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Stranded: Brits in France left with no driving licence due to lack of post-Brexit agreement

Brits in France have told how they have been left stranded with no driving licence due to the lack of a post-Brexit reciprocal agreement over driving licence swaps.

Published: 9 March 2021 14:35 CET
Updated: 10 March 2021 10:33 CET
Stranded: Brits in France left with no driving licence due to lack of post-Brexit agreement
Photo: Kenzo Tribaullard/AFP

Elsa Cormack’s UK licence expired when she turned 70 in January and she has been unable to either renew it or exchange for a French one, leaving her unable to drive despite living in a small village in southern France with no public transport.

Her husband Sydney, who has been dealing with the swap, said: “There is no public transport here, just the school bus, so I have had to drive her everywhere. Our son is getting married this year so we will try to get to the UK as soon as the borders open up, but we usually share the driving as it is a long way.”

Jon Savage, 55, lives in the Vienne département in western France and without a driving licence is now struggling to access vital medical appointments.

He said: “I’m an insulin-dependant diabetic so my UK licence needs renewing every three years. I moved to France in 2018 and sent off my dossier in November 2018 to swap my licence for a French one.

“It was returned and I was told I could keep driving on my UK licence for the time being. I applied again at the end of last year because the licence was close to expiring but my application has been sitting in a queue ever since and now my UK licence has expired.

“I can’t get to my medical appointments which are in Poitiers, which particularly important for me as I have just been diagnosed with a heart problem. 

“If you are caught driving without a valid licence then the fine is up to €15,000 and a year in prison!”
 
Josephine Washington, who lives in Corbieres, has also been left without a licence after hers expired while waiting for the exchange.
 
She said: “I sent my forms off by post a few months before my 70th birthday back in June 2019, 18 months later these were returned and I was advised to apply online instead – except that my licence has now expired and the online portal is not accepting applications from UK licence holders.
 
“I live about a mile outside the nearest village so I need to drive for everything, even taking the rubbish out. My husband was very ill and died in October 2019 so there were a lot of trips to and from hospital that I had to rely on others to drive me.
 
“I’m also partially disabled so driving really is vital for me. I’m looking into taking the French driving test but I’ve heard this can be very expensive and also quite a time-consuming process even for those people who have already held a driving licence but there don’t seem to be any other options and no-one can tell me what I should do.”

Brits living in France were supposed to have 12 months to exchange their licences, with the exchange process intended to open on January 1st 2021 and an agreement that UK licences for residents in France would continue to be recognised until the end of 2021.

This applies only to British people living in France and does not affects tourists, visitors or second-home owners.

However when January 1st came around, the online portal for licence swaps was not accepting applications for UK licences.

The British Embassy in Paris initially told The Local that the French site simply needed to be updated, but later admitted that the problem was the lack of a reciprocal agreement in place between France and the UK.

There is still no agreement in place and the window to exchange licences has now shrunk to just over nine months.

But those whose licences expire face being left with no licence at all, a huge problem for those living in rural France where public transport networks are often minimal or non-existent.

UK driving licences need renewing once the driver hits 70, but currently this is impossible, making this a particular problem for the over 70s.

Sydney said: “I applied online for her in November last year, when they were at least still accepting applications from people whose licence would shortly expire, but since then we have heard nothing and every time I call or email they just say to wait.

“We can’t get any help or advice from people, some say just to keep driving anyway but the official advice seems clear that you cannot drive if you don’t have a valid UK licence and it would probably invalidate the insurance.

“We’re lucky because I managed to exchange my licence the previous year, but what about people living alone?”

A spokesman from the British Embassy in Paris said: “The latest on exchanging driving licences in France remains that UK driving licences will continue to be recognised in France until 31 December 2021.

“The rules for exchanging your licence have not been confirmed. We will provide updates as soon as we have them, and you can find full information here.”

Since 2019 Brits living in France have only been able to exchange their licences in certain specific circumstances after an earlier surge in applications left a massive backlog at the centre in Nantes that processes such applications.

This means that people who moved to France since 2019 have never been able to apply to change their licence, while many others were left waiting for months or had their application turned down.

French officials are still working through the backlog, which is also slowing down some applications from drivers of other nationalities.

Anyone who doesn’t manage to exchange their driving licence before it expires potentially faces having to take a French driving test, a lengthy and expensive undertaking even for people who have many years’ experience behind the wheel.

READ ALSO Four years and €1,800 – taking the French driving test as a foreigner 

A petition has now been launched calling on the French and UK governments to end the hardship and conclude a reciprocal agreement. You can sign the petition HERE.

Member comments

  2. I have just been on the uk government website which says “You can use your French licence in the UK for short visits, or exchange it for a UK licence without taking a test. We will update these pages if there are any changes to the rules, as soon as information is available”. Is this the case for french residents and if so why do our licences run out at the end of the year in France and we have to take a test until/unless an agreement is reached?
    Andrew Tarr

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LIVING IN FRANCE

5 things Brits in France need to know about swapping driving licences

Now that the dust has settled from the somewhat chaotic post-Brexit period, the system for swapping a UK driving licence for a French one seems to be running fairly smoothly. There are, however, some things that UK licence holders need to know.

