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The myths you shouldn’t believe about the rights of Brits in France after Brexit

The post-Brexit situation for Britons living in or visiting France is complicated, and not helped by a series of persistent myths, rumours and wrong information. Here we separate the facts from the fiction.

Published: 23 April 2021 13:56 CEST
Updated: 23 April 2021 14:56 CEST
The myths you shouldn't believe about the rights of Brits in France after Brexit
It wasn't just the flags that needed to be rearranged after Brexit. Photo: François Walschaerts/AFP

For Brits who lived in France before December 31st, 2020:

I’m married to a French person so I don’t need to apply for residency 

All British nationals who were living in France before December 31st 2020 have to apply for the residency card known as the carte de séjour – even if they have been here a long time or are married to a French person.

The only exception to this is Brits who have dual nationality with an EU country eg France, Ireland etc.

The deadline to have made the application is September 30th, 2021 (extended from June 30th) and you can find out how to apply HERE.

I already have a European Carte de séjour so I don’t need a new one

Some Brits already applied  for a carte de séjour before 2020 on the basis that they were EU citizens. However these cards are no longer valid for Brits and have to be exchanged for a new carte de séjour – this card is a specific one for Brits covered by the Withdrawal Agreement.

You make the application to exchange on the same online portal as those applying for a new card and it is a fairly simple swap process. Full details HERE.

If I apply for a residency card I will have to start paying tax in France 

Not necessarily. Virtually everyone who is a permanent resident in France must fill out the annual tax declaration – this applied to British residents before Brexit and getting a carte de séjour does not change that. Whether you pay tax or not depends on your sources of revenues and whether they are taxed in the UK or not.

You can find full information in our tax declaration guides HERE.

I can keep my main residence in the UK and still apply for a carte de séjour

The Withdrawal Agreement carte de séjour is for people whose main home is in France. Many Brits with property in France have got used to splitting their time roughly 50/50 between France and the UK, but the British government’s decision to end freedom of movement for its citizens means that people now need to make a decision on which country is their place of residence. Here are some things to consider when making that decision.

“Tax residency” – the threshold at which you can be liable to pay tax in a country – is not the same as having residency status via a carte de sejour. 

I’m unemployed so I can’t apply for residency 

If you are unemployed and registered at the Pôle emploi (the French unemployment office) you can still apply as a jobseeker for a post-Brexit carte de séjour.

If you have never worked in France you apply as “economically inactive” – the category which includes pensioners. Depending on how long you have been in France, you may need to show some proof of your resources (more details below). 

I need private health insurance before I can apply for a residency card

Only people who have been in France for less than five years and are not working need to supply proof of health cover and it is sufficient to be registered within the French health system, no additional health insurance is required.

This confusions seems to have arisen due to an early mistranslation in the English-language version of the online portal for residency applications. France’s state health insurance system is known as Assurance maladie, and the English-language portal used the literal translation of this – health insurance – which lead many Brits to believe that they needed additional private insurance. In fact, being registered in the French system and having a carte vitale is sufficient.

I only have a basic UK pension so probably won’t qualify for residency under the income requirements

This has probably been the biggest worry for many Brits, especially as the requirements were not finally clarified until the residency application site went live in October 2020.

The majority of people do not have to provide proof of their financial resources, but one group does – those who have lived here for less than five years and are not working (eg pensioners).

The French have lowered some of the standard income requirements and allowed couples to use joint resources to apply. In cases where people are under the income threshold, assets such as mortgage-free property will be taken into account.

Find the exact amounts needed HERE.

Applying for residency will be a French bureaucratic nightmare and I’ll have to supply several trees’ worth of documents

French bureaucracy has a bit of a reputation for being slow and cumbersome, but Brits who have already applied under this system have been struck by its – relative – simplicity and speed. The Interior Ministry has scaled back the number of supporting documents required and set up an online portal specifically for Brits.

Read the experiences of people who have used the system HERE.

The above answers all relate to people who were living in France prior to December 31st 2020, for people moving after that date, click HERE. 

But what about non-residents – British second-home owners, Brits who do short-term work in Europe or just those who enjoy lengthy trips to France?

There are also some persistent myths surrounding these groups

I live in the UK but own property here, so I don’t need a visa for visits

This is a common trope, but unfortunately simply owning property in France does not give you any extra rights when it comes to border controls and immigration rules.

British second-home owners are now covered by the 90-day rule, which limits visits to 90 days in every 180 (either in one block or several shorter visits).

Anyone who wants to stay longer than that without taking up residency needs a visa. The only exception to this is Brits who have dual nationality with an EU country.

You can find a full explanation of the 90-day rule HERE and a guide to getting a visa HERE.

I don’t need a visa for visits if I don’t intend to work in France

Visas are required even for people who don’t intend to work here if you want to stay for longer than 90 days out of every 180. There are various different types of visa, but second-home owners who simply want to enjoy lengthy visits to their property would probably want a visitor visa.

I need a work permit for work undertaken in France, even if it’s only for a few weeks 

Not necessarily. If you intend to work in France without taking up permanent residency – ie as a freelancer, contractor or taking business trips or cultural tours – you may need a work permit, but there are some sectors that are exempt from the requirement.

If you work for less than 90 days out of every 180 in France then you don’t need a visa, but if you work in multiple countries bear in mind that the 90-day limit applies to the whole EU Bloc, not just France, and each EU country has different visa and work permit requirements.

Find a full explanation of who needs a work permit in France HERE.

I have an International Driver’s Permit so I don’t need to swap my driving licence for a French one

If you are visiting France as a tourist or second-home owner then you can continue to drive on your UK licence and don’t need an International Driver’s Permit.

For residents in France who have a UK licence the situation is more complicated. This group will have to swap their licence for a French one by the end of 2021, but at present an impasse on reciprocal agreements to swap licences between the French and British governments mean no applications for a swap are being accepted.

Residents can continue to drive on a UK licence in the meantime, so most people just need to wait and hope an agreement is reached soon. For those whose UK licence has expired or is about to expire, however, the situation is grim with no immediate resolution in sight, despite pleas and petitions to the British government.

An International Driver’s Permit is not a substitute for a licence, and cannot be used if the licence it is attached to is expired or no longer valid.

If you have questions on Brexit, head to our Dealing with Brexit section or email us at [email protected]

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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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