Dealing with red tape over the web

This has been government policy since at least 2005, when it set up the Direction Générale de la Modernisation de l’Etat, to oversee “dematerialisation” of red tape.

However it has been speeding up, notably with the creation of the website www.mon.service-public.fr, a one-stop shop on which you can save your personal details and carry out a continually expanding range of jobs. It does not yet replace all state admin sites, as is the eventual aim, however creating a personal account on this site (a free and simple procedure) is recommended.

While some procedures can now be done entirely online others still require you to print off a form and send it in.

Individual links to a range of popular services and a selection of sought-after downloadable forms can also be found here: www.service-public.fr/formulaires/ Forms printed off a government site have the same validity as hard copy ones. Here is a round-up of some of the things you can now do from home (and where to go for them):

* Renew a driving licence or carte grise (registration document) due to change of address etc: www.mon.service-public.fr

* Request a copy of an état civil certificate (birth, marriage, death): www.acte-etat-civil.fr

* Tell key bodies (la Poste, EDF, tax office etc) about an address change: www.mon.service-public.fr

* Join the electoral register (not yet in all communes): www.mon.service-public.fr

* University applications: www.admission-postbac.fr

* Pay your taxes: www.impots.gouv.fr (includes income tax and local property taxes). You can also request monthly payment of these taxes on the site. You need identification numbers off your last paper tax bill for this.

* Get a certificat de situation administrative (needed to give to the buyer when selling a car): www.interieur.gouv.fr – see à votre service and vos démarches

* Check driving licence points: www.telepoints.info. Note that you first need to request from the prefecture a relevé intégral de dossier de permis de conduire (which you can do in writing, including photocopies of your passport and driving licence and a SAE). This will include a dossier number and confidential code.

* Pay fines: www.amendes.gouv.fr

* Check your health reimbursements or declare or change your médecin traitant (family GP): www.ameli.fr

* Check family allowance payments: www.caf.fr

* Find childcare: www.mon-enfant.fr