Driving is an integral part of American culture. Everyone does it every day for everything. Need milk and eggs from the store a block away? Drive there. Want to spend 40 hours in a car traveling across the country? Totally reasonable. Enjoying the scenery of the great outdoors? It looks better through the windshield.
While many Americans drive for fun and sport, most probably wouldn’t enjoy spending a few thousand Euros for hours of driving lessons. Nor would they want to have to retake the driving exam in a foreign language.
We certainly didn’t, but California doesn’t have a reciprocal agreement with France, meaning it’d be us and the 15 year olds yeeting TikToks (sorry) in line for our learner’s permits.
Instead, we made sure we had licenses from a reciprocal state before arriving. The list: Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia. Up to date list here. No English option, “États-Unis d’Amérique” for USA.
The Exchange Process
Exchanging a US driver’s license for a French one was a fairly straightforward process for us. There were three key steps we needed before submitting our application: photos, driving record, and translation.
The whole process is done online through ANTS and feels incredibly modern and efficient, a rare glimmer of hope for what could be for the rest of the bureaucracy.
Photos
This step was the easiest: we needed recent photos for our new licenses. France has a large amount of automated digital photo booths that take these pictures. It not only prints out a hard copy to keep, it also uploads a digital copy with a QR code. We were able to enter the code into our application, and the photo was instantly linked: life in the digital age.
Driving Record
This one is worded a bit vaguely. The application asks for “A certificate of entitlement to drive less than 6 months old issued by the foreign authorities that issued the driving license.” For the US, they’re looking for a driving record that shows your license hasn’t been revoked or suspended. We were able to download ours online from the Department of Transportation, but each state is potentially different.
Document Translation
Both the driver’s license and driving record must be officially translated into French. Our license and two-page record cost us €100 each to translate. Make sure to proofread the results, ours were filled with errors the first time.
Timeline
The Exchange Timeline
The license exchange must be done within one year of receiving the VLS-TS visa. There’s no way around this one, and we’ve met several expats who have been burned by not knowing this. You can put off doing this until after you’ve found an apartment and validated your visa, but that’s it. Finish it in the first eight months, before needing to start your Carte de Sejour application.
As for your foreign license, it’s only valid for the first year you live in France anyway, and that’s assuming you have a French translation of it. The translation you need for the exchange process will work for that, so best to do that ASAP if you plan to drive in France frequently.
The Wait
After uploading our documents and finalizing our electronic application, it took 4.5 months for our request to be approved. Once approved, we received instructions to mail our US licenses to Nantes and a temporary license to print out while we waited. We both received our French licenses back within two weeks, and were quite surprised to see they’re valid for 15 years.
Getting a reciprocal state license
If you don’t live in a reciprocal state, like we didn’t, then transferring states should be a big consideration before moving to France. We got lucky and had family in Florida, making this step fairly straightforward for us. If you don’t, then this should be a major milestone to accomplish before leaving the US.
A bigger consideration than the license is state taxes. You may be expected to continue to pay the state taxes from your last state of residence, even after leaving the US. Most definitely expect trouble if your previous state is California or New York. Of the states with reciprocal licenses with France, Texas and Florida are the best bets, having no income, dividend, or capital gains taxes. They also happen to be some of the easiest places to establish residency.
Conclusion
Swapping licenses was one of the easiest bureaucratic tasks we’ve had so far. Everything is online, and the process went smoothly.
If you haven’t made the move to France yet, plan to establish residency somewhere with a reciprocal license agreement, like Texas or Florida, before leaving the US. Not only will you avoid taking the French driving exam, but you could save on future state taxes too.
Questions? Comments? We’d love to hear from you in the comment section or feel free to write us directly.
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