Good idea. One of them is my local garage who are very efficient
An extra bit of advice I would offer is, rather than go to a local garage which may simply act as a “professionnels habilités à l’immatriculation” as an extra service, to go to an agent in a larger town or area where there may be more foreigners about. They will have more experience with difficult problems involving non French nationals.
In fact go to local garage first then, if no joy, go to an agent as described above.
If they even bother.
Back in 2020 when I was swapping my licence because it was running out and I wanted a French one before I was 70, we also lobbed in a request for a swap for my wife. The expiry rules weren’t so clear back then and her licence doesn’t expire until 2031. They processed mine but we never heard any more about my wife’s, no rejection, no nothing 
My UK licence does not expire until 2026. I applied for a French licence in February. It has had an agent is looking at it etc for several months.
A couple of weeks ago they asked for additional information, the DVLA stuff to show that I didn’t have loads of penalty points and no accidents in the last few weeks etc
I live in hope that they will continue to process my application.
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Can you keep us posted?
It would be interesting to know if it is in fact possible to apply for a swap more than 6 months prior to expiry.
TBH I’m more worried about mislaying mine or having it accidentally go into the washing machine in a jacket pocket etc.
I love the subtlety 
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If like me, you have the pink paper permis you can get done by the law if you have bad creases in it. My son’s FIL got fined the other year for having too many creases in his, around €35 if I remember. Mine never gets taken out of it’s plastic covering, too precious.
Of course.
Not sure if this has been mentioned before but as I understand it , the pink paper licenses must be exchanged for a photo card license before 2033.
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Not heard of that before, long way off yet.
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Yes there have and they’ve been lucky.
Please don’t take this advice. It takes longer if you lose or have your licence stolen than if you do a straight exchange.
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If you apply 6 months before licence expiry and supply all the documents first time, 90% are getting at least the temp licence before the licence expires, not necessarily photocard expiry, which enables them to continue driving.
I have actually requested the time be pushed out to at least 8 months, just waiting to hear.
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Helenochka, I promised to update you if there was any progress on my application for a French driving licence. My UK licence does not expire until 2026. However I applied in February 2024 in the hope that they might exchange it. Anyway today I had a note from ANTS saying that my application has been completed and that I needed to send them my plastic UK licence. I have obviously been very lucky and have slipped under the net but it all looks very positive.
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Wow! Fantastic. Well done!
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I sent my UK driving licence off to CERT EPE at Nantes as requested by ANTS for them hopefully to send me a nice French one. For anyone else who has sent their UK licence to Nantes approximately how long did it take them to send a French one back.
Apart from the obvious categories on the licence for cars etc, I also have categories AM and A for driving motorcycles. Will they transfer all these categories onto the French licence. The reason why I ask is that I am over 70 and am concerned that they think I won’t need to have these motorcycle categories. However, they would be wrong as I have 6 classic motorcycles and drive them for fun. Has anyone in a similar situation had the motorcycle categories included, or removed.
What does your temporary attestation say?
It says
This certificate is issued in connection with a request to exchange a foreign driving licence for a
for a French driving licence.
Subject to further verification, the person concerned is entitled to the driving rights listed above.
This certificate is valid for a period of 4 months until 08/02/2025. You must send in
the original of your foreign driving licence during this period.
No duplicate of this document will be issued.
I naively assumed that as my ANTS file said completed, please send your old driving licence before 8/02/25 that by sending it immediately that might have speeded up the process of getting my actual French licence, or maybe not !!