I sent off my application to be exchanged for a French one back in November 2017.
Unfortunately, my UK licence expires next week and I have not yet received a new French one.
Anyone had the experience of driving in this situation?
Any advice?
I’ve spoken twice on the phone to the Maine-et-Loire prefecture in Nantes who now deal with this nationally.
Anyway, I can confirm that the department will not take any enquiries from the public.
However, you can ask the receptionist to check the system to confirm that your application has been received.
They told me this morning that there is currently a six month processing delay!
So - any advice on this one?
Has anyone driven in this situation before?
What you have is sufficient… keep it with you when you are driving the car. should you be stopped by the Gendarmes… or in whatever situation… offer the package.
by the way… in what way is your UK licence out of date… ?? UK licences are valuable as long as you are an EU citizen… or so I was led to believe…the lady at the Prefecture pooh-poohed the idea of a licence running out…
Posted my wife’s off in mid November, Tried every way I could think of to get a response from them, but nothing. Ended up renewing uk licence on line, it took 3 days to receive it in the uk. Fingers crossed we will get a french one sometime this year. When I exchanged my several years ago it too less then a month
Yes, the photo “expires” … as we all get older… but the paper licences did not carry a photo…
The lady in the Prefecture saw no valid reason for us to change the licence to a French one, (even though it bore the old UK address). She was very kind, but had a large queue and said if our original UK paper licence had not been revoked through a misdemeanour, as French Residents we were all OK to continue with it. …and goodbye…
12 years later… I did do the exchange, voluntarily, and now stuck with a ghastly photo on my French paper one… and waiting to re-do with a more flattering one, when the time comes.
@anna I think if you’ve still got the paper bit that ought to suffice if you were stopped by the gendarmes especially as you can also show you’ve applied to change.
A couple if years ago the UK system changed and the paper counterpart now has no validity. I think the advice from the DVLA was to throw it in the bin.
Oh really, that’s interesting, do they not issue the paper part any more? Silly question but where do they record your naughty points, is that all online now?
It’s all online now. The biggest hassle for British licence holders travelling abroad is that they now have to apply for a confidential code to give to car hire firms that ‘need’ to see their driving record. I’ve never been asked for anything when I’ve hired vans from my local SuperU.