Luckily, in my case anyway, the French authorities were not as diligent.
For a thorough examination of how & why this has come about, try this link
This is a disgraceful story of Ć©lite spite and contempt for the citizen, written by an ex pat at his witās end
Itās your viewā¦and I agree itās a disgrace. But I donāt agree with other aspects of your blog.
But Iām not an ex-pat. People are receiving their CoEs according to Kim Cranstoumās group, and can you provide link to their being 11,000 elderly UK drivers in France with expired licences as Iāve not read that figure before.
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who canāt spell/didnāt bother to check āje māen fousā or think about the implications of Brexit during the 4 years or so following the voteā¦ runs for cover!
And as soon as people refer to themselves and others as ex pats I switch off a bit, like it or not, the word is immigrant! 
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I am one of those unfortunate persons over 70, whose licence expired on their 70th birthday who have had their legal right to drive removed by the inefficiency of two governments to agree and sign a reciprocal agreement that has been on the table for 6 months. Incidentally, it isnāt through my lack of persistence in trying to obtain a French licence that I am in this position. I first applied Feb 2019, CERF sat on that for a full year then returned it to me without explanation, except to say āapply on lineā. I tried doing that but as usual this was misinformation as the site was incapable of accepting my application. After this rejection I joined the FB group āApplying for a french drivingā, for further advice. I cannot praise the wonderful Kim Cranstoun highly enough, her constant support and information is faultless. Although I had to wait until 6 weeks before my licence expired before I could apply, which was very frustrating, I was successful in getting it āacceptedā. However, due to the above mentioned agreement being āshelvedā for the foreseeable future, my prospective āfreedom of spiritā, and the ability to do my own shopping still alludes me. By the way, I live alone in the country, nearest shopping 15kms away, so no partner to take over.
The definition of word expatriate is an intransitive verb and means:
To give up residence in oneās homeland.
I assume this applies you, as you now reside in France.
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Currently no one holding a UK licence can exchange it for a French licence due to the failure to have the reciprocal agreement in place before 01/01/2021.
The Facebook group āApplying for a French Driving Licenceā run by Kim Cranstoun is amazing and have launched a UK Government petition for UK/France reciprocal agreement on exchange of driving licences. Their Facebook page is here:
The petition link is:
It would be really great if this petition were to be added to the homepage if at all possible Cat or any of the team? Hope this helps.
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I saw that Coralie and I have gladly signed it.
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It is unfortunate and tedious but it is a knock-on effect of Brexit where such huge quantities of legislation have to change and obviously we get geed up about it, because this is just the bit that affects us (I say us because I passed my driving test in GB and have never changed it for a French one so I am involved too - if you think it is complicated for you, believe me it is worse for us). It isnāt nice to be a minor detail but Iām afraid that is what we are and what the whole driving licence hooha is.
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I agree Veronique, there are lots of loose ends which need to be resolved, but being able to drive is such a major thing for those who live rurally in France without any access to public transport infrastructure. So the more signatures added to the petition, the more gravitas can be placed on an early resolution for all.
I do understand, I live rurally, there is no public transport and I have to drive an hour or so to work and back every day, drive to the shops, dr, vet etc.
But there is realistically nothing that we can do at the moment bar explain the situation to the gendarmes if we are stopped, so thereās no point getting heartburn over it. It will be sorted at some stage.
edited to add that galling as it is I donāt think petitions etc will have the slightest effect.
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Totally, agree, but if we can at least put our names on the petition, we are making baby steps towards kick starting the grinding wheel of progress in the right direction
āThe Slog has been warning its readership for a little under five years now that Brexit would face treasonous sabotage, Fifth Columnists, spun dilution, US State opposition, false heroes, and then vicious EU chicanery. All this has come to pass. But the same Remainer-infected Whitehall blobs and federalist European fonctionnaires have not so much chosen as carelessly backed into a crisis of scorched-Earth retreat on one potentially explosive (perhaps fatal) issue: leaving 11,000 innocent retired Brits in France without legal access to their cars.ā
The āinnocent retired Britsā are dealing with the fall-out of actions undertaken by their own government following the will of the people.
I deduce from what you wrote that you support Brexit, well yippee youāve got your sovereignty and independence back, you no longer have any duties vis a vis Europe so obviously you donāt get the rights that go with those duties, whereās the problem? You won, get over it, no crying over spilt milk.
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Sorry to hear about your particular situation, Lesley, my reply was aimed squarly at the bloke whoād written the article and his attitude. As VĆ©ro has already said, sit tight, itāll all come out in the wash and theyāll sign the reciprocal agreement.
Expatriate: loosely applies to anyone not within their own country, yes, but has connotations which certainly donāt apply to me whereas immigrant fits 100% and is far more accurate given my personal/civic situation
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The United Kingdom is no longer my homeland, as I have emigrated. So I am now an immigrant.
I feel for you, it is an appalling situation and thank goodness Kim is putting her energy into it. I luckily managed to get mine exchanged and it only took 3 yearsā¦OHās was returned and he will shortly face a similar situation. So I hope Kimās optimism is well founded!
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My sympathies, I worry about this too,
Errmmm that is illegal, so could be even more of an expensive option. If you are non resident in the UK you cannot renew your licence.
If you do renew your UK license, it is necessary to sign a declaration that you are currently UK resident and to provide details of your actual current residential address. The DVLA do sometimes double check this by running a credit check. Which you may or may not pass. Despite a UK address I no longer have a credit rating in the UK. False declaration is I think Ā£1,000.
The worst case scenario is that following renewal of a UK driving license, the DVLA may notify HMRC that you are declaring UK residence for the current tax year. Therefore if you have declared UK non-residency to HMRC and are not currently paying UK tax, it is highly risky to renew your driving license because in the worst case scenario you may be deemed to have declared your liability for UK tax and/or face potential penalties for falsely declaring residential status.
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Like many John is now in an impossible situation so he has to make a decision and renewing his UK licence is the least worst option given that until the 31st of December it will be valid here.
Well itās a personal choice to make about risks. To me I would question whether it was worth it for 6 months as all UK licences will go pop at the end of the year? I am becoming resigned to driving OH around. He is already similar to the queen in that he never carries a bank card and I always do the paying, so this will just cement his royal attitude.
Rent a san permis for a few months? ā¬500/month approx. Or buy one and resell later?
To address two issues here.
The first is my licence has technically been accepted, on the ANTS site there are no outstanding requirements and the position is āconsulterā. I am assured that once the reciprocal agreement is signed I should receive an AdD and be able to drive until the licence arrives.
With regard to you renewing in the UK, you donāt say whether you are a permanent resident in France. If you are then you will still be required to apply for a french driving licence before the end of 2021. Whether they will have their act together by then to issue such licences is any bodies guess.
I also have a house in the UK but I have live here permanently for 12 years. So it is partially my fault for not applying years ago when we could get them at the Prefecture.