The bag, in one list
- Identification
- The one you applied withID book, ID card, temporary identity certificate or a valid SA passport
- Booking paperwork
- Your receipt or confirmation
- Photographs
- Two identical, 40 mm by 30 mmIf your centre asked you to bring them
- Glasses or contact lenses
- If you need them to see clearlyYou are measured wearing them
- Proof of address
- Take oneNot in regulation 103, but on the government's own list
- If you are 65 or older
- The medical certificate on form MC
- Means to pay
- The provincial fee is payable when the licence is issued
- Time
- Be there for the day and hour the centre determined
What each item is actually for
The legal list of what an application must be accompanied by is regulation 103(1), and we set it out item by item on the documents page. This is the version for the morning itself.
| Bring | Why it matters on the day |
|---|---|
| Your identification | The centre has to be able to identify you as the person who applied. Bring the same document you used, not a different one that is also acceptable in principle |
| Your booking receipt or confirmation | It is how the counter finds your appointment. Nothing in the regulations requires it; every centre wants it |
| Glasses or contact lenses | The eyesight standard in regulation 102 is measured with or without refractive correction. Leaving them at home is sitting the screening at a disadvantage you do not have to accept |
| Two photographs, 40 mm long by 30 mm wide | The specification is in regulation 103(1)(a), and it is a specification, not a suggestion. Some centres take the photograph for you; many do not |
| Proof of postal and residential address | Regulation 103 does not ask for it and the government's own service page does. Arguing the point at the counter costs you the day either way |
| A medical certificate on form MC, if you are 65 or older | Required by regulation 103(1)(c), signed by a medical practitioner or occupational health practitioner |
| A way to pay the provincial fee | Regulation 105(1) has the licence issued upon payment of the applicable fee determined by the MEC of the province concerned |
Glasses are the item nobody puts on the list
If you wear glasses or contact lenses to see at a distance, they belong in your pocket before your ID does.
The standard in regulation 102(1) is written as "with or without refractive correction". That phrase means you are entitled to be measured in your glasses. For a learner's licence relating to a motorcycle or a light motor vehicle, the threshold is a visual acuity of at least 6/12 in each eye on the Snellen rating — or at least 6/9 in the other eye where one eye is below 6/12 or blind — plus a visual field of at least 70 degrees temporal in each eye.
Needing correction is not a disqualification. It is an endorsement: regulation 105(1)(b)(i) has the licence endorsed where the applicant is found competent to drive with the aid of glasses or contact lenses, an artificial limb or another physical aid. The endorsement then travels with you — it is a condition of the licence, so you drive wearing them.
And if the screening still says no, that is not the end of the morning's value. Regulation 102(2)(a) lets you be tested by a registered optometrist or ophthalmologist at your own expense, and the testing centre must accept that result if it properly reflects your acuity and your visual field.
Photographs: measure them before you leave
This is the item that most often sends somebody back out to a shop. Regulation 103(1)(a) does not say "two passport photos" — it sets out what they have to be, and the counter checks against that.
Two identical photographs, black and white or colour. Recently taken. Clear-cut and without shadows. Forty millimetres in length and thirty millimetres in width. Only your head and shoulders. Your full face showing. And without headgear — with one exception written into the regulation itself, for headgear required by a religion of which you are a bona fide member.
A photo booth aimed at passport photographs is usually close, but the sizes are not identical across every machine. Hold a ruler against them. Forty by thirty.
If you wear religious headgear and the examiner thinks the photographs are inadequate for identification, the regulation gives a route rather than a refusal: they may be referred to an official designated by the provincial Director-General, and if that official does not approve them you bring two taken in a manner agreed in writing.
Be there for the time the centre set
Under section 17(2) of the Act the testing centre determines the day on and time at which you present yourself to be examined and tested. That is worth reading twice: the appointment is set by them, and it is the day you are required to appear.
No official source says how early to arrive or what a centre does with a late arrival, so we are not going to put a number on it. What is in the regulations is the consequence of not being tested on that day at all — and it is a form, not a conversation.
