank you for your info sir. :slight_smile:

I seem to recall so, yes

The test is about passing the test, not knowing how to ride. Which reminds me, look for a youtube video on the test steps. Watch people do the hilarious fake shoulder check, too

De nada, welcome to the forum. Can be a very helpful and entertaining place

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Shilin test track:

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I tried to do quick write up off the top of my head here.
I took my ā€œstandardā€ a.k.a. General Heavy Motorcycle License earlier this year. I had friends who let me borrow their scooters to practice in empty parking lots or out in the middle of nowhere though which helped for getting a feel of scooters.

If I miss anything or you have more questions feel free to ask.


I’m assuming you’ve already gotten your ARC. That ID number will be used for registration. The learners permit thing mentioned on the website is for cars. Motorcycle you just go straight to applying for the test. Only heavy motorcycle license requires a mandatory course, but you can only register for that license and course after 1 year on a 50-250cc license.

There are training classes that you can sign up for where they will teach you how to ride a scooter and will have their own test course (same course although the order of things may be slightly different) where you can practice a lot. Probably up around Taipei easier to find one that has someone that can speak English. It’s something you can consider if you don’t have anyone that can help you practice. You can look up ę©Ÿč»Šé§•čØ“ē­ and see if you can find something near you. These aren’t run by the DMVs. You can maybe try calling up a few places or visiting them to see if they have anyone that can speak English. Typically the pass rate for those that attend these courses are way higher if I’m remembering correctly.

Here’s the link to register. Was changed to only online a few years ago so you can’t book in person. As far as I can tell registration website is only in Chinese. For type of test select ę™®é€šé‡åž‹ę©Ÿč»Š as this will be the 50cc-250cc license, the highest you are able to take for your first motorcycle license.

https://www.mvdis.gov.tw/m3-emv-trn/exm/locations#gsc.tab=0

Next choose place/region and from there select the available DMVs. Since you mention Shilin (å£«ęž—) I assume that’s the most convenient location for you so select that one. Will be the first option in both drop down boxes.

As part of the registration process you are also required to watch a video and press the on screen button when you see something ā€œdangerousā€. You can repeat this as many times as necessary. You only need to pass once.

It’s the left most option on the window that pops up.


Top to bottom.
Age
Sex: 男性 Male, 儳性 Female
Which city you reside in. I’m assuming you’re in Taipei city so select å°åŒ—åø‚
Do you have a license? Since you don’t have a license in Taiwan select the first option ē„”

You may need to zoom out on the screen a little bit since the video takes up most of the screen and the button you need to press when you see something ā€œdangerousā€ is below it.

After you pass this, so get 4 out of 5 right in the 5 videos, then your results are saved and you don’t need to worry about doing it again.

On the test date registration you can click on the right most option. From there select which date you want to register for. Just to let you know for some of the DMVs you may need to wait weeks for the earliest available test date. I recommend registering for the earliest date available to you and check every day or so to see if an earlier date has a slot open up since sometimes people will cancel. You can also take a look and see if any other DMV locations that do the scooter test will have earlier dates available. Make sure you are able to get there okay first though, but given it’s up North you should be fine with public transportation.

Once that’s all taken care of you can go do the mandatory health check up whenever is convenient for you. Do it before the test date. You can search online. I’m sure people have written about places you can do it at. As long as you barely have a pulse you will be fine and you will pass your physical.


Make sure you arrive in time for the safety ā€œlectureā€ that you must attend the first time you take the test. There are no questions or anything. Just sit there for 2 hours. It’s all in Chinese. It’s okay, just sit through it. You only need to do this once so even if you fail either the writing or driving test you don’t need to sit through this lecture again (unless it’s been more than 1 year but this is not applicable to you).


For ā€œrentalsā€ from the DMVs these are only allowed to be used for the test. Typically you aren’t allowed to practice on them at all and basically just get on and immediately start taking the test. When you go to pay for the test make sure to tell them you want to rent to DMV’s scooter. Be warned…at some DMVs the scooter is in poor condition. Have heard some less than stellar comments from Taiwanese online about some DMVs scooters. I imagine for Shilin it should be…ok at least. The DMV will also have a helmet you can use but keep in mind this helmet will probably be used by everyone else using the DMV’s scooter as well and from what I saw was never disinfected or cleaned the whole test session. So maybe bring your own helmet.

I used the DMV’s scooter for my test and while it wasn’t in the greatest condition it was okay. Probably the biggest difficulty with it was it’s smaller size as when turning I bumped into my knee. If you are a taller person or have long legs this might be a little annoying…I kept my legs spread out ha.

