Licence arrived today. Expires in 2035, around my 82nd birthday 
So that’s worked out fine, eventually.
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Congratulations on finally getting your license exchanged.
We were sure it was never going to happen for us. Pennsylvania licenses are exchangeable for French ones and we started the paper process in January 2019. In July of this year we got our dossiers back from the ANTS in Nantes along with a letter that basically said: We don’t do this with paper anymore, do it on line. Hearts sank, but we did scanned the relevant docs, got another certification from PA that we didn’t have any violations and that we still had the right to drive, scanned that, and waited.
Two weeks ago we got a notice to send in our original licenses (now expired, so our fingers were crossed). This week we got emails saying that our new French licenses were in ‘fabrication’ and would be with us in 15 days.
As long as La Poste doesn’t mess up, all will be good. And I’ll may renew my PA license on line when it expires next year.
We are really fortunate in that PA, unlike California and a couple of other US states has a reciprocal exchange with France. Wasn’t looking forward to the expense of taking a driving course here and being told that my driving skills were rubbish.
I followed exactly the same route as you Sam. Bit of a marathon.
I have to retract that statement. Unlike when one is vainly trying to get a compulsory appointment to renew a license, they issued the attestation in no time at all.
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We now have our Permis de Conduire!
So I can ditch all the caution I was using driving on my Pennsylvania license: I can text, smoke, wave my hands around, eat sandwiches, swear at other drivers, and park anywhere, just like the French.
And La Poste didn’t mess up(well, a little bit as we got texts after the Permis were delivered saying that they were on their way).
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Wellcome to the club Sam
Thank you, John.
Mine expires the same year.
When you finally got your Permis de Conduire did you tell your French auto insurance company? I’m asking because when MAIF wrote our policy in 2019 we still had Pennsylvania licenses and they noted that on the application.
Our insurance folk took a photocopy of both of our newly acquired French Permis de Conduire for their files… and congratulated us… 
So, I reckon your insurance folk should be brought up to date with your situation… 
I was changing from one EU license to another Sam so I won’t bother to update them. Normally an insurance policy just says you must have a valid license and not be disqualified from driving. If I was you though, I would let them know, you might even currently have a loading which would make the policy a bit cheaper for you.
I wouldn’t disagree with Stella, just I’m lazier. It certainly can’t do any harm to inform them.
My partner and I are submitting our application for French permits as we’ve now been living here for just over 6 month. However we have a couple of questions we’d like to clarify with those who’ve recently completed the ANTS application.
For the “Attestation des droits à conduire”, I presume we can use the PDF file from when you request the “licence check code” thingy from the DVLA for hiring a car?
What is meant, however, by the “Justificatif de résidence normale en France à la date de la demande”? We’re both permanently living here in France now, so I’m not entirely sure whether this is necessary and, if so, what proof is needed.
Many thanks in advance 
I’ve an expired US and UAE license and a current RSA one which I considered “cashing in” but in the end I went with my Irish one Gareth. I rang he Irish equivalent of the DVLA and they were surprisingly quick in sending out the required document, which I had to have translated. I’ve never had to produce anything, in any country other than my license to hire a car so I don’t know if the document you have is the same thing. Mine just said when I had got the license, what categories it was for, when it had been renewed and that I wasn’t banned from driving.
I used my tax statement to prove residency. They sat on my paper application for so long that when they finally rejected it and told me to go online the statement was over a year old and when I submitted it they wanted a later one 
. Which I supplied.
It’s all ticky box stuff. All boxes ticked = plain sailing.
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Have read your bit on changing your English licence for a French one. I too have tried to get a French licence. Went into the site and filled in the first page, got to the second page and then realised that inadvertently I had filled in my surname where the family name should have been (always get this mixed up!). So I went back to the first page and tried to change this, wouldn’t let me! Husband called me, so left this for the day. Went back to this the next day, wouldn’t let me in on my password, so tried forgot password. Received a password from ANTS, but it wouldn’t work with my log in. So I tried obliterating the log in and putting a different one in, wouldn’t let me do this. Have written to them three times, in French, but they don’t reply! Have tried ringing them, just don’t answer the phone, despite me having hung on for an hour on the last try. Am at an impasse. Any ideas…Jennie Banks (Changed my Carte Gris address when I moved, the amount of documentation that I had to send to them was vast, all for a little piece of sticky tape to stick on my old Carte Gris!)
Yes Jennifer, the website is a nightmare. But no worse than the mail in service was I suspect. They sat on my written application for months and months and them told me some of my documents were out of date.
Put in the EarPods, play this and hit the site again.
@Jennifer_Banks, so frustrating trying to rectify errors! I think I got around the problem of codes was to use a different email address 
After six months and additional information I have finally received (via my ANTS account) a pukka attestation valid for four months.
Bon courage
Almost there Lily…
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what is the current deadline for swapping licence?
this link provided by @anon90504988 in another thread is interesting but what if your licence isn’t about to expire?
thankyou
Then you don’t need to do anything.
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like I can drive on a UK licence forever? is that what the government are saying?
merci
Until you have to replace it but HMG won’t issue it to a non UK address IIRC
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You’ll only need to replace it if you get a traffic violation or want to change categories…
so drive carefully and you’ll be alright… 
(If anything changes in the future… there will be plenty of warning… have no fear.)
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