How to get a driving licence in Argentina by foreigner. STEP by STEP explanation.
 

How to get Argentinian motorcycle driving licence

I am in round the world trip and I wanted to ride a motorbike in South America for the next 6 months. I had only international driving licence for the car (B licence). I did not have any driving licence for the motorbike (neither international nor from my own country). After landing in Buenos Aires I started to check my situation and it looked like I would have problems without motorbike licence in case of the road control.

I wanted to ride a motorbike legally but of course I did not want to break my trip and come back home to get motorbike licence in my own country.

After many, many hours of investigation I found the solution. I obtained Argentinian driving licence. Below I describe how to do it.

Finally I was sent to Roca Street 5454 in Buenos Aires to the place where they issue driving licences (Autodromo). The place was very crowded and looked chaotic but nice woman from the reception desk at the front door sent me to the man who spoke a little English (I do not speak Spanish). He decided to help me. He went with me to the room where they took my photo, fingerprint and tested my eyes. Then they gave me a paper certifying that my health is in good shape, send me to the cashier to pay around 30 pesos and told me to come back tomorrow for ...the driving exam...

I had to download 200 questions from
http://estatico.buenosaires.gov.ar/a...ategoria_a.pdf
and prepare for the computer test, which would consist of 30 of these 200 questions. It was not easy for me because I do not know any Spanish!!! but with a google translator I managed to learn it (my method was to pick up a key word from the question and answer and remember these pairs). For someone who understands Spanish the test should be very easy (about 1/3 of questions is about road signs) .

So next day at 7.30 a.m. I went to Roca Street. I went to the room "D" on the ground floor and had to listen to obligatory lecture in Spanish (not helpful for me ;)) and received the first required signature. Then I went to the next room to take a computer test. I passed it with 100% and received the second signature. Then the English-speaking man that helped me the day before took me to the playground in front of the building for the practice exam. Normally I should take a practice exam on my own motorbike but I did not have my own yet so the English-speaking man borrowed me his own. I made an easy slalom and a circle around the field. Half an hour later I picked up my Argentinian A licence. The English-speaking man did not want to accept any kind of thanks for his help.

One most important think: the main difficulty was that I did not have Argentinian residency. I had only 3 months tourist visa and "domicillo"- a paper from the Police certifying that I live under certain address in Buenos (I obtained this document because it was necessary to register a motorbike in Argentina I found information on HUBB how to get it and successfully followed the instruction). Finally after consultation with the boss they agreed in Autodromo that it is enough to get Argentinian driving licence - but this licence is temporary and will expire when my visa finishes. If I want to prologue it I need to come again to Roca Streed with a new visa and they should issue a new licence straight away (at least they promised to do so).

I hope my information will help people in similar situation. Good luck!

Marta

Hi, really usefull, thanks so much. Do you know how difficult it would be to get it as British Citizen? I speak Spanish and I have residency here however I do not have a motor bike I am going to buy one when I start my trip....6 months. You were clearly lucky having an English person there to help you, do you know how I can get around it if I do not have my own motorbike? Secondly, how difficult was the test? If I know how to drive a Motorbike in the U.K will I be O.K?

In general would it all be easy to do without the help of the man that helped you?

Many thanks

R

Update on getting a license in Bs. Aires
 

Hi Marta,

Thank you for this extremely usefull post. I tried it out myself and thought I give a little update on how things are now.

Pretty much everything is still the same except for one thing. If you want to do a test you have to get a 'turno' (appointment) first and you can do this online or by phone. I did not know this at first, so I went to Roca Street, but couldn't hassle myself in getting an appointment on the spot. Then I tried it online, but for some reason it didn't work. Lastly I called, but when you dial for the option 'English' you're pretty much on hold without an end. So then I let a spanish speaking friend call for me and it turned out that the first appointment I could get would be somewhere in april, which was too late for me. So I ended up not getting my license, but there are other ways to get an official license under the table, which I'm working on right now.

So basically between then and now it has become busier at Roca street. Locals here tell me this is normal for all gov stuff here in Argentina, one year something is simple and fast and the next year it can be completely different.

This is the link with the info provided by the city gov:
Buenos Aires Ciudad - Licencias para conducir

And the general advice based on my experience is: if you want to do this, make sure you get an appointment in time, else it might become difficult!

Cheers,
Suzanne

2024 update: Getting a motorcycle driving license in Argentina as a foreigner
 

Hi everyone,

It is a long time ago that this post was active but I thought I'd give a short update. I am going to try out the same process a few months from now.

