DL extract to ON G license - complete experience

[adprak]

Hi everyone,
I have a situation here and need some guidance or a solution for it. I came to Canada as an international student with a DL extract and an International driving license. The only blunder I made was I soft laminated them. Now the DriveTest center here won't accept it and they gave me only 1 year of driving experience on the basis of my DL. The total driving experience I have is 7 years which can help me give my G test directly instead of G2.
Now the question is, how can get a duplicate DL extract being here in Canada?

Thanks much

As you'd have received a soft copy in your mail, just print that out & submit. RTO seal is not necessary.
Good luck

 

[Surendar Ramadass]

Hi,
I have a doubt, I was in Canada and my friend who is in India got the DL extract for me. So i need to get that original extract or can i use the soft copy of that extract here to get the G1 license. Also did i needed the original driving license or laminated copy also is fine?
Can anyone please suggest

 

[Surendar Ramadass]

(had to truncate message due to limits, completing rest of the experience)

G2/G appointments
Very important : if you would rather get to G2/G test as quickly as possible, ask the person who gave you your G1 right away for booking you their first appointment available. Usually urban centres have a month or more of waiting.
If you would rather wait to get an appt, remember that when filling info online, you need to wait a day atleast and provide expiry date which is FIVE YEARS (and one day less) from your issue date for G1. For ex. for 01-Jan-2019 issue date, enter your expiry date as 31-Dec-2023. The temporary license that you get in center has only 3 months of expiry and that is because it is just meant to be a stop gap till your real G1 license comes in mail.

G2 vs G test
As part of your international driving experience credit transfer, you get to give a G2 or G road test directly and without mandatory waiting period of 1 year that otherwise you would be subjected to. G2 is all about driving within city roads and G is about driving on highways as well. If you need to commute to work, you could manage with G2 (& steer clear of highways). If you need to go from city A to city B, you would need G. A G driving test differs from G2 because it includes highway run & hence twice as high speeds.

If you have good driving experience, I would recommend giving G directly. Dont underestimate it though, you would still need to practice a lot and give test drives before you can hope to get a G. If you fail G, you can only give G2 next time (& G afterwards). In my case I felt I had lots of experience driving on highways (even in Canada) and hence I opted for full G.

On the other hand, if your driving is sketchy at best or if you get scared when driving at 100kmph next to a trailer on highways, better give G2. If you give G2 first and pass, you can still give G next time. There is extra money involved in giving G2 and G but it is better to have a G2 license than to wait for few more months with lowered confidence after a failed try.

Prep for G test
Even if you are an experienced driver, there is no guarantee that you would pass test easily. If anything, with experience one tends to skip over rules that may not be so important in real life but do matter in driving test for ex. checking your blind spots every 10 seconds. Hence, plan to prepare for this well in advance. All the info that you will be tested in your driving test is present in https://www.ontario.ca/document/official-mto-drivers-handbook/level-two-road-test . Many folks like to go the drive school way since they can brush up these fundamentals easily. However do realise that other than convenience/ interesting anecdotes on 'easy' examiner, they can only be a human guide to info that is already present in handbook. I opted to do it myself after doing some online research and based on my own conviction.

For the centre of your choice, typically there are known routes and marking criteria published online. Go through them to ensure you include those in your practice runs. Familiarise yourself with different traffic zones in general vicinity of DriveTest. Even though routes are usually published, each examiner make their own variations and hence driving in vicinity is a good way to be prepared for various traffic zones that you would go through in your test (For G2, skip highway zone) :

1. school zone : drive as per posted sign or 40, be diligent on checking for stop signs, pedestrians and cross traffic. School buses are rare but possible based on your appt time.
2. highway zone : drive as per posted sign or 80, using entry/exit lanes only to bring up or down your speed, expect to make multiple lane change while keeping speed constant. This is probably one zone where examiner is worried most since a mistake can be serious and hence you will notice them extra alert. Check for blind spots EVERY 8-10 seconds.
3. residential zone : same as school zone, except drive as per posted sign or 50. This zone would also be used to test your emergency stop & three point turn.
4. commercial zone : drive as per posted sign or 50. This zone would also be used to test your traffic lights etiquette, changing lanes, turns, hidden stop signs, roundabouts, left turn lane. Not all of them will be tested and usually it will depend on centre location & routes.

This is what my drill used to be :

1. Drive upto the same DriveTest centre where I had scheduled my driving test
2. Bring along a friend to catch my improvement areas. A friend really helps you with things you do subsconsciously that matter in test, for ex. I was reminded that I let go of steering wheels when stopped at a traffic light or use only one hand during turns.
3. Follow the practice run doing variations of your own to get good coverage of vicnity and your skills.
4. Use the same class of car (midweight sedan) in each try and test so that differences are minimal.
5. Turn off/not use all driver assistance including cruise control, lane assist, rear view/side view cameras.
6. I could see my confidence and expertise improve with every passing iteration, I probably did 12-15 such practice runs over 4 days.
7. During practice run, pretend as if it is an exam, dont speak a lot and just follow directions. This helps a lot in conditioning your body and mental state for test.

