Guam's Three-Stage Graduated Driver Licensing Program

Guam's Three-Stage Graduated Driver Licensing Program

Quick Answer: Guam runs a three-stage graduated system under 16 GCA §§ 31A04–31A06: Stage 1 Learner's Permit (from 15½), Stage 2 Intermediate (from 16, requires passing the road test), and Stage 3 Full Licensure (from 17). Stages 1 and 2 carry a 0.02 zero-tolerance BAC limit, and any violation adds six months to your current stage.

This section is heavily tested. The graduated system produces clean, factual questions — ages, hours, curfews, waiting periods — and every one of those numbers is fair game.

Stage 1 — Learner's Permit

Minimum age: 15½.

To obtain it you must pass the vision test and the written knowledge test.

Supervision requirement. Who may sit beside you depends on your age:

• Under 18: you must be accompanied by a fully licensed parent or legal guardian, or a designated adult aged 21 or older, or your spouse.
• 18 or older: you must be accompanied by a licensed driver aged 21 or older, or your spouse. There is a military-on-duty exception.

The practice requirement. You must complete 50 hours of supervised driving, of which at least 10 hours must be after 7:00 p.m. The night-driving component is deliberate: night crashes are disproportionately fatal, and the law forces exposure to darkness under supervision rather than after licensure.

Alcohol. A 0.02 blood alcohol concentration applies. This is a zero-tolerance figure, not the adult 0.08 standard — it is set low enough that essentially any drinking will breach it.

To advance: you must complete six consecutive months that are both collision-fault-free and conviction-free.

Stage 2 — Intermediate License

Minimum age: 16.

You must pass a behind-the-wheel on-road test. This is the point at which actual driving skill is assessed. The test may be administered by the Department of Revenue and Taxation or by one of a limited number of approved examining entities. There is an important integrity rule: the examiner may not be from the same driving school that taught the candidate.

Alcohol: the 0.02 limit continues to apply.

Curfews. These are the most commonly missed facts in the whole graduated system:

There is a work exception: driving during curfew for employment is permitted with proof of employment in the vehicle. "I was coming home from work" is not enough — carry the documentation.

To advance: 12 consecutive months clean.

Stage 3 — Full Licensure

Minimum age: 17.

At this point the graduated restrictions — curfew and the 0.02 limit — no longer apply, and you are subject to the ordinary adult rules, including the standard BAC limit covered in Chapter 7.

The penalty mechanism: violations add six months

This is the structural feature that makes the whole system work, and it is worth understanding rather than memorizing blindly.

Violations are reported to the Department of Revenue and Taxation within 10 working days, and a violation adds six months to your current stage.

The effect is that the clock does not merely pause — your advancement date moves further away. A 16-year-old who picks up a violation two months into Stage 2 does not simply wait out the original twelve months; six months are added. Two violations can cost a full extra year.

Putting the numbers in one place

How this is tested

Expect questions of the form "a 16-year-old intermediate license holder is driving at 11:00 p.m. on a Tuesday — is this permitted?" (No: weeknight curfew begins at 10:00 p.m., unless the work exception applies with proof.) Work through the table above as scenarios rather than as a list, and the questions become straightforward.