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Driving license conundrum!


JimmyEveriss

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I've just had the pleasant experience of losing my wallet in town, or had it stolen. I've lived in France for 7 years and have always used my EU license which was registered to my old address.

Now I realise the smart thing to have done would be to have had the license exchanged for a French one, but I didn't.

I have family in England, so would it be a bad idea to lie about where I've been living for the last 3 years and order a new UK license which I could then exchange for a French one - could I get in trouble for lying about my address?

Or would I be able to take just my counterpart along to the prefecture, perhaps with the police statement I plan on making tomorrow referring to the loss/theft of my wallet plus a scanned printout of my plastic part license?

Any advice appreciated.
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I wouldn't worry too much, and you're not breaking any laws by still having your UK license here, unless you've managed to acquire lots of points from speeding, no seat belt, using mobile phone etc.

My husband had his UK driving license, passport etc stolen in Toulouse soon after we came here. He reported it to the local gendarmes and got some sort of cover statement for driving (I think, this was 10 years ago.) Then managed eventually to get new documents.

I would do what you suggest about going to the gendarmes first, then the prefecture with documents, and see what they say.

In our case, they eventually caught the thief, who had husband's passport on him, and only last year - 10 years later! - husband was invited to attend the court hearing. He didn't go as it's quite far from us.

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I believe you can contact DVLA to obtain a "certificate of entitlement" which you can then use to obtain a French license, but I would definitely check at the prefecture to see if they will issue a French licence based on your counterpart and scanned license.
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According to a contributor on another forum (ex plod) DVLA replaced his stolen licence via a nominated UK address even though they knew he was French resident. Worth a phone call I suppose.

If you apply for a French one without a valid in date UK licence to surrender or with a DVLA certificate of entitlement all evidence suggests that you will be required to take a medical.

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Thanks for the advice, it's been invaluable. I'm going to the Gendarmerie this morning to report it lost or stolen and find out if I can drive without the photocard, then phone the DVLA and see if I can obtain a certificate of entitlement - Will the prefecture recognise this certificate as an alternative to the photocard?
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Well I've been down to the Gendarmerie which wasn't very helpful, they did however inform me that I should have had my license changed to a French one, and that because I live in France full time my British license was invalid, so he wasn't able to give me a document to allow me to drive in the meantime.

If I contact the DVLA is it wise to be honest about living in France for the last 7 years? I hate the idea of lying about anything official like this, but I could try not to mention it.
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It's all a bit esoteric.

For many years now, your UK licence has been valid for any EU country, wherever in the EU are resident, but you can't have a  non-UK address put on it. Apparently, if you are a french resident, you are forced to exchange it for a french licence if you are convicted of a driving offence, so that penalty points can be registered against you.

Some plods in many countries don't know this. That is not really surprising, I'm sure there are a lot more important things they have to learn, and if they had the knowledge and abilities of international legal experts they probably wouldn't be plods.

French driving licences have your address on them, but if you change your address you simply write the new one on your licence. Presumably you can do this even if you move to another country.

The DVLA made a statement many years ago to the effect that if you lived in another EU country your UK licence remained valid even though the address was no longer correct. This conflicts with the statement on the back of the licence, but hey, what the hell.

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The gendarmes obviously are clueless. Here is some info from the service-public.fr (french government web site) and the EU official web site.

http://permisdeconduire.gouv.fr/rubriques-transversales/conduite-a-linternational/conduire-en-france/

 

Conditions pour conduire avec un permis européen

Pour être valable en France, le permis de conduire doit remplir toutes

les conditions suivantes :

·        

être en cours de validité,

·        

être utilisé par une personne qui a atteint l'âge

minimal pour conduire le véhicule de la catégorie équivalente (au moins 18 ans

pour le permis

B),

·        

être utilisé conformément aux mentions d'ordre médical

(port obligatoire de lunettes par exemple) qui y sont inscrites.

Par ailleurs, le conducteur :

·        

ne doit pas avoir fait l'objet dans le pays de

délivrance de son permis d'une mesure de suspension, de restriction ou

d'annulation de son droit de conduire,

·        

ou ne doit pas avoir obtenu son permis dans un autre pays

européen pendant une période d'interdiction de solliciter ou d'obtenir un

permis de conduire en France (par exemple, en accompagnement d'une peine

d'annulation du permis).

http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/vehicles/driving/validity/resident_en.htm

 

EU driving licences

Before you move to a new

country, make sure your driving licence has not expired.

