Driving licence and car

Steps

The licence

It all depends on the country that issued your licence, not on your nationality.

Licence from an EU or EEA country (service-public sheet F1757):

1. Keep your European licence if it is valid and you respect its restrictions (glasses…).
2. Exchange it on the ANTS website (Agence nationale des titres sécurisés, the national secure documents agency) only in the compulsory cases, or if you wish (voluntary exchange possible, even with an expired licence).
3. Pay the tax stamp of €40 (€20 in French Guiana), at the end of the online procedure. During processing, you keep your licence and can drive. Once the ANTS has received your original licence, you download a filing certificate valid for 4 months; then count about 15 days between the SMS validating your application and receiving your French licence.

Licence obtained outside the EU and the EEA (service-public sheet F1460: Swiss licence, British licence issued from 2021, or any other country):

1. Your licence is valid for 1 year from the acquisition of your résidence normale (normal residence) in France (arrêté of 12 January 2012, art. 2). This starting point depends on your nationality (art. 4):
   • European (EU, EEA), Swiss or Monegasque national: the 186th day after your arrival. Your licence is therefore valid until 1 year after that day, i.e. until about the end of the 18th month after your arrival;
   • other foreign national: the issue of your first residence permit or the validation of your long-stay visa;
   • French national: your settling in France. To drive for longer, exchange is compulsory.
2. Apply for the exchange on the ANTS website within the right deadline:
   • you are a national of an EEA country, Andorra, Monaco or Switzerland: from the 6th month of stay and before the 18th month;
   • you are a national of another country (a British national who arrived after 2020, for example): less than 1 year after the issue of your first residence permit or the validation of your long-stay visa;
   • you are French and returning from abroad: less than 1 year after you settle in France.
3. Keep in mind the end of recognition (1 year after your normal residence: around the end of the 18th month for a European or Swiss national, 1 year after the first residence permit for another foreign national): beyond that, your foreign licence no longer lets you drive in France. During processing, you keep your original licence and can keep driving until that date. Once the ANTS has received your original licence (it asks you for it by SMS and email), you download a secure filing certificate valid for 4 months, which lets you drive while waiting for your French licence, but only within the recognition period of your foreign licence (F1460). An application filed on time therefore does not extend your right to drive: file it from the 6th month. Processing can take several months, and the prefect's silence for 2 months counts as a refusal (F1758, F1460).

The car

1. Insure the car in France (third-party liability at least).
2. Request the tax clearance certificate (quitus fiscal, proof that VAT has been settled; service-public F179 provides for it for a vehicle bought in another EU country), unless your registration application bears an exemption mention granted by the tax services (F10519): online on the ANTS in départements 06, 44, 57, 59, 62, 67, 69 and 75, by email to the tax office of your home elsewhere.
3. Have the roadworthiness test done if the car is more than 4 years old: it must be less than 6 months old when the application is filed and have been done in France or in the EU country where the car was registered.
4. Apply for the carte grise (certificat d'immatriculation, vehicle registration certificate) online on the ANTS or through an approved professional, within the month following purchase.
5. Fit the French plates as soon as you receive the number.

Documents

• Original foreign registration certificate (or official document proving ownership).
• Second-hand car bought abroad (F1050): invoice or certificate of transfer, and Cerfa form No 15776 (declaration of transfer).
• Tax clearance certificate (quitus fiscal) (form No 1993-PART-D-SD to request it).
• European certificate of conformity (COC), identification certificate or individual approval (RTI) issued by the Dreal (regional environment authority).
• Proof of roadworthiness test, Cerfa No 13750, proof of address of less than 6 months, identity document.
• Sworn statement of insurance and suitable licence.

Costs and timelines

• Licence exchange: €40 (€20 in French Guiana); a French licence obtained by exchange is valid for 15 years (car categories).
• Carte grise: regional tax (which depends on the region of your home and the tax horsepower), tax on the most polluting vehicles (malus), fixed tax of €11 and delivery fee of €2.76. Exact amount: official simulator on service-public.
• Deadlines: 1 month after purchase to apply for the carte grise (F1050). For a car you already owned: if you settle in France and have your main residence there, you must register it within 1 month after you settle, whatever your nationality (service-public F10519; Your Europe cites the same one-month deadline in its example of a Spanish woman settled in Bordeaux). On request, the ANTS gives you a provisional registration certificate (CPI) that lets you drive in France for 1 month while waiting for the definitive certificate.
• Failure to insure: offence punishable by a fine of €3,750 (flat-rate fine of €500 for a first offence recorded electronically), with possible suspension of the licence.

Common pitfalls

• An offence in France that costs you points obliges you to exchange your European licence.
• Believing that your European nationality is enough. A Belgian who passed their test in Switzerland has a non-European licence: it is only valid for a time in France and must be exchanged (from the 6th to the 18th month of stay for a European or Swiss national). A French person returning with a Swiss licence has 1 year from settling.
• Letting the 18th month pass with a Swiss or non-European licence (if you are European or Swiss): the exchange deadline is exceeded, your licence is no longer recognised and you lose the right to drive in France. There is no contradiction between "1 year" and "18th month": the year runs from the 186th day of stay. You then have to pass the French driving test (the Ministry of the Interior specifies, for the one-year deadline, that the minimum 20-hour training is not required under certain conditions; reply to written question No 43430, Assemblée nationale, and service-public F1460: "si les conditions de l'échange ne sont pas remplies, vous devez passer l'examen").
• European licence obtained in exchange for a non-European licence. An EU or EEA licence obtained in exchange for a licence issued by a country with no reciprocity agreement with France (service-public example: a Spanish licence obtained in exchange for a Chilean licence) is only valid for 1 year from your normal residence in France; beyond that, you have to pass the French driving test (F1757, F1758).
• Losing your licence while living in France: your country of origin no longer reissues it, the French exchange applies.
• The malus on an imported second-hand car can be high: run a simulation before buying abroad.
• Driving with expired foreign plates: the car may be immobilised. Check your country's export plate rules with its consulate.
• Corsica: the regional tax is set by the Collectivité de Corse. Overseas territories: the exchange stamp is €20 in French Guiana; the regional tax rates of the DROM are to be checked with the simulator.

What changes by country of origin

• EU and EEA: a licence issued in the EU or EEA remains valid with no limit on length of stay as long as it is valid; no compulsory exchange (except if it was obtained in exchange for a licence from a country with no reciprocity with France: see pitfalls). The "6th to 18th month" rule of sheet F1460 does not apply to this licence: it concerns a European who holds a licence obtained outside the EU and the EEA (a Swiss licence, for example).
• Swiss nationals: the Swiss licence is not an EU/EEA licence. It is recognised for 1 year from the 186th day of your stay in France (end of the 18th month approximately); apply for the exchange from the 6th month of stay and before the 18th month.
• British nationals (Scots included): a British licence issued before 2021 is used like a European licence as long as it is valid; a licence issued in 2021 or after is a non-EU/EEA licence: valid for 1 year, exchange compulsory, to be requested less than 1 year after the issue of your first residence permit (or, if you also have a European nationality, from the 6th to the 18th month of stay).
• Non-European foreign students: with a student residence permit or a job-search/business-creation residence permit (RECE), you do not have to apply to exchange your non-European licence and you can drive with it (F1460).
• Car coming from Switzerland or the United Kingdom: the tax clearance certificate (quitus fiscal) is replaced by customs clearance certificate 846 A; only the COC, the identification certificate or the RTI prove conformity, and the roadworthiness test must have been done in France or in the EU (F10519).