Having discovered – to my amazement – that there is only one place in the MegaGuadalajaropolis that issues driver licenses to foreigners, I decided to rise bright and early the day I set out for Transito, imagining I was at the start of an arduous and lengthy trial: the quest for my very first Jalisco licencia de conducir.
The main office of Jalisco’s Secretaría de Vialidad y Transporte is on the corner of Alcalde and Circumvalación and when I reached it, I expected to see a long queue circling the block, but such was not the case.
Inside, I found a line of only three people. After a mere four-minute wait, a clerk asked to see my documents (passport, FM2 or FM3 and utility bill/bank statement – plus a copy of each) and then asked for my blood type, which I couldn’t recall. “No problem, we have a mini-clinic here where they’ll give you a blood test.”
No one at all was in line for the blood test, which took only five minutes and cost 60 pesos. Save time, money and a finger prick by getting this info before you go!
Next I was sent to a window where a clerk types out the data that will go on the licencia. Foreigners beware: It’s really important that you clarify exactly what your name is, in terms the clerk can understand. For example, if your name is Robert Louis Stevenson, you could easily end up as “Mr. Louis” for the rest of your life in Latin America. To avoid this, you must strongly insist that Stevenson is your family name and “Robert Louis” is your first name.
What? In Mexico my first name consists of two words? Sí, sí! It took me many years to discover this. In fact a “nombre” in Spanish can be composed of any number of multiple parts. “María de la Piedad” and “Juan Pablo” are first names here. So, if your passport shows what English speakers might call a first and middle name, just lump them together and hand the clerk a slip of paper showing something like the following:
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