Driving License for Women in Abu Dhabi

• Emirates ID.
• A bank account in Abu Dhabi. If you are a homemaker or dependent, you can use your husband’s bank account to transfer money or to apply for the license.
• A UAE SIM card in your mobile phone to get messages.
• UAE Pass and TAMM app on your mobile phone if you want to apply online.
• Passport and residency details.
• Eye-test results from an approved Abu Dhabi eye centre.
• Any additional documents requested for your application, like your home country driving licence if you are applying for golden chance.

Step 2: Complete your eye test

Take an eye test at an approved optical centre. The results are used for your driving licence application. This is the most important part of the driving licence process. Since your eyes are an essential part of our driving journey, they check your eyes to see if you are capable of seeing distant things. If you already have glasses, they will check if your eyesight power is correct according to your glasses. If everything is perfect, they will give you an eye test PASS document within 5 minutes, and you need to pay 100 dirhams for that eye test.  Your payment history and the eye test document will be submitted online too. Confirm the fee with your eye centre, as some charge differently, and check whether they submit results electronically. In Abu Dhabi, I went to an optical shop in the Dalma Mall for my eye test to apply for a driving licence. That was the only optical shop in the mall where an eye test for a driving licence was taken. If u go and ask other optical shops in the mall and tell them you want an eye test for a driving licence, they will tell you to go to a specific optical shop for the eye test. This eye test document should be submitted when you open your traffic file.

Step 3: Register with a driving institute

Once your file is ready, you will receive a message on your mobile phone from the Abu Dhabi Police confirming that your traffic file has been opened. Then register with an authorised driving institute, such as Emirates Driving Company (EDC), and choose the applicable training programme. The Emirates Driving Company is near the Dalma Mall in the Musaffah area. Your training package and lesson requirements depend on your experience and licensing route. You have to book theory classes, simulator classes, and the theory test date and time through the app or through an agent. You can book them according to your day and time slots. The simulator class is compulsory for Golden Chance applicants. Without attending that class, you will not be allowed to take the theory test. You will also get study material for studying after you register. The study material contains one textbook in PDF form in all languages. You can either download it as a soft copy or ask the EDC for a hard copy. My husband already had a hard copy textbook, so I didn’t ask them for anything. I prefer a hard copy instead of a soft copy because it will be easy to read. The textbook covers all topics of how to drive your car in all types of situations, road signs, road rules, Abu Dhabi traffic rules, speed limits, and how to take care of your car.

Step 5: Complete practical driving training

Start learning behind the wheel and practise vehicle control, parking, reversing, turns, lane changes and safe driving techniques. If you take the normal driving package instead of the golden chance, the driving instructor will teach you driving from the basics. They will also teach you parking, and you will take a separate parking test too; you must pass it to start your road test. But if you take Golden Chance, there will be no parking classes or parking test. And you have to take only a few classes before giving the final road test. There are many types of parking that you will learn in the driivng school, like:

• Parallel parking (parking between 2 cars parallel to the road),
• 90-degree or perpendicular parking (Parking at a right angle by reversing in),
• Angle parking (parking your car at a 40-degree angle in a diagonal bay),
• Reverse parking (Reversing your car into a marked parking space while controlling steering and checking mirrors),
• Side parking (your instructor may tell you to park the car on the hard shoulder of the highway or the parking space on the side of a road).

Depending on your training route, you may have simulator sessions, internal practical training, and a yard assessment. You can take as many classes as you want to become a more confident driver. For Golden Chance, at least 3 to 4 classes of road training are compulsory. Golden Chance holders don’t take a parking test, so they only do side parking when their examiner tells them to do an emergency stop or park on the side of the road during the road test. I took 15 road classes for my Golden Chance driving license so that I could learn more about road rules and how to drive in the UAE. Because driving in India is very different from driving here in the UAE. The traffic rules are very strict here, and also the roads are very different. For each class, the instructor takes 65 dirhams and teaches for one hour. Many people also take 17, 19, or 20 classes for good training. I took only 15 classes because I was confident about my driving after 10 classes, as I already knew how to drive.

I chose the time at 6 am, early in the morning, for my training because after that, I didn’t get any time, as I have a daughter at home who doesn’t go to school and someone has to be at home with her. I used to go at 6 am and come back at 7 am. Sometimes the instructor might come a little late, around 6.20 am, and then I would come back at 7.20 am. My husband used to be at home with my daughter till I came. He used to go to the office as soon as I came back home. And my son used to go to school at 6.40am in his school bus. I did not choose the nighttime because in the afternoon and evening, I am very busy with my household work and taking care of the kids. So I used to wake up at 4.30am, do my prayers, cook breakfast and a snack for the lunchbox, pack my son’s and husband’s lunchboxes by 6 am, and then get ready for my training. This training went on for 15 days straight without any holiday or break. On Saturdays and Sundays, I used to go out with my family to any restaurant or shopping mall to practice my driving. I used to drive while going and my husband would drive while we came back home. According to me, driving is a real job. Your eyes, brain, hands, legs, feet, and ears all function together when you are on the road. You have to focus so much as a new driver and also look at and memorize the routes. Initially, for me, it was very difficult, but practice made me good at driving. I gained some confidence after a few trips on the road with my family. I love to drive, but I was scared before due to a completely new environment, and I didn’t know the routes. Now, I am fine. I just wanted to be perfect at driving to be able to drop my kids off alone at their school.