Provisional

licences or

certificates issued in your home country will not be recognised

in other
EU

countries
.

If you move to another

country, you can drive there with your current

licence as long as it remains valid.

However, you will need

to check that you meet any requirements regarding licences in your new

country, such as shorter validity periods or medical checks.

 

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Thanks for all your help but although it may or may not be okay to keep your existing license whilst it is valid, I've just used this DVLA 'email us' service for people wanting to replace a license whilst not living in GB:

https://emaildvla.direct.gov.uk/emaildvla/cegemail/dvla/en/driver_2_4.html

This is the reply I recieved:

As you presently reside overseas, I regret that we are unable to issue you with a further British licence.

Changes to British legislation resulting in the implementation of the Second EC Directive on Driving Licences (91/439/EEC) since 1 January 1997, have required that driving licences are granted only to drivers who are resident in this country.

As you have lost your licence, please make enquiries with the Licence Issuing Authorities in the country in which you now reside regarding advice on driving there.

Should you require confirmation of your driving licence details please telephone the centre to request a certificate of entitlement.

Down to the prefecture it is then...
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I wouldn't have emailed, I would always call first, and then email to confirm what I have been told.....if you see what I mean.

So yes, I would try calling 0300 790 6801and see what they have to say.

By the way, do you keep photo copies of official documents like this at home, ie driving license and passport??? I do, as if anything goes wrong or they are stolen or lost, I have all the details to hand. [:)]

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Well it was an automated system and when I saw 'I no longer live in GB and I have lost my GB licence' I thought "ooh that's handy".... ha

I have scanned copies of my driving license for my insurance policies, Would the information on those be enough to use at the prefecture without waiting for a certificate of entitlement to come through from the UK, do you think?

I have no aversion to getting a French license really, and it looks like it's going to be the most straight forward option.

Does anyone know if the prefecture issues a temporary document which you can use whilst waiting for your license? - Much like they sometimes do with a carte grise.
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I think you can be pretty certain that photocopies of your UK licence will fall into chocolate teapot territory and you will have no real option but to go the certificate of entitlement route. It only takes a few days to arrive normally.

Many prefectures are now demanding this anyway as a way of confirming that you are actually entitled to be holding a UK licence in the first place. The EU directive requires them to satisfy themselves that an applicant is entitled to an exchange licence but possession proves nothing and for all they know you could be disqualified in UK and just not have surrendered it. The certificate is proof absolute.

Monkey business would eventually show up anyway as surrendered UK licences are eventually returned to DVLA and if they received one which belonged to a disqualified driver they would have to inform the French of that fact and that they had been victims of fraud.

As for a temporary licence, I don't know what the official line is but my prefecture simply stamped one copy of my application form and gave that to me to produce if asked whilst I was waiting for the French licence to arrive.

At the moment without a licence to produce then technically of course you should not be driving !

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[quote user="JimmyEveriss"]Well it was an automated system and when I saw 'I no longer live in GB and I have lost my GB licence' I thought "ooh that's handy".... ha

I have scanned copies of my driving license for my insurance policies, Would the information on those be enough to use at the prefecture without waiting for a certificate of entitlement to come through from the UK, do you think?

I have no aversion to getting a French license really, and it looks like it's going to be the most straight forward option.

Does anyone know if the prefecture issues a temporary document which you can use whilst waiting for your license? - Much like they sometimes do with a carte grise.[/quote]

Yes, I have just changed to a french licence, they kept my uk one and issued me with an attestation valid for 3 months to cover me until my French licence arrived, which it did inside of 2 weeks.
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I mislaid my UK licence. I got a certificate of enitlement which was, I think, £5 at the time and took it to the prefecture with all my documents (including marriage certificate) photos and the usual electricity bill. They issued it for free there and then, but I think it depends where you are.

(It refers to my new licence, but I am still unable to edit posts or sign in at all from my ipad so forgive the typos and ambiguous grammar as putting the t in entitlement would involve deleting the post back to that word. It has been like this since the site got changed.)

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Don't forget your marriage certificate if you are female, the form you fill out asks for your maiden name and I didn't realise it's no longer on your passport, she was kind enough to let me leave the forms there and post a copy of it on to her.
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I've talked to the DVLA and as Emily said it is £5 to have the certificate of entitlement sent through. I asked over the phone what the situation is with licenses and he confirmed more or less that a UK license remains valid but you can't have it renewed if you live abroad permanently.
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