It did not take long before we needed to get our Panamian driver's license after we arrived. We used our Georgia license and knew the law required us to get a local one before 90 days were up. First stop was the US Embassy so they could put a fancy seal on a form that said that our copy of the Georgia Driver's license was a valid license. That took us about 30 minutes and cost us $50. Next stop was the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, where they seal and affix some stamps to the document we got from the Embassy and certifies those documents to be acceptable to the country of Panama. Our lawyer thank God, helped us with that part (government offices rarely accept money, but they send you to a bank then you come back with a deposit slip) and then you receive the authenticated documents and move on to the next stage. Total cost was $8.
Next stop was a blood test. We planned to be at the Lab just a block away from Sertracen (Driver License Office) as early as we could not knowing how long the wait might be - the requirements were for a blood test that verified our blood type. This information is printed on all Panamanian driver licenses. It cost us $5 each and in 15 minutes we were done and on our way down the street.
We arrived at Sertracen. We found lots of confusion and what we should do was definitely not clear to us. Obviously we had to take a number and wait our turn. I knew that "jubilados" (or retirees) get priority so I approached a clerk on the other side of the counter and mentioned that my husband was a jubilado and also "handicapped" and asked if there was a special line for us to use. This inquiry definitely raised several eyebrows not only in the clerks working there but in other folks waiting for their number to be called. However, in just a few minutes Ronnie was jumped to the front of the line and we were sitting down in front of a girl that would check his documents and make copies. It was then that I was told that HE had that privilege and that I would have to keep my number and wait my turn. I can only assume that meant that he was not only retired but also handicapped.
A short while later my number was called and I found myself right behind my husband in the processing line. By this time it was around 2pm and the office closed at 4pm so I was not sure if either of us would walk out with a driver license that day. We were each called with minimum waiting time in between for the vision and hearing tests. Then we paid the fee for the two tests and the driver license - a total of $45 - and it was just before 4pm that we both walked out of that office with our driver's licenses.
We were so thankful that we were able to do this in one day. We have heard that other expats have had to return on the second day to complete the process.
Since we got our driver's license we have had to renew it once as well. Now we can drive 30 minutes to Chorrera, the closest town to us that has a Sertracen office and all we have to do is show up, take the same tests again, pay the $45 fee for each of us and we walk out with our renewed license in about an hour's time. We no longer need to produce paperwork or drive all the way into the city and because we are jubilados we still get preferential treatment - much easier and faster!
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