One of the first modifications I wanted to do for my new Lotus was to swap out the car plates. The car came with the squarish shaped U.S. plates but because of the low and wide stance of my car, I knew the much wider and slimmer Euro plates would look better on it. But I didn’t have any idea on what the process was to swap the plates, nobody I asked had any idea and I figured it probably meant I needed wasta or something. Turns out, all you need is a bit of time and patience.
A reader got in touch with me last week after he reading my Lotus post in which I requested info on plate swapping. He told me he was going to the General Traffic Department to get his damaged Euro plates swapped for new ones, and I could come along and swap my square plates for Euro plates as well. All I needed was:
– Civil ID Copy
– Car Registration Copy
– U.S. Sized Car Plates
– KD5 Stamp
– The Car
– Bdal Talef Loha Orobiya “بدل تالف لوحة اوربية” (you get this from the typing guys outside the traffic department)
I got this done at the Asma branch of the General Traffic Department. Not sure if you could do this anywhere else, the license plate printing facility is located in Asma and I don’t know if they have one located elsewhere. Below is the process to getting your plates swapped:
– First thing you do once you get to the traffic department is visit the container room outside that houses the typists. You need to request “بدل تالف لوحة اوربية” which is the European plates request form. They will request a copy of your car registration and civil ID. They charge KD1 for typing this request out onto the proper form.
– Once you get the form with all the copies stapled, you need to head inside the building and then upstairs. When you’re up you’ll find a stamp machine, buy a KD5 stamp and stick it on the top left of the document.
– Next you need to head over to the the raed’s office “رائد” (Police Major) who will need to sign the document. Now here things might vary for you. As the raed was about to sign my request, he asked what the car was and I told him a Lotus. He didn’t know what that was and so told me to take the car to the vehicle inspection area to have them confirm I could fit Euro plates on the car. I told him I had pictures of the car I could show him, but I think he just wanted me to do a little running around.
– The vehicle inspection area is right next door, so I took my car and headed there, gave them the papers and they just signed and stamped it for me.
– I then headed back to the raed, he took my paper and signed and stamped it as well.
– Now you’re nearly done. The next step is to make a copy of your signed document and then take both the original and copy of the document and head to one of the computers so they could insert your request. Depending on how nice the person handling your papers are, they might have on of the helpers make the photocopy for you which is what happened in our case.
– Once your request is inserted into the computer you need to leave the building and drive over to the car plates section which is located on the side of the main traffic department building.
– Make sure you have a copy of the request along with your old car plates. You need to remove them off your car yourself so make sure you have the correct tools with you. Hand over the final document along with your old plates to the guy sitting behind the desk and in around 10 minutes you will get your brand new plates.
The whole process took nearly 2 hours, it might take you less or more depending on the amount of people there and the steps that they make you take. No wasta is required though which is great and the new Euro plates look much better on my car now.
