Full Irish Driving License: Unemployed but I think that employer's letter would help

Hi ,

I have been driving in my home country for 18 years now , after coming to Ireland , in order to get full license I have to go through the whole proccess from scratch ( provisional license , book for the full license test , fail the test , wait for another 52 weeks before the next test , retake the test ... etc )
I have been told by recruitment agents that emplyers are looking for full clean license to consider my application for a sales job .
Got to know from friends that a letter from employer can push my full licnese test application to the first available cancelation instead of waiting for another year to retake the driving test .
Since I am not employed at the moment , are you aware of any way to get such a letter to present it to driving test centre ?

Regards
h.

Re: Full Irish Driving License

Sometimes you can exchange your present valid license for full Irish one... That depends on which country your original license is from.

Re: Full Irish Driving License

believe me , I made my homework , for my country i have to go through the proccess to obtain the license from zero . I have now the provisional license .
The point is that reruitment agent told me that I have good change to get a job provide I have full license , but this guy refused to provide such a letter .
Would you think if I write them a letter my self that might appeal to the driving test centre ?

Re: Full Irish Driving License

You could send a letter with your test application but proabbly will not be much help. I don't know what part of the country you live in but some test centres are as little as 13 weeks now. If you are a fairly competent driver it should not be a problem to do a test in an area where you are unfamiliar with even if it is miles away (though saying that it would be a good idea to get a couple of lessons around the area to familiarise yourself with the routes)

Re: Full Irish Driving License

You can call the test centre and tell them that you are willing to accept a cancellation. This should mean an earlier call-up, but you may only have 2-3 days notice of the test.

It is unfortunate that you don't have an employer who will write a letter for you. My employer did this for me years ago and I got the test in 5 weeks.

Understand your predicament, my wife has 2 foreign licences (full) and an international licence, but is in the same boat as you because the insurance company won't accept the international licence.

Re: Full Irish Driving License

I've been through the same thing myself, I have a foreign licence, and after 10 years on the road it's a frustrating to have to re-sit a driving test (and I failed on the first test!). AFAIK, if you have a job offer that requires a licence, then that is also good enough to get you a cancellation. But you still need to convince someone to give you the job. Also, check how long you are legally allowed to drive on your existing licence. I was allowed to drive for a year, but then had to sit the test.

I reserved flights with a low cost airline and said that I was leaving the country soon to move to another Eruopean country and could they facilitate me and they did.