At age 83, I had grave doubts that my Jalisco driver’s license would be renewed. This was not due to a lack of agility but to my waning eyesight, caused by macular degeneration and cataracts.
Still, I decided to give it a try, since I only planned to drive within my fraccionamiento.
A major problem when dealing with the government is, of course, figuring out in advance exactly what documents you have to bring with you. Too many times I have stood in a line for hours with a sheaf of papers in my hand, only to be told:
“Sir, you didn’t bring your birth certificate with an apostilled translation attached. I’m sorry!”
Frustrating net searches
Step number one for tasks like these is to search the internet to find out what’s required — and what do we find first? A detailed list of steps needed for getting a “licencia de conducir”… in Bolivia or Argentina!
Once you’ve managed to find a list for your own state in Mexico, you have to sort out:
- Information that’s 20 years old, given that on the internet few people bother to put a date on anything!
- Information from online newspapers, which — unlike this one — may simply have copied data from one of those 20-year-old sources.
- Conflicting information from legitimate local and national government websites, each offering a different version of documents required, cost of service and other details.
To save you from all that confusion, here is my Aug. 29, 2024, list of what you must bring to Tránsito Guadalajara — as the Guadalajara office of the state Transportation Ministry is known — to renew a Jalisco automovilista driver’s license.
Documents to bring as a foreigner
- Up-to-date ID. Alert! For a foreigner, this means not one but two IDs: both your passport and your immigration card.
- Your CURP. This a unique identity code assigned to all Mexican citizens and residents. You can download a copy of yours for free online or go to any Registro Civil, where they will happily make you a copy.
- Anyone over 75 must bring a one-page health certificate that can be signed by any doctor. You can download this form as a PDF here. Then you must print it and convince your doctor to fill it out and sign it. Should this be iffy, just walk — or roll your wheelchair — into any pharmacy and they’ll do the job for you.
- Proof of address, known in Spanish as a comprobante de domicilio.This is a utility bill with your name and address on it, less than 90 days old.
- Copies of absolutely everything listed above.
Foreigners beware! If you — as I — aren’t receiving utility bills in your own name, you won’t fulfill requirement No. 4 above. When I pointed this out, the clerk very kindly tried to help me.
“What about your bank account? Is it in your name?”
My eyes lit up. “Yes, and the statements have my address!”
My bank account goes public
I couldn’t quite believe what happened next. I didn’t have any sort of bank document with me, but I did have the bank’s app on my telephone. Naturally, I had no idea how to get the app somehow to produce the printed bank statement that the clerk wanted.
“Don’t worry, we’ll get the bank to send a statement to your email, you’ll remail it to our email, and then our copy center will print it out.”
Easier said than done.
And so it was that my smartphone, with the bank app open, ended up being passed around to dozens of helpful souls at the Transportation Ministry and several of its internal copy centers, all vigorously swiping and tapping my phone in hopes of sending my bank statement to a local printer.
Alas, nothing worked, but I’m happy to report that my bank account was not emptied during the process!
“Why don’t you physically go to your bank? There’s a Bancomer just two blocks from here,” suggested yet another kindly official.
I did that and finally came back to Tránsito with proof that I lived in a house and not under a bush!
Sorting out all these problems, however, literally took hours, while the actual procedure for getting the license took minutes.
Whizzing through license renewal
Everything is streamlined nowadays: in a world of digital fingerprints and signatures, even the eye exam is electronic. No longer do you have to identify E’s and Z’s. I merely gazed at my own reflection in a little black screen — and after this narcissistic experience, they took my photo and sent me off to pay. To my amazement, I had passed the eye test!
The normal automovilista license renewal costs 716 pesos and is good for four years. If you’re a senior, you pay only half.
While investigating the requirements for renewing a driver’s license, several questions came to my mind and may possibly come to yours. To save you time hunting among the many contradictory sources on the internet:
No, you don’t have to take a written or driving exam to renew your license.
No, you don’t need an appointment for license renewal. Just go during their working hours: 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
No, you don’t need to pay in advance or to pay via internet or app, no matter how many websites suggest you must.
As long as you have all the required documents, renewing a driver’s license is far simpler than investigating the subject on the internet. So don’t be shy: hit your local papelería for all those copies, get yourself and your paperwork to the transit office and you’ll be back on the road in no time.
John Pint has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for more than 30 years and is the author of “A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area” and co-author of “Outdoors in Western Mexico.” More of his writing can be found on his website.