Step 6: Complete the final road test

After meeting the relevant training and assessment requirements, proceed to the road training and final driving test. You need to book the road test along with a date and time from the app after you pass your theory test. Then you should start your road training. After the theory test, you will receive a ROAD TRAINING card. This card is compulsory for you to practise driving a car on the road. The card looks just like the actual driving licence. But instead of a driving licence, it will be written TRAINEE PERMISSION (ROAD TRAINING) along with your traffic file no. on the top side of the card. This card will be valid only for 6 months. After 6 months, you have to renew it again if you’re taking your road test after 6 months or after 11 months. If you are giving your road test within these 6 months after your theory test, then no need to renew it as you will get your real driving licence just one day after passing your road test. I got my trainee card 2 days after the theory test. But I started my road training the day after my theory test with a driving instructor. The driving instructor used to come to my house for pickup. I had to drive that car for one hour and come back home. The instructor would sit beside you and explain everything about driving. These trainee cars come with 2 brakes and 2 accelerators. So if you fail to apply the brake at the correct time, your instructor will apply the brake that is fitted below his seat too when there is sudden danger. There are 2 types of trainee cars for you to choose. One is manual, and the other is automatic. I chose automatic as it is easy, and we also have an automatic car at home.

From day 1, the instructor taught me everything that would happen in the road test. The actual time for your road test is just 1 minute. But we don’t know which place you will drive at that time, so that’s why the instructor teaches you all the possible things and places that are used for the road test. They will make you practise roundabouts, intersections, lane discipline, mirror checks, indicators, overtaking, highways, curves, bends, emergency stops, and side parking on the road until you feel confident. For people in Abu Dhabi, the road test will happen only around the driving school and near Dalma Mall. That’s why my instructor taught me to drive only on those roads every day. There I used to practise multiple roundabouts, lane changes, using indicators, overtaking other cars, and emergency stops or side parking. Out of all these, roundabouts are the toughest to drive. Because there are no signals to know which cars have stopped and which are moving. In roundabouts, there are cars that are always moving. So the cars entering roundabouts have to stop before entering and check on their left side for any other cars that are there in the roundabout. If there are cars, you cannot enter; you have to wait and then enter and make a long round turn to exit or do a U-turn. At this time, steering control plays a major role. For new drivers, this might be tough, but when you practise every day with your instructor, you will definitely become a pro. If you want to learn about all these driving techniques, please comment below; I will write a separate article after this and explain all about roundabouts, intersections, parking, and lane changes. I know I am not a pro driver, but I just wanted to help some new drivers who are nervous just like me when I started my driving journey.

Step 7: Receive your driving licence

Once you pass the required final test and complete the issuance requirements and payment, follow the instructions to receive your UAE driving licence. The road test is something many people are afraid of. People get nervous even before the actual road test. But trust me, if you already know driving and paractise everyday atleast for 15 days, you will be confident that you will pass the test. You need confidence and some basic driving skills to pass the test. No need to be a pro or a perfect driver for the test because no one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes; even pros make driving mistakes without realizing. My road test was on 21st October, which is on Wednesday, exactly at 9am. On that day, my son had school, so he went to school at 6.40am. After that, I ate my breakfast and got ready for my road test. My driving instructor told me he would come at 8am for pickup and make me practise a little before the final road test. My husband didn’t go to the office that day and took off since he had to be home with my daughter, and also come to pick me up from the driving school after the road test.

So the instructor came at 8 am and told me to bring my Emirates ID and my home country driving licence since I applied for Golden Chance. I drove to the driving school by myself for the test after practising on the road for 15 minutes and there was very huge tyraffic. Every day, I used to practise driving at 6am, and at that time, there was very little traffic, but now around 8am, the traffic was completely packed, especially around roundabouts. I got a little nervous while driving, but still managed to drive in heavy traffic. After going to the driving school around 8.45am, the instructor told me to park the car in the parking area and go inside the building and wait there till they called me for the test.  He also booked a bus for me through the UAE PASS app that would take me to the road test on the road. After going inside the building, they asked me for the bus no and, gave me a token, and told me to wait inside the room. After a few minutes, at 9am, they called me by my token number and asked for my Emirates ID and Indian driving licence. After checking, they told me to get on the bus.

I, along with 7 other women, went inside the bus. There, we got our assigned numbers for the test. They usually go in alphabetical order. Names that start with initial letters have to go first for driving. Since my name starts with T, I got the last number. The bus started at 9.30 am. All the 7 of us got different places to drive, and each drove only for one minute. The first number should exit from the parking area and drive outside on the small road. The bus will follow the smart driving test car slowly till we all complete our test and drop us back at the school. So the women who finished their turn have to come back on the bus and wait till everyone finishes their turn, or if they have family members who are following the bus from behind, they can go with them after the test. The second number drove on a big road, the third number drove on a curve, the fourth number drove on a roundabout, the fifth number drove on a highway, the 6th number drove on a bend, and the last number, that was me, had to exit from the side parking on the road, drive a little on the road, and then go inside the driving school and park the car at 90 degrees. Everything went well, and I was also confident about my result. My husband and my daughter were waiting in the car in the parking area for me.  We all went home. My husband dropped me and my daughter off at home and went to office at 10am. I waited for my PASS message on the phone, but it never came. I slowly started getting a little nervous, but my husband suddenly sent me a message on WhatsApp congratulating me on passing the test, sharing a screenshot of the website of the Abu dhabi traffic police where my file no. was written to check my result. I was very happy that day as all my efforts did not go to waste. I shared my results with my family, and everyone felt very happy, congratulated me, and asked for a party. After getting the results, we applied for the real driving licence by paying 315 AED, and I got my licence the very next day.