Here’s a foreign Youtuber in Taiwan going through the process a few years ago. Still the same as now except for the addition of the videos you have to sit through and click the I see danger button when registering.


If you fail your test you can take the test again 7 days later (although getting a slot just 1 week later may be difficult). If you pass the written test you don’t need to take it again, you can just go to the counter and pay for your driving test and go straight to the course (you still have to register online).

No flip flops/slippers/etc. for the road test, just wear shoes. I know I know almost everyone in Taiwan rides like that but for the test wear a pair of shoes.


Also as mentioned the test is just a test and has little application to real life driving in Taiwan. I recommend that after you pass your test, get a license and get a scooter try going out for some rides early in the morning when hardly anyone is out to get a feel for your scooter, throttle control, braking, the roads, the environment, two stage turns, handling turns, etc. etc.

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My advice on this is book one ahead if u can, it not, keep checking. I found in the mornings and evenings, spots tended to open up but would fill QUICK. It’s a massive PITA.

For the written test, might want to go into whatever app store ur phone has and write "å°ē£é§•ē…§č€ƒč©¦ā€. One of those apps will have the English test questions and answers. It is, however, only nominatively English, and much of the grammar is absolutely awful.

This is the one I have on Google play

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First, let me sincerely thank you for the time taken to write out this detailed information! :slight_smile: Sorry I took long to respond was quite busy last few days.

There wasn’t any slots available AT ALL a month out. Seeing as it said it opens a certain amount of time before each new opening release in the text, I sat at a restaurant lastnight and refreshed at midnight and got the new opening date for mid September like a month away. If such backlogs are so consistent they should increase capacity somehow.

I have a work/holiday visa so no ARC obtainable, but I used my UID number to book and it worked. Also the name section is probably meant for Chinese characters as it would’t even allow for more than my lastname which isn’t that long.

Lots of riding experience, just been a very longtime since Philippines, the only time I rode a scooter instead of actual motorcycle in my life. Should be fine, the video of the test looks pretty basic :smile: the guy in the video above that was posted was so shakey it hurt me to watch lol. I passed my M2 license testing in Canada first shot (same with every car license i’ve ever taken) which is waaaay harder but it expired awhile back. Same with my Filipino license. :frowning:

I use Google Translate on web pages in browser but sometimes inline code or apps aren’t impacted. So i’ll use cellphone to do visual translate which works pretty great. Without translate I could not have gotten through those videos. If you click hazard or slow down button immediately as you notice the hazard it can be too early and it almost feels like you had to wait for a little more danger to come before clicking lol plus one is a multiple choice question.

What if i’m non-binary? lol (joking, please nobody take offence)

Just learned about Kinmen and was surprised to see how close ROC land was to mainland. Also not sure why some places I checked hours away take longer to get to by transit than bicycling? confused

First thing I did when I visited the Taipei location. Pojen hospital charged $400NT to fill the green form out. Luckily I already had the photos from when I tried to get an ARC card.

I have like astigmatism (mostly one eye) which can make small text at a distance a little blurry and tricky to read and the only letter they use is E. I was worried about eye issue years ago when I did my motorcycle license in Canada so I wore my girlfriends contact lenses lmao and this time I scored slightly below average on eye test because those last 2 E’s are so small and I thought it was timed so I did it fast and even misclicked ones I could actually see. I was squinting at those last 2 E’s lol and the clinic lady asked if I wear contacts but I was still a bit above failing and it appears my eyesight hasn’t decreased much but that part actually had me worried. After I finished I had to Google the minimum required eyesight level while waiting for the next test to be sure I didn’t just fail. In Canada the eye test is done at the licensing centre as you apply (same with photos, which I hate) and they test eyes seperately if I recall correctly (they block one eye in the tester when they display what you have to read).

Watch me do a random circle to test before I get on the track at the test centre :wink: oh it’s that way? My appologies :smile:

Brought both my main expensive helmet and an extra smaller helmet for any gf I get here lmao but thanks for the heads up I might not have considered bringing one if you didn’t mention this.

Yeah it’s a 1 month wait until slots open at midnight kinda show right now it seems. Does Taiwan have like in Canada, a standby mode, where you can show up early and anybody who cancels they offer the test slot to the standbys? This might reduce their backlog too if they don’t do this.

Never wear those even in normal life but I always cringe when I see motorcyclists wearing flip flops, oh Lord it’s not good. I passed my motorcycle test in Timbaland boots which was the opposite and made it a little harder to shift gears. I wore them because someone told me wear steel toe and ankle support for safety.

