The Ministry of Transport has just issued Circular No. 35 regulating training, testing, and granting of driving licenses; granting and using international driving licenses; training, testing, and granting certificates of training in knowledge of road traffic laws.

Speaking with VietNamNet, Mr. Luong Duyen Thong, Head of the Driver Vehicle Management Department (Vietnam Road Administration) said that Circular No. 35 has many new points in accordance with the Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety, effective from January 1, 2025.

In particular, there are regulations on reissuing lost driving licenses. To manage people whose driving licenses have been revoked, current regulations in Circular No. 12/2017/TT-BGTVT stipulate that people whose driving licenses have been lost must wait 2 months from the date of completing procedures at the Department of Transport to be reissued a driving license.

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According to the newly issued circular, a driver's license that has expired for 1 day must also be retaken for a theory test. Illustrative photo

However, the Law on Road Traffic Safety and Order stipulates that the agency handling administrative violations of road traffic safety and order must immediately share violation data with the driving license management agency.

Therefore, Mr. Thong said that Circular No. 35 does not stipulate that a driver's license must be reissued after 2 months to facilitate immediate reissuance to those who have lost it.

Notably, those whose driving licenses have expired must retake the test. Current regulations in Circular No. 12 allow those whose driving licenses have expired for less than 3 months to renew their driving licenses. However, according to regulations in Clause 2, Article 62 of the Law on Road Traffic Safety, this case is not allowed to be renewed or reissued.

“In case the driving license has expired for less than 1 year, the theory test must be retaken. Thus, even if the driving license has expired for 1 day, if people do not go to renew it, they will be forced to retake the theory test.

In case the driving license is expired for more than 1 year, the theory and practical driving test must be retaken in the model and on the road," Mr. Thong noted.

Another new point according to Mr. Thong is that driving licenses will not be reissued to violators of road traffic order and safety who have not yet completed the request of the competent state agency to resolve and handle administrative violations in the field of road traffic order and safety.

In particular, Circular No. 35 also requires driving test centers to transmit and share testing monitoring data to the Department of Transport (the agency directly managing the operation of driving test centers) and the Traffic Police Department of the province or centrally-run city where the driving test center is located and the Traffic Police Department, Ministry of Public Security to monitor and supervise the results and testing process.