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Exchange UK driving licence


sid
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My Permis de Conduire arrived today! Not bad really - only ten months.

I’ve had an official attestation (with photo) for several months now, which has been better than the manky bit of paper that Nimes Prefecture gave me last Summer. Ten days ago, I received an email saying that everything was approved and the Permis would now be produced and sent recorded delivery.

Our factrice said “Have you been waiting for a Carte Grise?” I briefly told her the tale of woe. “Dega” she uttered with evident distaste.

All this was down to a bungled centralisation process. Several months backlog from just about every Prefecture (where the people were losing their jobs and became obstructive and determined to torpedo things) allied to software problems. Nantes seems to have been disappearing under a sea of dossiers! It’ll improve, but I’d urge anybody who needs to exchange their licence some time in the 12 months not to hang around.

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Gardian ! I've been checking here nearly every day ! I'm so pleased to hear that your licence has arrived. My friend's is now at the 4-month stage, so there could well be a long wait still ahead, but on the other hand, taking an optimistic view, I'm hoping that the backlog is being cleared at last. I will report here when "ours" arrives.
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Sid .......

From memory & without trawling back through all the posts, your friend was about a month after me in sending their dossier off to Nantes.

The next stage (for me) was to send in my original UK licence, but that may already be in your friend’s dossier (I have a feeling that it was).

That ought to mean that he/she should receive an Attestation imminently - but then, what do I know? That Attestation, when received, clearly gives authority to drive. Of course, if they already have your friend’s UK licence, then that step would be bypassed and the licence could appear in the post like magic!

It won’t be long now - next thing will probably be an email (presumably provided in the dossier) saying that the Permis is being produced.

Interestingly, the accompanying letter with my Permis, gave details of the website where you can check your ‘solde de points’ (the number of points you’ve lost due to motoring transgressions). I had a little look today and my 6 month old speeding misdemeanour (1 pt) hasn’t been docked. So I’m lillywhite !!

Do let us know.

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OK everybody - let’s try to clarify this (as far as is possible!)

Most resident Brits under the age of 70 will have a UK driving licence which is valid until their 70th birthday. DVLA will not (perfectly reasonably) renew it if you are no longer UK resident.

You may choose to ask for it to be exchanged by ANTS (the new French licensing body) at some point significantly earlier than your 70th birthday and it would seem that you will (eventually) receive a new French plastic licence which will only take you up until you reach the age of 70. Further renewal will then be required.

If however you leave it until the approach of your 70th, then once approved, you get a licence valid until 2033. It seems reasonable to assume that the ‘cutoff’ would be within (let’s say) six months of one’s 70th, but don’t anybody take my word for it.

Precisely what documentation is required (COE, medical, etc) in either of these scenarios is presumably available on the website. You may take it that my dossier (by that time) had everything but the kitchen sink in it & there was nothing else that they could possibly ask me for!

BTW, the medical that I was required (by Nimes) to have done was a farce. The test involved being able to climb the steep stairs to the surgery without having a heart attack, being able to read the first three lines of an optician’s chart and being able to pay my €35. Ten minutes from start to finish!

Happy to be corrected on any of the above.

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While the paper UK licence is valid until 70 -it is no longer valid IF you have one of the pink plastic ones. Those have to be renewed every 10 years. The only time the paper licence is accepted is if you have never had a pink plastic one and that would only be if you have never had to change anything on your license -address,points ect.-since the card ones were introduced. This came into effect in June 2015. If your pink plastic card is out of date you would-if stopped in the UK (and presumably in France since tell format is the same) be technically driving without a valid driving licence .
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I had assumed that the plastic licence must be renewed every 10 years in order to keep the photo updated. That's the same as in UK. I hadn't thought about what happens if you exchange for a French one at age, say, 68, would it only last 2 years initially ? I thought it would still last 10 years. However, renewal is possible in France (ha ha if the system eventually works at reasonable speed), whereas it's impossible, without declaring a false address, to renew an UK licence whilst being a French resident.

I think this thread could run and run.

My wife still has the old green paper UK licence and she intends to hang onto that until 70.

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My wife and I exchanged our very old paper UK licences in 2007 for French paper ones, with no expiry date on them. I renewed mine to keep the C, D and E categories in 2008 and 2010, but allowed these to lapse after 2011, as I couldn't be bothered with an annual medical and renewal.

So we seem to have had the best of both worlds.[:D]

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Does it matter what date it states that a french license expires if the laws change, then surely either people will be driving without a license, or the government will advise them to renew or even get a medical certificate.

Just because one has a bit of paper, be it one that was legal at the time of issue, does not mean things cannot change.

Macron, it seems, is on a mission to change beaucoup things!:-)
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[quote user="Gardian"]I can only repeat what I said earlier & what

my new licence (received yesterday) says - valid until 2033.[/quote]

The French photocard licence is valid for 15 years regardless of age and currently at least requires no medical for group B. 15 years from 2018 is of course 2033 !

Older paper ones may be non expiring but EU rules require them to be withdrawn and replaced with photocards by 2033, quite how they propose carrying that out when there is no requirement to notify a change of address should be interesting to watch.

As far as UK goes an expired photo card does NOT, repeat does NOT, mean that you are driving without a valid licence, 'holds or has held and is not disqualified from holding' is the relevant term in the law.

Technically you can be fined up to ÂŁ1000 for failing to renew a photocard but I doubt you'll find that has actually been excercised against a single 'offender' in the entire 20 year history of the photocard.

I can't believe after all this time and so many discussions on the topic there is still so much confusion and misunderstanding although I suppose I shouldn't be surprised when so many folk still labour under the misconception that the (now abolished) paper counterpart to the UK photocard is some sort of licence in it's own right.

Personally I'll be on a spanish licence long before any of that though.

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Just to clarify, I wasn't referring to the "counterpart" when I said that my wife has the old green paper licence, I really did mean the old green licence, issued sometime in the 80's when we moved house in UK. As far as I'm aware that lasts until age 70.
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Ok, creating another enemy Sid, but the UK paper one is only valid if you give the correct information. So, if you moved to france ie changed address then you should inform them and get issued with the new format. If you stick at the same address then, yes its when you reach 70 yrs old.

for french one just use google.

Simples!!! how come it takes so many pages on a thread!!!
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