I’m not sure what you are on about Dan.
I suggested to Deborah that she check out her paper bit… which I am hoping she will be able to find… 
2 Likes
I have only the paper licence, I have never had a photocard. It has been practically impossible so far for me to change my licence because it is obv mindblowing that a French person should have passed her driving test in the UK, you think you have to produce a lot of documentation well, it is as nothing compared to what they want from me.
Update: I have just checked, for people like me who got their licence before 1998 and have never had a photocard, the paper licence is still perfectly valid.
It is only if it is the paper counterpart of a plastic licence that it is no longer valid
1 Like
Phew…I’ve still my paper licence, & thought I’d have all kinds of trouble changing it
Well, whatever it is called 
my paper bit was necessary and the plastic card almost thrown in the bin by a very helpful lady… 
but this was a few years ago… and things on line are not so easy it would seem.
I could become paranoid coming on here. All you have done is to confirm exactly what I wrote. I chose my words with care. I wrote, ‘the paper counterpart that compliments a UK photo licence has no validity’. I did not mention paper licences. I believe that the DVLA actually told people to throw their paper counterparts away once they changed the rules. Stella answered someone who pointed out that they have a plastic card version and told them to check the paper bit. Their paper bit, if they didn’t throw it away, has no value.
we can all feel like that at some time or another… that’s the fun of the forum, we all have a different take on things and sometimes a different vocabulary… 
Stella, her ‘paper bit’ is nothing but a worthless bit of paper. Veto has just confirmed that. I’m sorry that you have to question every post I make but I am just pointing out a fact.
I really recommend that anyone who is worried has a look at the Facebook page that I posted a link to. The woman who manages it really knows her stuff.
Heavens Dan… please do fight against the paranoi…
I have merely related what happened to me in the hope that it might be useful for Deborah to check her own paperwork. Chances are she has something which might prove useful, tucked away… 
It will not be useful, that’s what you’re missing. You obviously changed your licence before 2015. The driving licence situation just like applying for a CdS has moved on, sharing stories about what used to happen before the changes are confusing and certainly not helpful.
The only trouble I had changing my paper licence was with someone on the front desk that told me that for it to be accepted it had to have a photo, I told her that British licences didn’t at the time have photos & we don’t have national identity cards either (shock & horror on her face) & ask her to inquire to someone higher up. I had my licence I think an hour after made at the Préfecture but that was in the 80’s. Looks like things were simple back then.
I do hope no-one has destroyed their paper licences … Hopefully, they are being carefully kept along with any other possibly useful bits and bobs… 
Exactly what the DVLA advice from 2015 (posted above) states. The paper counterparts that went with photo licences should be destroyed, paper licences must not be destroyed. They are two different things.
You may have forgotten but UK licences expire at 70. After that you have to apply for a renewal every three years, and if you don’t apply then you permission to drive lapses.
This is hard for non-residents as it is difficult/i possible to renew a UK licence with a french address.
However CERT do say that expiry of a licence is one of the areas where they will still process a request to change. So sounds like the OP needs to mount a campaign as other have described
It’s clear that things have changed (as they do )…
Thank heavens my French driving licence has no expiry date on it… I do laugh at those of my friends who still have their originals, issued in their youth, where the photos bear no resemblance to the elderly dodderers…
Which is why it was necessary (for me at least) to see what the rules are with respect to paper licences.
The ‘paper counterpart’ which complements the plastic card, for someone who hasn’t got one and has never seen one, might easily be confused with the original paper licence. I am the only French person I know with a UK licence so nobody to compare with.
It wasn’t particularly clear to me but then perhaps I am particularly stupid.
1 Like
mmm… think I’ve been a bit off-beam, with all this talk of paper documents… so confusing…
but I cannot agree that you are stupid…
Much confusion here, there are at least 3 forms of UK driving licence.
There is an paper one. This waswhat I as usyed with back in '81 when I passed my test.
Later, we all had to surrender these licences in exchange for a 2 part lucence. Paper and card. Both parts had to be presented to be regarded legally as a Iicence. Penalties and permitted classes were recorded on the paper portion and the plastic card had a photo. The card needed to be renewed every 10 years.
Then came the photocard only licence. We had to destroy the paper counterpart of the 2-part licence when the later vrrdion of the phitocard was issued. The current UK licence is just a photocard, no paper part.
Yes, the new on-line system is throwing up all sorts of hiccups/hold-ups… and not just for British-French Residents…
Bring back the human contact… 
perhaps that is what we should be campaigning for…
Surely, those that are non-resident in France are resident elsewhere ? If that is in the UK then they can renew at their UK address.