Familiarise yourselves with skills that would be needed for your G test (skip higway ones for G2). I am jsut giving an outline, refer to handbook for all the info :

1. reverse parallel parking : one key difference is you are doing this on a sidelane with cones instead of cars and fence instead of real curb. With cones, you dont have the same reference as you do with cars, hence practice helps a lot. Each person has their own technique, what helped me was to trust my own instict and vision than instructional videos. In real test, you can pull out twice if things are not going right. Parking far off from curb is as bad as getting on curb. Both lead to immediate fail.
2. emergency stop : check back mirror, right indicator, come close to curb while slowing down. Cancel turn, put hazard and park. If you see another vehicle doing emergency stop, switch lanes or use opposite lane partly to maintain distance.
3. three point turn : give indicator in each segment (left, right, left), check all your blind spots and dont get on curb
4. roundabout : left indicator and yield when entering, cancel turn, slow down if needed but dont stop in roundabout, right indicator just after you crossed penultimate exit, cancel turn and resume speed
5. traffic light : slow down while checking rear mirror, check
6. stop : stop before line, stop for 3 mississippis, yank your neck left-right-left. leave in the order you entered stop intersection i.e. dont be over-courteous in letting other folks who came after you leave first
7. slowing down : before slowing down for any reason, always check mirror to ensure gap is good. slowing down is not preferred/good in cases of dedicated turn lane/exit ramp since those lanes are meant for that. Although if you see traffic in front, you must slow down to leave 3 seconds of gap.
8. turn : give indicator only after you have crossed penultimate intersection/turn. check blind spots for bikers and pedestrians. follow the shape of curb i.e. right angle or curved. follow dotted lines to cut into bike lane. however dont turn your wheels until the path is clear (especialy for unprotected left and pedestrians)
9. gap : leave 3 seconds of gap when driving (especially when changing lanes), when stopped, leave enough gap so that you can see the tyre of vehicle in front and ground beneath it. if your examiner is shorter than you, keep some more gap. stay atlesat 1m away from bikers. if they are in front of you on single lane (unlikely for a drivetest route), continue following them.
10. entry/exit ramp : speed up/down in these lanes to speed limits or ambient traffic speed. want to fail a test
11. switching lanes : check side mirror, blind spot, give indicator, keep the indicator on until you are able to get in the lane. if you see a vehicle not yielding, let it go by while maintaining your speed. keep 3 seconds of gap when switching lanes in either direction. This is an easy thing to miss and be honked at during test and fail it.
12. checking surrounding : perhaps no person has ever been told to check their blind spots and mirrors less in a test. you cannot overdo checking your blind spots/mirrors, do them every 8-10 seconds and definitely before/after any transition (turn/intersection/stop/lane change)

Hi,
I have a doubt, I was in Canada and my friend who is in India got the DL extract for me. So i need to get that original extract or can i use the soft copy of that extract here to get the G1 license. Also did i needed the original driving license or laminated copy also is fine?
Can anyone please suggest

 

[subodhp]

Hi,
I have a doubt, I was in Canada and my friend who is in India got the DL extract for me. So i need to get that original extract or can i use the soft copy of that extract here to get the G1 license. Also did i needed the original driving license or laminated copy also is fine?
Can anyone please suggest

You need the original extract

 

[WomanOfSubstance]

I gave my G1 knowledge test today at the Stratford, ON test center. The drive test agent there (who was Indian btw), said he cannot add the experience to my license. When asked why, he said he cannot give an explanation. Only his supervisor could and that they were not there today. Anyone know why they would do this? and what is likely the issue?

My license is from Gurgaon, Haryana, India and has a chip with it. The DL extract has a QR code and when I scan the QR code, the DL extract shows up in the web browser.

So frustrated and confused that I could not get a reason and all my years of driving experience have been disregarded.

 

[rahulsaini516]

Kind of same problem with me too today(27/09/2023) I went to take G1 written test at 400 Spence Ave Unit 19, Hawkesbury, ON K6A 2Y3 I presented my original drivers licence with DL extract(experience letter) and the lady at the centre checked all my documents and said i do not meet eligibility requirements to add my international driving experience. Upon asking the eligibility requirements she said she cannot disclose that due to security reasons in this situation how would I know that what do I do next in order to add my experience. My all documents are original and valid. My DL extract is 4 month old and my driving licence is more then 2 years. Please help

 

[Fasih Khan]

Need advice. My full driving license experience is 9 months and full one year will be in August. I will be living in Ontario. My query is do I have to wait the full 12 months after g1 to give g2?