Have you ever put something off for a long time because you were dreading the process, but then end up dealing with more than if you did it in the first place? This is a story about what happened when I did just that with my expiring Massachusetts driver’s license. For the longest time I made a mental note to exchange my driver’s license before it expired. October 2023 passed and (not shockingly) nothing was done about it. I’m a serial procrastinator, after all.

Putting off getting a new driver’s license was one of the most headache-inducing mistakes I’ve ever made in my adult life – and I’ll tell you why.

I Could Have Exchanged My DL

Yep, you read that right. Curacao laws dictate that had I applied to exchange my US driver’s license for a local one, I would’ve been able to bypass the entire process and simply receive a local driver’s license with a new 5-year expiration date. In fact, I could have applied to do this even after my DL expired, as long as it wasn’t over 6 months expired.

Well, my lazy butt only started looking into this 7 months after my license expired. This means I was out of the grace period for swapping licenses, and I knew there would be no way for them to make an exception. My remaining options were to get a local driver’s license from scratch or fly to Florida to apply for a new driver’s license. Why not renew my license online with Massachusetts RMV? We didn’t have an address there anymore since moving to Curacao.

The good news is, my husband’s driver’s license was only 5 months expired at the time, so we were able to do this process with his license. For those who are curious, and/or in the same boat, here are the steps he took to swap his DL for a local one:

How to Exchange a US Driver’s License for a Curacao Driver’s License

• Firstly, visit the government website outlining their process. Make sure you’re selecting either expired or non-expired exchange.
• Fill out the short application online (select Category B license for a regular driver’s license).
• As part of the application you’ll need to submit copies of your US driver’s license, local ID, divorce certificate (if applicable), and a doctor’s certificate (valid for 2 months).
• Regarding the doctor’s certificate, there’s a special form the doctors fill out for driver’s licenses. They won’t accept a note from the doctor saying you’re in good health.
• The online application doesn’t say this, but my husband had to provide a “certificate of authenticity” from the Massachusetts DMV. This may have recently changed.
• This whole process costs 175 ANG (about $100 USD) but you pay this at the Kranshi upon license pick up.

After submitting the application, about 3 days passed before he received an email from the licensing office at the Kranshi asking for additional information (certificate of authenticity from the US). He requested an online version of his driving record from the Massachusetts RMV (not certified) and submitted that, which seemed to be sufficient.

He didn’t hear from the Kranshi for about two months after being told that his application was being processed. He followed up via email and was told that they’ve been trying to call him but were unsuccessful. For the record, he never received any phone calls from them so we don’t know how long his application was ready for. Despite this delay, he was told to visit the Kranshi the next day early in the morning to receive his license.

Picking Up Your Driver’s License at the Kranshi

Whether you’re exchanging your license (husband) or getting a brand new one (me), you’ll always end up at the Kranshi to get your license. What is the Kranshi? It’s like the City Hall, or Public Affairs office, located by downtown Willemstad. Anyone who moves here will be visiting the Kranshi a lot for various bureaucratic tasks (getting tax forms, sedula card, etc.).

It’s important to know that generally you’ll need to make an appointment in advance before showing up to the Kranshi. Since my husband was told to just come in, when he arrived at the Kranshi and was asked if he had an appointment, he said yes and was given a number. He sat in the waiting room, waited for his number to be called, and got to the booth where he showed the employee his email chain with the Kranshi.

Nothing is ever easy at the Kranshi, and you’ll need to pack your patient pants. My husband was told he needed to come back the next day with paper copies of everything. This wasn’t something he was told before. He insisted to the employee to check with her supervisor as he was confident the woman he spoke to on the phone said everything was submitted online. The employee came back and said, “come back later with just a hard copy of your doctor’s note”. Despite the annoying miscommunication, Jeremiah came back home, got his paper, and went straight back to the Kranshi. 175 ANG and a new picture later, he came back with his pink local driver’s license.

Applying for a New Curacao Driver’s License

My husband was lucky – his license was just about to expire but he squeaked through and was able to simply (it really wasn’t simple, but still) exchange his license. For me, my license was past the point of no return and when weighing my options to fly to Florida and wrestle with the DMV or get a new license on the island, I decided the latter.

