I am a technician in KNPC. I have a diploma in engineering. I came to Kuwait in August, 2018. Can I apply for driving licence? I saw a news that technicians working in oil field are exempted from criteria of 2 years residency and graduate recruitment.

Name withheld

Answer: As per a Ministerial Decree No. 5598/2014, issued on Nov. 25, 2014, non-Kuwaiti applicants are eligible for private or public driving licence provided they have legally stayed in the country for at least two years, receive a monthly salary of not less than KD 600 and have a university degree.

Resolution No. 3 of the decree however specified the categories excluded from meeting some of the conditions based on their social and their functional circumstances.

According to the resolution the first category excluded from the conditions of two-year residence, salary and university degree covers over a dozen segments.

These include non- Kuwaiti women married to Kuwaiti men including widows and divorcees provided they have children, non-Kuwaiti men married to Kuwaiti women and have children.

Bedouns with valid security cards, students provided they are registered at any of the country’s universities or applied education institutes, members of the diplomatic corps, professionals in sports federations, clubs and government sectors, drivers and company representatives who hold valid legal driving licences issued by their countries or any other country, domestic workers who have been working for a period of not less than five consecutive years in a similar capacity provided they change their profession to driver, technicians working in the oil field, pilots and sea captains and their assistants, mortuary attendants, nursing staff, physiotherapists and medical technicians, housewives as well as sons and spouses of judges, counselors, prosecutors and experts, faculty members of universities and institutions, doctors, pharmacists and general managers and their assistants.

From the exhaustive list provided on exemptions, it is clear that as a technician working in an oil field, you are exempted from meeting all the requirements mentioned earlier.

SOURCE : ARABTIMES