Hi Kate, then as you are not actually a resident in France yet you will be able to exchange your licence but only when you are actually living in France.
You have 12 months from your official arrival in France to submit your application to exchange.
You’ll need evidence of arrival in France, ie, job contract or leaving the Netherlands, notice of no longer being in their fiscal system etc.
Scroll down to "Comment faire la demande d’échange … select French as this is your primary nationality, you have no choice on this, but will also note your US citizenship and upload a copy of your passport in the ID section along with your French ID.
However as you live in the Netherlands, you may be asked for evidence of living in the US for 6 months before you got your licence.
You will also need your DMV record, see the link for the full set of docs, and both licence and DMV record translated.
If they accept your exchange, you will get a restricted licence for 3 years and be required to have an A on the back of your car and reduced speeds on the motorway amongst other things.
This thread has been really helpful. I’m hoping someone can lend more insight on this issue:
My wife and I are planning to move to France from the U.S. within the next year. She’s American, I’m a dual U.S./Swiss citizen but have lived in the states for more than 30 years. I’ve never had a Swiss license, but we both have Florida ones.
I plan to travel to France as a Swiss citizen while my wife will be getting a visa. I believe she can/should apply to exchange her license soon after she validates her visa.
My question is, since I won’t require a visa and won’t have one to validate, how soon should I apply to exchange my FL license for a French one? Do I need to wait until after I register with the local prefecture? And are there other considerations we should be aware of in this scenario? Thank you!
Even if you don’t have to validate a visa I don’t think that would have anything to do with you not having to exchange an American license since you have no diving record in the EU.
I’m a US/IT dual from Florida. I waited 6 months in country before I exchanged, as that is the correct waiting period for an EU citizen with a non-EU license. You can start 6 months after arrival and have one year from that point to complete the swap. It should be the same for Swiss. Kim upthread is the experts in all these matters- I’m sure she’ll be along to comment eventually.
As you hold Swiss citizenship you have to live in France for 6 months before you can apply to exchange your licence, then you have 12 months to submit your application. The advice is always to start as soon as is possible as it can take months to be processed.
A Swiss licence is treated as non-EU but your Swiss passport is treated as EU so you follow the EU rules for a non-EU licence.
Your wife will have 12 months to submit an exchange from the date you arrived and validated her visa online with OFII.
If you hold a EU/Swiss passport and a non-EU licence you actually have 18 months as an EU/Swiss passport has to live in France for 185 days, normal residence, before they can apply to exchange and then they have 12 months to submit their application.
Non-EU licence and non-EU passport has 12 months from validation of the visa arrival in France date.
You specifically will need evidence of the date you arrived in France, this can be travel document or disengagement from the Swiss system.
You also have to provide evidence of being in the French system officially, healthcare, job contract, employment office, self employed for example, for 185 days.
The best thing you can do is apply to join the health system after 3 months of being here, as your attestation de droits (document of health cover) will take a few months so you are likely to have been here 185 days by the time this is issued.
Thanks for the additional information. Would applying for a residence permit ‘Citoyens UE/EEE/Suisse’ soon after arrival also satisfy the requirement of providing proof of being in the French system?
No not the application, only when you have the actual card in your hand would do this.
I personally think that a CdS is handy to have for this admin purpose and healthcare application, but it can take months to get a CdS for an EU/EEA/Suisse national.
Has anyone actually had success obtaining an appointment to take the practical test as a free candidate? I’ve been trying since February and for every department number I enter, get a message that says no appointments are available. I feel I have reached a new level of DL hell.
I moved to France from Texas in 2018 on a visitor visa. At my DL appointment at the prefecture, was told that I did not qualify for an exchange becasue I was in France on a “temporary” visa. My husband arrived as an auto-entrepreneur and speaks near-perfect French. We tried pressing my case, but without success. This was before ANTS of course.
Fast forward to 2025 and an immigration attorney helping with another issue, suggested that I try reapplying through ANTS. No surprise… I was informed that since I missed the one-year exchange deadline, I’d have to take the theoretical and practical. I passed the former and am at a roadblock with the latter (pun intended).
Any insight or advice welcomed. I just can’t afford a driving school and am so frustrated that thanks to faulty préfectoral advice, I blew my chance at an “easy” exchange.
Yeah and insurance premiums can apparently get very high for those and other sans permis cars as they are one of the solutions for who are those sans permis due to drink driving loss of permis
Try France Services to see if someone there can help? There may be a system operating behind getting these appointments that they might know about.
Though from remarks made to me a long time ago.I would suspect that driving schools “sit” on these appointments. Perhaps they release some last mimute if they haven’t found a pupil they can charge.
There has been reports on national news about the backlog of getting driving test appointments for quite a while now. Covid caused a huge backlog and a lot of driving schools went under causing people to go elsewhere and right on down the line to getting the final test. Also there seems to be a shortage of professionals inthis field too due to running costs of such a business.
Similar problems in the UK with lack of availability of examiners and test slots, exacerbated by bots snapping up shat appointments are available and brokers re-selling them at inflated prices.
France Services suggested finding a driving school who would schedule the exam on my behalf but so far, none in the area will agree unless I register as a student and take courses.
It’s mind boggling that France allows a DL exchange up to a year but at a year and one day, the same foreign driver suddenly can’t be trusted behind the wheel? Why not a fine instead? Like if you miss the renewal window for a CDS, etc. An additional 200€? Sure, why not. Help pay down the national debt…!
