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Indian driving license and driving in Belgium
Indian license are NOT recognized by Belgium and, if you become a resident, you will need to pass both the theory test and the driving test.
You may however drive with an Indian International license as long as you have not become a resident and up to 6 months at the most after having registred in the commune.
You need to wait until you have your Belgian ID card before you can start the process of getting a Belgian driving license.
Note that the examination takes place (in Brussels) in the examination centre of Colonel Bourg. 2-3 times a week at 08:00 am but due to delays you have to plan about 2 months in advance, go in person there to register for an exam date with translator (cost € 15 fee + € 50 translator fee).
Do not wait until you have studied the full theory book to register or you will have time to forget. you need 41/50 to pass and 2 failures will require 12h of compulsory driving rules study in a driving school.
As switching from the correct(left) side to the right side, managing priorities, bus lanes and special sites,.....take a bit of time, 6 hours of driving school is often useful and needed to meet the standards of the practical exam.
Many Indian citizens have gone to the European Driving School in Ixelles http://www.autoecoleeuropeenneixelles.sitew.be/#Contact.D for 4 to 6 hours of pre exam training. Also, ensure you can use engine brake in addition to braking as this is often the cause of failures.
Fee for the exam is € 36,00 + translator € 50-60 and if via a driving school, fee for the car and instructor of about € 100.
There's no way that anyone who drives to Indian road rules is safe on Belgian roads, so it's good to know that people have to go through this.
What is the question? Also J sadly many Belgian drivers also fail to follow the rules hence the atrocious driving exhibited here. Not leaving safe breaking distances, cutting lane with no indications, ignoring solid white lines, blocking junctions I could go on. So before we label all drivers from other countries like India as worse maybe the Belgians should also start driving according to the rules and one has to think that driving in India would mean people were maybe able to cope with the way people drive here and take it in one stride.
CC_R:
I don't think that J was saying that Indian drivers are bad drivers, just that they have different rules.
As for Belgians being bad drivers, give me a break with that old canard. Yes, when I was a kid and there were no driving tests in Belgium (one just had to be 18) people drove rather creatively and with absolute priority on the right it was a bit crazy. But since driving tests were introduced (1968) it's completely changed and when I came back to Belgium ten years ago found Belgian drivers to be a dream compared to Los Angeles or Boston (for instance). Also, since 60% of trucks and 50% of cars on Belgian roads are not Belgian your bad driver could be from anywhere.
R Harris I beg to differ they make take a test here but that doesn't mean they follow the rules I constantly sit and laugh in my car on a morning at the double junction at groenendaal watching idiots pull into the paths of other vehicles I have sat and not pullled out and watched the lights change several
Times and no one can move because every junction off is blocked owing to the none existence of filter lights on all sets or clarity about what lane people
Should be in at that junction you can imagine the horns blaring at me.evetually people inch forwards and it unblocks. People constantly run red lights on the particular junction as it's the only way to get across some diresctions so I'm not imagining it.
It's the same on traffic islands none knows what lane or how to indicate they are moving round or off. I was driving in uk for decades prior to coming here drove here back then back in UK and back here now,
definitely as a rule in the UK people are less aggressive my husbands driving got Much worse after leaving and commuting Here. I do watch the majority of the cars causing a problem are Belgian plates not foreign ones they don't leave safe stopping distance on the roads at high speed owing to two lane RO bottlenecks and aggressive driving attitude lane switching over solid white lines is common at certain places I could go on as for USA well if only the roads here conspaired to the six or eight lanes round some cities there they would be just as bad I fear.
"There's no way that anyone who drives to Indian road rules is safe on Belgian roads, so it's good to know that people have to go through this."
Really? By the way, the list of countries whose license is valid includes,
Algeria
Cuba
Iran
Jordan
Malaysia
Nepal
Niger
Syria
Thailand
I guess you see the point.