There is a lot of information on the website from the city of Buenos Aires that helps a lot: https://buenosaires.gob.ar/gobierno/...as-de-conducir
About getting the 'turno' and everything.. there is even a complete explanation on the theoretical exam questions and practice exam maneuvres.

If you click on Otorgamiento there is a step-by-step manual to apply to get
a license (even with extra info for things that us foreigners need to do).

I have to check some more things but I will give a new update after I (hopefully) succeeded. Positive mindset ;)

Hi there,
please let us know how everything went. Thanks!

2024 update
 

Update:
As I said a few months ago I decided to research about this and try it out myself. I went to Buenos Aires, but unfortunately it is not possible anymore to do it the same way. For anyone interested to know why this is how it went for me:

The day I arrived to Buenos Aires I started by getting the Certificado de domicilio at the tourist police station on Av. Corrientes. You can legally use your hostel address (as I did) for this. This went very smoothly, the nice woman prepared the piece of paper on the spot. She also said that normally you should apply for this online (this is true) but that she would do it now because she knows it's a process that can take up to a week.

Excited and now with domicilio I went to a gov office to apply for an appointment (turno) for the test. You can go to any office, I went to Subsede comunal 3 at Moreno 2301. First a bit confused I did not have an Arg. DNI identity number but just a passport, the kind lady went to talk with her supervisor. She came back and said it's ok and made the appointments for me. One for an obligatory online theory lesson of 3h and one for the exam day at Av. Roca 5252 only about 5 days in the future(theory test and practical test on the same day). This was the moment I thought it's going to work!!

But on the day of the exam (well-prepared because I found some theory questions on internet and not worried about the practical exam) I arrived to Av. Roca with my passport and certificado de domicilio and just before the exam I was told I needed another document called Certificado de Residencia Precaria. This document, valid for 3 months in most cases, was needed to put the expiry date on the license. I tried to get through showing the domicilio paper and my digital entry card that shows I am allowed to be in Argentina for 3 months, but the lady was flrm and said I needed the Precaria. Asking for other ways to solve this issue didn't work either.

Now, I sort of knew this document was needed as it says on the internet (see previous message) but since I got the appointment I figured there wouldn't be any problem. This mistake cost me a weeks time.

Knowing that the Precaria might be needed I did research at home in Europe (https://buenosaires.gob.ar/tramites/...encia-precaria) and prepared one thing before my trip which was the certificate of good conduct (certificado de antecedentes penales). So I decided to try this as it was my last and only chance..
This can be applied for on the internet, uploading all necessary documents (I had to get the cert. of good conduct translated by an official translator). The problem is the reason I was applying. Eventhough it is not clearly mentioned on the website, there are other websites that show the valid reasons for this temporary residence. Basically you are applying for a Residencia Temporaria (https://buenosaires.gob.ar/tramites/...cia-temporaria) and the precaria is just a document that is valid when the temporaria is still in process. Since I didn't apply to study in BA nor did I have a work contract my only chance was a applying as a rentista and even this was a long shot. I showed bank accounts I have but was missing proof of property ownership. So naturally when I had my appointment at the migrations office, it was declined. Another week lost.

However, one minute after uploading the documents in order to get that appointment, you are sent an automatically generated residencia precaria valid for one week until the appointment date. I seriously considered just changing the expiry date using Paint, and showing it at the driving exam. I am pretty sure I would have gotten away with it but finally I decided not to do this as the fines for falsification of documents by public organisations are quite high (years of imprisonment). Also the document can be checked digitally by website and by QR code.

With little hope I went back one more time to Av Roca with the one-week-valid (and now expired) certificado precaria and the digital entry card, but as nice as the conversation was (and asking for other ways to solve this problem) they would not let me do the exam.

So I went back to my hostel and booked a flight to Santiago, where I just bought a small 4x4 instead of a bike. So I did not get the motorcycle license. Maybe there are some unofficial ways in Argentina to get the license but I did not know how to do this, and I don't know the right people I guess. I'm sure lots of people ride bike without a license in SA and I believe people are rarely asked for the license by the police but I did not want to risk having an accident, in which case the insurance is not going to cover anything.

In total I spent over a month in Buenos Aires and around 200€ on documents and transport to Av Roca, but I still had a good time there.
If I knew this I would have spent the extra time and money to get the license at home in Europe, but I consciously chose this option, so I do not regret it.

Now another adventure awaits me, travelling south america in an old 4x4 suzuki ????

Good luck to everyone on the HUBB!