Regulation 103(2) requires you to satisfy the centre that the reason was beyond your control, and the proviso added in 2001 says the centre may not even consider your reason unless you furnish it in writing, as a declaration on form DCT. So if something goes genuinely wrong, ask for the DCT.
What you do not need
A medical certificate, if you are under 65. Regulation 103(1)(c) attaches that requirement to applicants aged 65 or older and to nobody else. Sites that list it as a general requirement are wrong about it.
A driving school letter, a logbook, or proof of lessons. None of them appears anywhere in regulation 103, and the learner's licence test is a theory test — nothing in regulation 104 asks you to have driven.
As for what you may carry into the test room, no official source addresses it. Assume nothing, leave your notes in the car, and ask at the counter if it matters to you.
The mistake
Bringing everything except the glasses. People who wear them every day still arrive without them because the list they read online was a list of documents, and glasses are not a document. The eyesight screening comes before the questions, and you are entitled to be measured in them.
The second is arriving with the wrong photographs. Two identical, forty by thirty, head and shoulders, full face, no shadows. Measure them the night before rather than discovering it in the queue.
The night before is for revision, not packing
Pack the bag now so the last evening is free. Our free readiness test scores you by section, the way the real test does, and shows which of the three areas still needs the time.
Take the free readiness testCommon questions
What must I take to my learner's licence test?
Your identification, your booking paperwork, the two 40 mm by 30 mm photographs if the centre asked you to supply them, proof of address, glasses or contact lenses if you wear them, and a way to pay the provincial fee. Applicants aged 65 or older also bring a medical certificate on form MC.
Do I need to bring my glasses?
If you wear them to see at a distance, yes. The eyesight standard in regulation 102 is measured with or without refractive correction, so you are entitled to be tested wearing them, and needing them results in an endorsement on the licence rather than a refusal.
What size must the photographs be?
Forty millimetres in length and thirty millimetres in width, two identical copies, recently taken, clear-cut and without shadows, showing only your head and shoulders and your full face, without headgear except where it is required by a religion of which you are a bona fide member.
Do I need proof of address for my learner's?
Regulation 103 does not require it, but the South African Government's own service page for a learner's licence does list proof of postal and residential address. Take one — the counter is likely to work from the published instruction.
Do I need a medical certificate?
Only if you are 65 or older. Regulation 103(1)(c) requires a certificate on form MC signed by a medical practitioner or occupational health practitioner, and it applies to no other applicant.
How early should I get to the testing centre?
No official source gives a time, and we will not invent one. What the law fixes is that the centre determines the day and time under section 17(2) of the Act, so treat that as the time you must already be there.
What if I cannot attend on the day I was given?
Regulation 103(2) requires you to satisfy the centre that the reason was beyond your control, and it may not consider your reason at all unless you put it in writing on a declaration on form DCT.
Sources
- National Road Traffic Regulations, 2000 — regulation 103(1)What an application for a learner's licence must be accompanied by: two identical photographs 40 mm by 30 mm meeting the listed conditions, acceptable identification, a medical certificate on form MC for applicants aged 65 or older, and the appropriate fee determined by the MEC of the province concerned.
- National Road Traffic Regulations, 2000 — regulation 103(2)The applicant not examined and tested on the determined day, and the proviso added by R.25 of GNR.2116 of 5 October 2001 requiring a written declaration on form DCT.
- National Road Traffic Regulations, 2000 — regulation 102(1) and (2)(a)The eyesight standard measured with or without refractive correction, and the optometrist or ophthalmologist re-test that the testing centre must accept.
- National Road Traffic Regulations, 2000 — regulation 105(1)Issue of the learner's licence on form LL2, upon payment of the applicable fee determined by the MEC of the province concerned, with the endorsement at (b)(i) where the applicant is competent to drive with glasses, contact lenses, an artificial limb or another physical aid.
- National Road Traffic Act 93 of 1996 — section 17(1) and (2)The application is made in person, and the testing centre determines the day on and time at which the applicant presents to be examined and tested.
- South African Government service page, "Apply for a learner's driving licence"Lists proof of postal and residential address, which regulation 103 does not require. Recorded as a divergence rather than as law.
Last updated 2026-09-21.