You are asked to arrive 15 minutes before a UK theory test. If you arrive after your appointment time the DVSA cancels the test and you lose the fee, so you have to book and pay for another one. There is no grace period to rely on.
Arrive 15 minutes early
That quarter of an hour is not padding. It is when identity gets checked, your belongings go into a locker and you are seated — all of which has to happen before your appointment time, not during it.
If you are late
The test is cancelled and you lose the fee. You book another test and pay again.
There is no published grace period, and it is not worth planning around finding one. Test centres run back-to-back appointments, so a late start is not something staff can absorb even when they would like to.
Plan for the journey being wrong
Most missed tests are not oversleeping — they are parking, traffic or a centre that turns out to be harder to find than the map suggested. Two things help more than leaving early does:
- Check where the centre actually is the day before, including where you would park.
- Aim to arrive 30 minutes early, not 15. Sitting in a waiting room for quarter of an hour costs you nothing; being ten minutes late costs you the whole fee and the appointment.
If something genuinely goes wrong
If you know in advance you will not make it, moving the appointment is far better than missing it — as long as you are inside the notice period. See changing or cancelling your test, and note the working-day rule there is not the one most people assume.
Sources and last verified
Rules and fees change. These are the official pages this answer is based on, with the date we last checked each one — if you are reading this long after, check the source before relying on it.
- Theory test: cars — When you arrive at the test centre — DVSA, checked 4 August 2026
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