Carte grise system has many victims

Delays and difficulties with bureaucracy and recent changes are not confined to cartes grises. You should also be aware of the mess surrounding driving licence exchanges.

Since September 11 all requests for licence exchanges, including foreign licences, can only be made by post. The whole of France (except Paris) must now send their requests to the Nantes Préfecture.

My wife submitted her request on September 25 and has an Avis de Réception dated September 27. She has received no written confirmation or acknowledgement that it is being processed.

Communication is almost impossible. They do not appear to answer emails and the telephone number connects you and keeps you on hold for exactly 11 minutes and then cuts you off.

Contact was finally made by phone by our mairie only to be told it was in the system being processed but it could still be some time yet as the process is taking months!

This is not an isolated incident as my wife is in touch with a horde of “victims” on Facebook who are all encountering the same problems.

I believe this is a problem for French nationals as well, having seen a news report a few weeks ago on the difficulties encountered by driving schools obtaining licences for successful students.
Alan J Cummings, Deux Sevres

We have attempted to register two new English vehicles in this country bought in early November. It took many attempts to get into the website and the issuing of three separate passwords in order to do this.

After that, nothing. We eventually gave up online and contacted our local préfecture. We then received an email with promise of a response in five days, but had received no more news 14 days after that five-day deadline passed. Further mails have gone unanswered.

We speak French and so normally would attempt to sort something out at local level but this is not something which can be dealt with so easily. We know of at least a dozen families in the same predicament.
Nigel Freer Kidd, Hérault