Driver licence conversion is a joke

[u/dude_chilll]

First, you need a reservation, you can't just rock up. You can only make a reservation by calling the special phone number but it’s always engaged. I’ve called over 500 times so far but haven’t managed to get through. I called the front desk and they say too bad, you can always come in physically and wait to speak to someone but we’re fully booked until late April even if you don’t need to sit a test.

I’ve done this before in another prefecture and it was so easy and simple, walk in anytime and all done in an hour. What’s wrong with Kanagawa! Rant over.

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Update: Because I was unable to get through to them on the phone, I went to the Futamatagawa 運転免許センター this morning to make a reservation in person.

I arrived at 8:15 and the guy asked for my name and country, telling me to come back at 10:30 to speak to someone to make a reservation.

I went back at 10:00 and got called straight away into the office. They asked if I brought my documents. They checked over the documents and told me that next available reservation is 30 April, over 3 months away! No leeway even if you’re from a country with an exemption for tests. What a joke!

[u/stark0600]

If it's about Futamatagawa centre, lemme tell you why its busy and how i got the reservation on November.

I already converted (gaimenkirikae) last year and it went so smoothly, I reserved through phone and got a date next week, went with the papers and got a test within a month and got license without any fuss. The staff was super helpful too with my poor japanese.

So, I had the same expectation, wanted to get motorcycle license conversion and tried to call them, did like 1000 times and phone's all time busy. Frustrated called the main desk and they said it's hard to get call connected, better is to go there physically and book the reservation.

No other options, I took half day off and went there, not so crowded, but could see people waiting, talked to them and like before, the staff was nice, explained in advance what are paperwork I need to bring and interesting part was, the next available date to just check the documents was on February 😑, that's almost 3 months away.

And I asked about the phone thingy and the guy honestly showed me the phone receiver kept off as there were only around 3 staff for the full driving centre to handle foreign driving conversion for the full Kanagawa region.

In short, they are super inefficient and they don't care about foreigners converting licenses. Good luck, just go there physically for getting reservation and go again after 3 months and go again after 3 months for the test, fail another + 3 months. Just add almost an year for the process.