Monday 7^th May 2007

007- Licenced to... drive?

When you move to a new country, how long can you drive on your existing licence before you have to change it to one issued by the host country? Well, it all depends on where your licence was issued. 

Keep or change?

If you're an EU citizen with an EU driving licence you can continue to drive as a resident of other EU countries for as long as you want without changing your licence (unless you commit a traffic offence that involves points). This is legislation that comes down from the EU and supersedes any local legislation that might disagree with it.

If your licence is from a country outside the EU then you generally have one year to drive on your "foreign" licence before you need to get a local one. What happens then depends on whether your country of origin has an exchange arrangement with France. If it does, then you can simply exchange your licence for a new one. If not, you need to take the driving test from scratch. But don't take anything for granted: some US states, for example, have an exchange agreement while others do not! 

So as you might have realised, this can be a complex area. Make sure you have the facts at your fingertips - and that you are driving legally - by checking The AngloFILE category Cars, Bikes & Driving for INFOrmation Pages on: 

• Foreign Driving Licences in France
• and French Driving Licences

And if you find yourself unexpectedly without a licence it need not be all bad - France has several categories of vehicle - such as 50cc mopeds/scooters and small-capacity véhicules sans permis that you can ride or drive even if you don't have any kind of licence!

What else?

To keep up with all the new stuff on AngloINFO is easy - just click here! We've been adding new entries to the AngloFILE just about every day, and there are now over 1,600 listings there!

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"Life in Centre Val-de-Loire: in English!"