I first started this adventure in June 2024 by reaching out to one of the expat Facebook groups explaining my situation. Someone in the group referred me to a driving instructor who had helped their husband, and this had me feeling hopeful they could help me too! I reached out to the driving instructor and was told the following:

• To get a Curacao Driver’s License, you have to learn how to drive a manual car
• Two exams are required: a theory exam and a driver’s exam
• A learning booklet is required
• Multiple trips to the Curacao DMV are required (to make exam appointments)
• A letter from me requesting for the exams to be taken in English is required
• A fee of 90 ANG will be paid at the Kranshi to pick up your license
• I paid around 150 ANG one time for the initial documents and study booklet
• Driving lesson fees depend on the instructor, but you can expect to pay between $25 – $35 USD per hour lesson.

To be very clear, I have never driven a manual car in my life. I’m not one of those people who intuitively knows how engines work and what gears do. The idea of learning a brand new life skill past the age of 30 was daunting. My instructor, Reinaldo, said let’s do an introductory lesson and we’ll see how I handle it.

Curacao Driving Lessons

Day one was scary. I stalled many times and screamed when we went backwards for the first time. Reinaldo was very encouraging and told me from the beginning that I learn very quickly so a few more lessons and I should be good to go. I ended up taking around 17 lessons with him in total. Not because driving the car was hard, but because focusing on driving the car and keeping in mind the bizarre local road rules proved a difficult task for me.

I struggled with learning when to hold the clutch, how to master how much pressure to give it, how to stop and go up hill using the emergency brake, and giving the car too much gas at a low gear. I didn’t “hear the car” the way he described and a lot of times I would come home feeling hopeless and defeated. What kept me going was the fact that I really enjoyed spending an hour with Reinaldo every Sunday. He was like my chill Caribbean grandpa who knew how to be serious but still crack jokes. I told him at one point in this process that I wanted to give up and he said to me, “You don’t give up. Meet me on Sunday for our regular lesson.” And that was that, I kept going until I passed.

The Driver’s Theory Exam

Even though I would have driving lessons every Sunday, the other days I would take an hour or so to review the English version of the theory booklet. This booklet contains poorly translated technical questions about Curacao’s road rules (i.e. how many meters of space do you need to give the car in front of you in a developed area?) and graphics of various intersections with priority scenarios.

The First Attempt

I had about a month to study the booklet before my theory exam appointment. I didn’t really know what to expect. I was told it would be an oral exam and that I only had three chances to pass. So at the end of June I went in for my theory exam… and failed miserably. The exam consisted of myself and a teenage girl along with the proctor and an assistant. We were asked to stand in front of a 3D table with various raised intersections before the proctor pulled out a box of Hot Wheels cars and bikes. I kid you not!

The proctor put a few cars and bikes on an intersection and pointed to one of us and said, “show me the correct order of which vehicles have priority”. I went first and the proctor pointed to the timid girl next to me and said, “is she correct?” She shook her head no, and he said, “then show me correctly”. And that’s how it went for 8 to 10 more situations, often times with the proctor saying condescending things like, “it’s easy you should know this” and “if you don’t know this you clearly don’t know the rules” and rushing me with “you only have 10 seconds left hurry up”. It wasn’t good and it didn’t feel professional either.

Difficulty with the Proctor

Needless to say, I failed the situations portion. Despite that, I still had to sit through the rest of the exam and answer the questions and road signs part, even though if I got all the questions right I’d still fail. Makes no sense, right? So the proctor moves on to the questions section and is just standing up there and thinking of what questions he wants to ask. He doesn’t use the English booklet as a reference to see what we’ve studied. I personally felt that he lobbed the other girl softball questions and gave me difficult questions. Either way, to keep it as fair as possible, he should’ve been asking questions from the book we used.

The Second Attempt

I passed the questions and signs part, but still failed overall. To make a long story short, I came in a month later for my second try and failed the situations part again. Same proctor, same condescending attitude. This time his assistant was also telling me to hurry up and wouldn’t tell me if I passed or failed the situations. There were scenarios he was asking me to do where I straight up said, “please let me get the booklet right now and show you that this scenario isn’t in there” and he said, “no, there are thousands of scenarios in the real world and you should know how to deal with all of them”. How can I know what I didn’t study for? It was ridiculous, and extremely frustrating.

To add salt to the wound, the second attempt happened to be with the same girl (she passed situations but failed the signs last time) who was on her third and final try. The proctor, knowing this, gave her extra time to answer questions, a special treatment that wasn’t provided to me. After my second exam attempt, I spoke to the supervisor and explained my frustrations and asked if the proctor could use the study booklet. I’ll save you the back and forth, but she basically said that this is how it’s always been done and that the proctors are very knowledgeable.

