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Exchanging an English driving licence for a French one.


Andrea50

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I wish to change my old English driving licence for a French one and have been told by the Prefecture in Montauban I must provide written proof from the DVLA less than one month old that I have a clean licence. I have phoned the DVLC twice and they say this is not possible.

I went back to the prefecture with this information and was told I had to do it and I must find a way , others do. Has anybody else had this problem or found an answer.

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I think there has been a miscommunication.

What they want is a Letter of Entitlement which DVLA will send you in exchange for a fiver.

Endorsements on a UK licence have no relevance to exchanging a licence.

You might also politely point then to the law on the matter.

[url]http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/particuliers/F1758.xhtml[/url]

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  • 3 weeks later...
Thanks for that. I have asked for this and I am now trying to get a response from the department responsible. They will not speak on the phone and have asked for a fax or written request. Sent the fax over a week ago and am still waiting for a response. Lots of fun.

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I am always amaised that the same laws apply all over France but yet they are translated from French to French by a google translation. Or they should be the way they are so different wherever you go!

I changed my license last year. I had to take a couple of photos, a couple of utility bills, old paper license and something else I can't remember, but no mention was made about contacting DVLA or anywhere else in the U.K.. It was free as well.

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[quote user="Jonzjob"]I am always amaised that the same laws apply all over France but yet they are translated from French to French by a google translation. Or they should be the way they are so different wherever you go!

[/quote]

Wow, great sentence. What was that translated from?

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[quote user="Andrea50"]I have asked for this and I am now trying to get a response from the department responsible. They will not speak on the phone and have asked for a fax or written request.[/quote]That's nuts, all it takes is a phone call and a credit card ?

I suspect you got the wrong department or maybe a trainee.

As an aside my daughter has just received a reminder for me from DVLA that I need to renew my UK licence as it's about to expire, 2 years after I traded it in for my French one !

That's not the strangest thing though because I have no idea how DVLA got her address, I've never given it to them and the address on my old UK licence was our old house which we sold when we moved and the people who bought that I don't even think know we have a daughter much less where she lives.

Curious ?

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[quote user="AnOther"][quote user="Andrea50"]I have asked for this and I am now trying to get a response from the department responsible. They will not speak on the phone and have asked for a fax or written request.[/quote]That's nuts, all it takes is a phone call and a credit card ?

I suspect you got the wrong department or maybe a trainee.

As an aside my daughter has just received a reminder for me from DVLA that I need to renew my UK licence as it's about to expire, 2 years after I traded it in for my French one !

That's not the strangest thing though because I have no idea how DVLA got her address, I've never given it to them and the address on my old UK licence was our old house which we sold when we moved and the people who bought that I don't even think know we have a daughter much less where she lives.

Curious ?
[/quote]Big Brother is watching you[:D]
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[quote user="AnOther"]

That's not the strangest thing though because I have no idea how DVLA got her address, I've never given it to them and the address on my old UK licence was our old house which we sold when we moved and the people who bought that I don't even think know we have a daughter much less where she lives.

Curious ?

[/quote]

As the DVLA use 'various sources' to trace people (their own words), can I suggest

either : your daughter is named as a contact-in-case-of-emergency in the back of your passport

or : you used her address for mail redirection at some point in the past

The same thing happened to me this last summer with my daughter's address being used for the reminder.

Sue

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Neither of those as it happens and in any case the 'various sources' they speak of will be for checking things like NI numbers with DWP and/or HMRC to ensure that people applying for licences are entitled to be doing so, i.e. UK resident, not routinely used simply to check that they are sending a reminder to the correct address.

There is something more fundamental amiss though because as I said, I surrendered my licence for a French one two years ago and they sent a Letter of Entitlement to my French address for that purpose so they should know full well that I do not live in the UK and therefore have no business in sending me a reminder in the first place !

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