If your photo on your driving license is damaged you cannot just remove it and replace it with another. In fact, if you look closely at the photo you should notice the mark of the Mauritius Police Force that is part on your license and part on the photo. Replacing the photo with another will only make it appear like a fraudulent document; which in fact amounts to crime.
Why am I writing this? Well, my photo got damaged in the driving license cover a long time back and I thought the procedure at the Line Barracks (Casernes) would be too long. So, every time a police officer would complain to me about the damaged photo I would show him my national identity card to ascertain my identity correctly. This week I thought it’s time to fix this photo thing so I checked the website of the Mauritius Police Force. The search feature of the site is “useless”. I suggest to use Google site search to find relevant information from the website.
Duplicate driving license related information sums up as follows:
- For a lost driving license you need to report it to the police station of your locality first. The officer will give you a memo (called Form 77) which you have to produce when applying for a duplicate at the Line Barracks. You should bring two passport size photos and your identity card or passport. You will be informed when you may collect the duplicate driving license.
- To request replacement of a damaged driving license, the latter must be produced along with same documents as above.
- In order to replace the damaged photo, you need to produce the driving license, an identity document and one passport photo. The officer will replace the photo and mark it again.
The traffic branch of the Line Barracks receives a lot of requests daily and it seems to ease the task they have started a ticketing system (don’t know since when). When I explained the officer at the information desk about my visit to the Line Barracks he explained me the procedure and that I won’t be required to replace my driving license but just the photo. He then gave me a ticket and asked me to proceed to counter number nine. My ticket was labelled L056 which meant I was the 56th person at that counter today.
A dozen people were waiting there to collect their document; driving license most probably. I was called by the officer and when I explained him about the photograph he nodded and asked whether I have brought a passport size photo and my identity card. I provided him both and he replaced the photograph on my driving license.
It took me less than ten minutes to wait in the queue and get the photograph replaced. I was happy about such progress at the Line Barracks. The only hiccup was to find a parking earlier.