The Third and Final Attempt

My third and final attempt I luckily got assigned a different proctor. A lovely woman who took the time to explain what to expect and clarified that we have 20 minutes total for the exam. I was no longer being told to hurry up and her presence was a contrasting calm to the old proctor’s rushed negativity. She also used situations straight from the English booklet. I passed on the third try and went on to make an appointment for my driver’s exam next.

What to Expect on the Theory Exam

• If you speak Dutch or Papiamentu, the theory exam is written with multiple choice answer options (much easier)
• If you speak any other language, upon making an exam appointment you’ll need to submit a hardcopy letter asking to take the exam in English.
• The exam will be taken orally in a classroom setting with a proctor and assistant.
• The exam sections consist of: situations, questions, and signs
• Situations: physically moving cars and bikes on a 3D board to show your understanding of vehicle priority
• Questions: technical rule questions that range from simple rules to theoretical situations (i.e. this person does this, are they within the law?)
• Signs: There is a board with all of the local road signs. Proctor points to a number of signs and you recite what they mean. Follow closely to the English translation in the book as any deviation may result in them not passing you.
• You’ll have 20 minutes total to complete the theory exam.
• Note: Theory exam appointments in English and other languages are limited. I had to wait one month in between each attempt due to availability.

The Driving Exam (Manual Car)

I passed my theory exam and it was now time to focus on preparing myself for the driving exam. By this point, I was about 12 driving lessons in and I felt I had a pretty good handling and understanding of manual driving. Reinaldo started to pivot from teaching me how to drive the car to taking me on the routes that the proctors would likely take me on. This meant paying attention to the smallest details, such as looking in the rear view mirror before I turn on my indicators. I only had one chance to pass the driving exam, otherwise I’d have to start all over again. No pressure, right?

On the day of my driving exam, I get to the DMV to meet Reinaldo and he tells me I’m doing the exam using his car. I was previously nervous that I’d have to learn the handling of another car after driving his junky Mitsubishi for 3 months so that was welcome news. To my dismay, however, the proctor assigned to my driving exam was the first guy from the theory exam. Absolute dread filled me.

To say I was nervous was an understatement. Not only was this my last chance to pass, but I had a strong gut feeling this proctor didn’t like me. After all, he wasn’t assigned to my third theory exam and I ended up passing. Coincidence?

The exam ended up being pretty uneventful, and thankfully I passed. We didn’t go through any wild roundabouts or weird intersections. He did ask me to back into a parking spot that was on an incline, and he didn’t ding me for stalling the one time. When we pulled back into the DMV parking lot, I was so excited to be done with everything that I turned off the car in the first gear instead of putting it in neutral. Again, thankfully, this proctor chose not to ding me for that and I ended up passing.

Finally Getting my Curacao Driver’s License

After passing the exam, I received my paperwork from the proctor saying I’ve passed both theory and driving exams. My next step is to make an appointment at the Kranshi to get my license. I also made an appointment with the doctor for the driver’s license health form they require. I am feeling so good about everything I’ve accomplished despite wanting to give up.

I bring everything to the Kranshi a week later and get to the point where they ask for payment. They only take local currency, not US dollars, and they don’t take credit cards. It turns out, I didn’t put enough funds on the local debit card and was around 5 ANG short. I asked if I could pay the different in cash, nope. Credit card? Nope. The only thing I could do was come back tomorrow first thing in the morning. That’s exactly what I did and finally received my newly minted pink driver’s license.

Was it worth it?

Looking back, I’m proud of myself for committing to and persevering in learning a new skill. I wanted to give up many times, especially since I don’t plan to ever drive a manual car in my life. I just had to learn because that is the archaic rule on the island. In the end though, no, it wasn’t worth it if I’m totally honest. The amount I spent on lessons and various administrative fees to go through this process made it cost just as much to fly to Miami and get a license there. Even if I had to test for a license in Miami, it would’ve been easier than the island’s exams I’m sure.

That’s not to say I don’t recommend getting a local driver’s license. If you know how to drive manual and you’re quick at picking up rules and signs, then you’ll fly by. If you speak Dutch or Papiamentu, your exams will be much easier as theory is written. For someone, like myself, who doesn’t know how to drive a manual and is totally starting from scratch – just fly to the US and get it. You’ll save yourself a three-month-long headache.

P.S. I heard that starting next year the island will be allowing driver’s exams using automatic cars in addition to manual cars. You never know if things will actually happen here, but if so, that’s good news for future drivers!