With our year anniversary of living in Bristol, came the expiration of our legal permission to drive in the UK on our US driving licenses. After that year grace, we're required to apply for a UK driving license, and unfortunately, that means starting from scratch like all the 16 year olds! Ugh.
The process starts with an application (and fee) for a provisional license, which can take up to 3 weeks. Mine took about a week and Brian's almost 3. Your provisional allows you to drive with a qualified driver (21+ years old with a valid license for at least 3 years) and anywhere except on the motorway. You also need to display a big red L on your car front and back to indicate you're a learner.
To avoid these requirements, we needed to make sure we had our UK license before our US ones expired, otherwise, it would be back to taking the bus to work!
Step 2 is the theory test and another fee. Once you have your provisional license, you can schedule your theory test. This can take anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks, depending on how busy the testing centres are. I ended up driving 40 min to Newport to get in earlier as we were starting to run out of time on our US licenses.
The theory test consists of 50 multiple choice questions (you need 86% to pass) and a hazard perception test where you watch a video and indicate potential road hazards as they appear. You can practice both tests online in advance, which is highly recommended and really helped us with some of the UK language and those darn roundabouts.
Go on, give it a try!
https://www.theory-test-online.co.uk/free-hazard-perception-test-demo.htm
https://www.gov.uk/take-practice-theory-test
The good news is that we both passed on our first try, but I tell you, it was stressful. We both practiced a lot the week before our test - can you imagine the embarrassment of failing at our age!!
And that took us to step 3, the practical driving test - and yes, another fee! This is what we were most nervous about. Yes, of course we can drive and had been in the UK now for almost a year. But driving to the public's standards and driving to the standard of passing a UK driving test seemed like two very different things. On top of that, I was getting lots of US acquaintances on Facebook and other venues tell me they had failed their first and sometimes second time, which made me more nervous. I even took a driving lesson which ended up being validation and confidence boosting more than anything else but helpful to calm the nerves. We created some additional pressure by procrastinating the whole thing and having an upcoming road trip to Scotland planned. Luckily, I passed on my first try and the day before my US license was set to expire!
Next, we had Brian to worry about. His provisional took 2 weeks longer than mine for some reason, so he was behind schedule and our road trip was coming up soon. We now knew I would be able to drive us, but Brian wasn't so keen on being a passenger for a 5 day road trip. He was able to get a quick theory test appointment and just around the corner from his office - great! He then arrived to be told the tests for that day had been cancelled because of a computer malfunction. He was rescheduled to the following week, and the day before our trip was to start. Looked like I would be driving to Scotland.
He passed his theory test with no trouble and logged on that evening (the night before our trip) to see when he could schedule his practical test. Believe it or not, there was 1 appointment the following morning at our preferred test site. Fate had intervened and all we had to do was leave a couple of hours later for Scotland.
He passed the following morning and off we went on holiday!
