Im a American and im moving to France what do i have to do to get he french drivers license?

Question

what do i have to do to get the french drivers licence

Answer 1

It depends what state you are from. If you are from a state which has signed a reciprocity agreement, you can exchange your US license for a French one within one year of moving to France. This is done at the local Préfecture de Police.

If you come from another state, then you have no other choice than take the tests for the French license (which sucks because the French test is very difficult and expensive. You'll also need to understand French perfectly well). Your US license will be valid one year after establishing residence in France (Geneva Convention).

Here are the states which have signed a reciprocity agreement: Delaware, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia , South Carolina, New Hampshire, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Connecticut.

In any case, familiarize yourself with the French driving rules as soon as you arrive as they are quite different from US ones. They rely far more on non-written signs so you need to learn all the symbols/ideograms by heart (there are hundreds). You can go to a driving school (auto-école) and ask to take a few driving lessons. Buy the book of the Code de la Route.

EDIT: @ Katya, I think the 20-hour minimum of driving classes are for new drivers only. If you already have driving experience and a license from another country, you can bypass this process. I still think it is wise to take 6 to 10 driving lessons with a mix of city, highway and country road driving.

@ juan d, since Katya brought up the excellent point of automatic vs standard, note that if you decide to take your test on an automatic, your license will be valid only to drive an automatic car, you won't be allowed to drive a standard, which could restrict you in the future as automatics are indeed scarce as Katya said. So get familiar with a standard right away if you aren't already.

Kaya's experience with the French administration does not surprise me, they are notoriously a nightmare. Even if you can exchange your license I advise you to just spend a year getting ready to take the French exams. Contact the auto-ecole at least a few months before your US license expires as it might take a while to obtain an appointment for the driving test.

Answer 2

All correct. Below is the text from the American Embassy.

Just one small note: I've recently done the license exchange, and there a few things they don't tell you. (Big surprise!) When you do exchange the license, you must provide lots of other paperwork (they'll tell you this) and you must physically surrender your older license.

In the mean time, they give you a temporary French license, valid for 2 months. I just renewed this temporary license and found out I can renew it only one more time (so 2 months x 3 times=6 months). If you haven't received your French license after this 6 month period, well too bad! You can't renew the temporary one any more and you can't drive. Ridiculous, huh.

Anyways, so I asked on the status of mine and they are apparently "verifying" that I really got my license in the US.

So be careful-you risk to be without a license period. One way around this...hehe...if your American license is conveniently up for renewal soon, renew it and give the old one (must still be valid however) to the Frenchies.

If you have a license that can be exchanged, you may want to consider taking some classes at the auto ecole anyways. I did so to get more experience driving with a stick shift because automatics are SCARCE here.

Note: one hour at auto ecole =37 euros.

You must take I think 25 hours minimum before you are eligible to pass your license...37x25...ouch! I hope you are in an exchangeable state!

good luck!

Answer 3

Just to confirm all of the above.  

I'll add some other little tips;

1. IF you have an exchangable license, you must do it within a year. A friend took them to court because she moved and had a baby and just didn't manage it...and they said no deal. You don't exchange it, you get to take the whole test from scratch.

2. You must take your test on a dual control car so you have to go to an "auto-ecole" either way.

3. For the written test, you need to understand French but honestly, you don't have to be totally fluent. You need to memorize specific vocabulary but the wording of the test is pretty easy. No sophisticated grammar. In either case, they have CD's (which are more difficult usually) you can study so you'd know ahead of time if you can handle it.

4. You can take it in translation with a translator but you need to look into this. Often they are scheduled less often and apart from the normal exams.

5. Not only are automatic cars rare but so are driving school cars too so that would limit your lessons. Where I live there was only one car with one school.

6. You cannot "upgrade" an automatic-only license. You need to do the whole thing over again to get a standard one.

7. The police wont get too excited over your license. If you opt to drive illegally, you probably wont get caught. I know a ton of people who do this BUT if you're in an accident, your insurance wont pay. You will basically be paying for insurance that wont pay up if you're in an accident.

8. Unless it's changed, you don't have to put that pesky "A" on your car if you already have a license. That's only for new drivers. Not only is that Scarlet Letter annoying (they have to keep it two years) but there are speed limitations. Get the latest on that but I didn't have to do this when I got my French license.

9. If you take the driving test with glasses, they'll put corrective lenses on your license. You can contest it later and take an eye test but it's complicated (haven't done it yet, can you tell?)

9. Confirm this but if you work for some multinational company and could do other international assignments, the French license is the most honored in the world. You could then exchange it for wherever you move.