Published: 3 May 2024 17:20 CEST
5 things Brits in France need to know about swapping driving licences

This article is aimed at holders of a UK or Northern Ireland driving licence who are living in France – tourists, visitors and second-home owners can continue to drive in France on a UK licence and do not need an international driving permit.

British students who are studying in France on a student visa can continue to drive on their UK licence during their studies – if however they settle in France afterwards, they need to follow the below process for swapping their licence. 

1 You’re special

Well, maybe special is over-stating it, but the system for holders of UK and NI licence holders is different to that of other non-EU nationals, and also different to the system for EU licence holders.

The reason for this is that a pragmatic post-Brexit agreement was (finally) reached between France and the UK, in order to avoid the chaos that was triggered when thousands of Brits in France all tried to swap their driving licences at once.

Unlike almost all other post-Brexit agreements, this one applies both to people who moved to France before the end of Brexit transition period in 2021 and those who have moved here since. 

The below terms apply to everyone who has a UK or NI licence, regardless of their nationality or when they moved to France. 

2 But you still have to swap

It was technically always the case that Brits who were living in France should have swapped their licence for a French one, just as other EU licence holders do now, but in reality many people lived here for years or decades without ever exchanging their licence and there was little or no enforcement of the rule.

That has now changed and you must swap according to the following timetable;

If your UK licence was issued after January 1st, 2021 – you must swap within one year of moving to France.

If your UK licence was issued before January 1st 2021 – you only swap when you meet one of the following conditions;

  • The licence itself or the photocard is within six months of its expiry date. For more people the photocard expiry will come around first, but UK licences also require renewal when the holder reaches the age of 70
  • Your licence has been lost or stolen
  • You have been ordered to exchange your licence by a gendarme after committing a driving offence

For people who are exchanging because the licence is about to expire, it is important that you don’t start the process until your licence is within six months of the expiry date – early applications will simply be rejected.

3 It might not be as much of a nightmare as you think 

Unlike the old days when licence swaps were done by préfectures, the whole process has now moved online and is run through a single, central system.

The online portal for requesting a swap is known as ANTS and you can find it HERE.

If you haven’t used it before you will need to create an online account, or if you already have online accounts for French government services such as Ameli or tax declarations you can login by clicking on the France Connect button.

Once logged in, select Je demande l’échange ou l’enregistrement de mon permis de conduire étranger (I request the exchange or registration of a foreign driving licence) and fill in the details requested on the form such as name, address etc.

You might be pleasantly surprised by the fact the form itself is relatively straightforward (as French admin forms go), asking basic questions such as your personal details and the details of your driving licence.

You will have to upload supporting documents, but these are likely to be things that you already have to hand including

  • Proof of ID (passport or carte de séjour)
  • Proof of address (a recent utility bill or attestation from your utility provider)
  • If your driver’s licence is in a different name to your passport, you will need to supply your full birth certificate

You will also need to supply a photo – you can either use the internet-enabled Photomaton booths – find your nearest here – to create a digital photo with the required security code, or you can use the normal photo booths to print out a physical photo and send it by post after you have made your application. 

Once completed, you can use the ANTS site to track the progress of your application and upload any other documents that are requested.

4 But don’t leave it too late 

If you’re applying because your licence is about to expire then you cannot apply until you are within six months of the expiry date.

But it’s a good idea not to leave it until the last minute as the whole process does take time – things have improved massively since the dark days of 2020 and 2021 when people were waiting for years and their licences expired while they waited.

But it still takes time – the current average for a straightforward application with no extra documents required seems to be between four and five months, although processing times can vary, especially over holiday periods.

It’s therefore a good idea to make the application fairly soon after you enter that magic six-month window.

Once you make the application you should get an automated response acknowledging receipt – this is usually sent by SMS and/or email, it’s a good idea to check your spam folder if you don’t get the email.

Don’t panic if you don’t then hear anything for the next few weeks or even months, this appears to be normal. If your application is complete and there are no outstanding queries or other documents required, the next step will be a request to send in your old UK licence.

You send this by post (recorded delivery with a signature is strongly recommended) and at the same time you can download an Attestation de Depot de Permis de Conduire (certificate of deposit of driving licence) – you can use this to prove your continued entitled to drive in the period between sending in your old licence and receiving your new one.

Your French licence is then sent by registered post, and the window between posting the old licence and receiving the new one is usually not more than a month, you 

5 Help is out there 

If your application runs into problems or you have an untypical situation or find the ANTS website hard to use, don’t panic – help is available.

The Facebook group Driving in France – French Licence Applications is a good place to start with comprehensive guides and knowledgeable admins who are quick to respond to questions.

You can also chat to others in your situation and get updates on how long processing times seem to be.

If you have problems using the online system, your local France Services office may be able to help.

You can also head to The Local’s reader questions section, or email us at [email protected] if you have questions.

Digital licences

You might have heard about France’s new digital driving licence – unfortunately this is only available to people who have French citizenship (including dual nationals).

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