💬 RTO sent me back twice for my license conversion

I came back to India after 9 years abroad and needed my driving license sorted. Mine had lapsed years ago. I'd been driving on a foreign license all that time, so I figured the RTO would just convert it. First visit, I stood in the line for nearly 2 hours. The man at the counter flipped through my papers. Then he said I needed a notarized translation of my foreign license, because it wasn't in English. That wasn't on the checklist I'd followed. I checked the printout in the car, twice, in case I'd missed it. Got the translation done in 3 days and went back. Different counter, different person, another long wait. This time she told me I also needed a medical fitness certificate, from a doctor in a certain format. Nobody had mentioned it before. I stood there feeling like I was being handed a new quiz every visit. My neighbour told me about an agent near the office who does only this kind of work. I went to him before a third visit. He knew which counter handled which day, and what to carry. Same paperwork, but he walked me through it like it was a normal Tuesday. It got done on that third try. He charged a lot more than the official fee, and I paid it without arguing much. So I lost about 3 weeks and a few thousand rupees to something that should take one visit. I still don't know if the checklist is wrong or if each person at the counter reads it differently. The license is in my wallet now and I drive again. If you're coming back, skip the solo attempt. Hire the agent on day one, and keep a folder with every paper you've ever owned.

Wasted an entire morning standing at the wrong counter here in Hyderabad because nobody mentioned certain applications only get processed on set weekdays at particular windows. A security guard eventually pointed me toward the correct counter after watching me get turned away twice. That kind of unwritten local knowledge really should not be this hard to access for someone just trying to follow the rules properly.