Traffic Dept: Expats' Driving Licenses Will Only be Renewed for a Year

The Traffic Department shared the news on Sunday that expats' driving licenses will only be renewed for one year, reducing the validity period from three years, which came into effect on April 26th. 

However, the department shared that the only expat workers who are exempted from this decision are those who work as domestic drivers. These expats will have their driver's licenses renewed for three years. 

Although the reason behind this new regulation is unknown, the Ministry of Interior had already alerted the expat community many weeks ago that it was reviewing driver's licenses to verify if these were issued in accordance with the law.  

Local media also reported that thousands of expats' licenses were very likely to be cancelled. 

Expats have to fulfil various requirements to obtain a driver's licence in Kuwait, which includes having a monthly salary of KD 600, having a university degree, and they must have stayed in Kuwait legally for two years. 

Expats of various professions including doctors, judges, engineers, and others are exempt from fulfilling these requirements.

In the past, a driver's licence for expats in Kuwait used to be valid for 10 years, however, later the validity was linked with the validity of their residence. After some time, the validity of the licence was reduced to one year for many years, until it was extended to three years in 2020. 

In 2023, the validity of the expats' driver's licenses is reduced to one year yet again.