I had one driving license before and was doing one practical test at Basel, examiner said i was too slow and failed me, 7th December. I was quite upset and have to start over from the emergency course.
Now i received a letter claims that they need to take my old license away and i need to pay 300 CHF for this process?
I don’t understand, is it for real?
If I would know that the whole process would cost me 2000 CHF (1000 for 5 lesson, 200 for application and other paper work, 200 for taking the exam, 300 for failing) i wouldn’t even start converting it.
A friend asked this question for you on the Basel Expats Facebook group.
The consensus is that you can ask for your license back, but it will have a sticker on it. If you need to drive abroad, you can carefully remove the sticker. But don’t try driving in Switzerland on it.
You have to go through the whole process.
You do not need to take 5 lessons. Maybe two will be enough. And they don’t cost 200 francs a throw. Have a look here: https://todrive.ch/ch/en/driving-sch…el-stadt/basel - all less than 100 francs per lesson.
I don't understand what's going on, what does it mean you "had one driving license before"? Was that a driving license for a different class of vehicles (e.g. A1) or simply a foreign driver's license that is not recognised here?
I think (yes, not completely clear from the post) s/he is complaining s/he has already shelled out 2K and not got anything for it. Because their driving wasn't good enough.
I have a driving license from an "unhappy country" for 8 years, and was confident to take the test, however I'm still not "GOOD ENOUGH". Sadly
Sorry for the confusion. I have a driving license outside EU country, hence needed to do the conversion practical test.
Sorry for the confusion. I wanted to ask if this is normal amount of money, Cuz 300chf sounds like a fine, it's not a small amount of money. My friend from other canton was required to pay 155 chf for this procedure.
Thanks for the post on Facebook and thanks for your help. Yes i understand that now i have to start over, from emergency course to theory test etc. I was really shocked for the amount of money i have to pay for the administration fee. Cuz everyone said they will give me my old driving license back with a sticker, and i cannot drive in Switzerland anymore. This part i fully understand. But noone had mentioned that the canton will keep the old driving license with the admin fee of 300 chf and i need to pay to get it back everytime i want to drive in other countries (this sounds really robbery)
The CHF 300 are for the driving ban in Switzerland. Failing the test drive (Kontrollfahrt) means you are deemed unfit to drive on Swiss roads.
CHF 300 is a lot. In Zurich it is CHF 100 when you fail the test drive. In theory you could object against the charge as it must reflect true cost. Considering a failed test drive is an open-and-shut case, it really seems to be excessive, on the other hand it is Basel Stadt and due to the small amount of cases they might have a large overhead which increases the cost.
Paying CHF 1000 for five 45 minute lessons is way too much. Unless they are double lesson. But even then it is on the high side.
Many thanks for your reply. It really helps a lot. Have a nice evening! I'll try to find a cheaper driving school and hopefully get the driving license soon~