I’m trying to get a light sportbike instead of a scooter, never really been a fan but not sure how available or cheap they are here secondhand. In Manila I bought a 200cc Rusi which looked like a Ninja knockoff for $1400 brand new. Rode it for a year and sold it for $700. I been riding the public bikes around the streets like i’m on a motorcycle, does that count? :smile:

Again, thank you for all this information my friend!

Government has English PDF versions online for all the same docs they have in Chinese for the test materials. Even the practice exam has English. Though oddly, not the booking or the booking video parts. I’ll definitely try the app out though, thank you.

Thank you, this video gave me entire confidence. So easy compared to back home!

I’d recommend the app if for no other reason than that the test is bullshit. It’s largely not theoretical, the answers and questions are confusing. This test takes the test questions and answers - like the actual ones, it’s essentially exactly the same to the test - and just lets you repeat and repeat and repeat until you’re good to go. For this test, repetition is all you need.

Plenty of choices for that. R15, Suzuki SF 150/250, or Honda CBR150R your best choices in Taiwan for full fairing. You won’t be able to go above 250cc for a year though, as others have said. If you’re planning to do some travelling on the bike, get something more upright. For that, good choices:

wolf 150, ktr150, (both Taiwanese, simple if not exceptionally powerful, but they’ll take you up just about any main road here).

For Japanese naked bikes: Gixxer150/250 (never test rode one of these, they’re ugly, but Suzuki 250cc are pretty high performing engines. One of the better options under 250), MT-15 (honestly really fun little bike to ride), cb150 (love Honda but it’s fucking expensive here in TW). Other options, Vstrom250 (lil adv bike), crf150 (uncomfortable as all hell but the best offroader commonly and cheaply available here), and that’s all I can think of. Oh, also the Kawa W180. But this one, gotta be a bit careful… Lots of bikes here aren’t officially imported and parts can be a problem for some. If there are any in particular you are interested in not listed, feel free to drop a message.

Avoid small displacement Euro bikes.

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Ah, welcome to Taiwan. The purpose of the test is not to make people better drivers. The purpose is to keep people off of the road. It is not uncommon to have to take the test more than once, because someone forgot a fake shoulder check or had trouble with the miniature u-turn. Having more capacity would just mean giving more chances for people to pass, which would defeat the purpose. I think.

Anither thing is that you’re doing this at the worst time of year. All the 18 year olds that want to get a license before starting university will be doing it this summer. Some will have finished, some will have procrastinated, some will have failed more than once already.

It’ll be easier after September. Alternatively, make sure to check more than one testing location.

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Awesome, lots of bike info. To be honest i’ll probably go with the cheapest one I find that I recognize and doesn’t seem messed up in any way. I’m not picky just don’t want a scooter lol. I had an R3 before and I’ve ridden a gixxer. R15s are great but not sure if worth investment to grab anything decent for less than a year. Then again, I guess probably some older used ones maybe might be worth it. I would assume Yamaha is like Honda here and sort of pricier. I don’t mind off brand, Rusi was a pretty ghetto brand in Philippines. Will see though. Question: most bikes i’ve ridden have the normal 1st gear down, other gears up after neutral pattern but my bike in Manila had a different one, I forget now actually but I think it was all gears up including first. Might have been 1 and top then neutral and then rest of gears down. My memory is bad rn because it’s the only bike I rode that was different in my life. Are they the same here, or does it depend largely on the bike type or could even be some other random patterns Ive heard of. I actually prefer the all gears up one I rode in Manila and remember wishing I could get the same back home.

My timing is never lucky lol

Test already booked mid September so if I fail somehow that’s reassuring. Also, I checked every single location just to see, only place available without waiting for nightly refresh were on the islands. I think there was one somewhere south but it was like 8hr drive and I wouldn’t want to do that, especially if I went all the way there and there was an issue or I failed. Plus I would have to overnight it before to make time so not really an option other than Taipei, new Taipei and maybe one other I saw. Also some don’t have the motorycle testing it seems (like the main Taipei location). Thank you for info still. :slight_smile:

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Wolf is good for that. Solid, cheap, easy to repair. Perfectly capable bike.

Some older bikes here have probably that same gearing think it goes N12345or something like that. Not sure, never owned one. Depends on the bike

Btw, Facebook marketplace is the place to find used bikes. Go wild:D

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Sounds like you’ll be good for the test. Just be careful for the written test where they ask you how much a fine is. That seems to trip up quite a few people.

I guess the only other thing to be careful of (besides other road users) is out on the roads the two-stage turn stuff and the inner-lanes banning motorcycles (250cc and under) on some roads.

If you’re looking for SYM Wolf here’s the Chinese for it. äø‰é™½é‡Žē‹¼

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