Virtual licence plan for foreign drivers in France advances

Drivers with foreign licences caught speeding in France are set to lose ‘virtual licence points’ and will be banned from the road for a year if the points reach zero.

The plan came into legal force nine years ago but is only being widely advanced now.

The government said at the time that the aim was to end inequality between French and foreign-licence holders as points could not be removed from foreign licences. 

It is meant to apply both to visitors to France and to residents of France, in the latter case especially where they have not exchanged for a French licence as they legally should if found guilty of a driving offence involving points loss or restrictions on the right to drive.

The government says it is working on new systems to enforce the scheme, likely to be finished at some point in 2028, though no details have yet been given as to exactly how it will work.

In France licence holders generally start with 12 points and lose points for speeding or other road offences points. This is the opposite of the UK and some other countries where points are added.

To date the virtual scheme has centred on people living abroad who had exchanged a French licence for a foreign licence under mutual exchange agreements.

In these cases, often involving French citizens, France retains a dossier for the person in its national database, which is used to maintain the ‘virtual’ licence. Points can be lost during visits to France.

Senator for the French abroad Evelyne Renaud-Garabedian told The Connexion: “As a result, it is paradoxically the French abroad, already known to the French files, who are the most easily affected by this system while numerous foreign drivers just passing through escape from it.”

The interior ministry confirmed that drivers who had exchanged for a French licence are affected now and they can check their points balance online.

It said the scheme also already functions for drivers who have been subject to judicial or administrative driving restrictions as in such cases a French dossier number is also created.

Licence exchange

If a foreign-licence holder lives in France and holds an EU/EEA/Swiss licence, or a UK licence first issued before 2021, a driving offence may also oblige them to exchange their licence to a French one. Failure to do so is subject to a class four fine, usually €135. 

Other foreign licences usually have to be exchanged within a year of arrival.

Anyone moving permanently to France should also register their vehicle in France, making them easier to identify.

Article L223-10 of the French driving law code states that the scheme should concern “every holder of a driving licence issued by a foreign authority, driving on French territory”.

However, it also said a decree would be prepared that detailed how the scheme should work – which was never done.

The law says these drivers are all allocated a points balance, with points deducted for offences just as for French licences.

Points can be deducted once the fine is paid or, if it is neither paid nor contested, when an increased fine becomes enforceable.

The law says the driver should be notified of the points loss by letter, or electronically if they prefer. 

‘Virtual’ points may be recovered under the same conditions as normal points, including through taking points recovery courses.

The ministry told Ms Renaud-Garabedian that the groups who are affected already can use their existing French dossier numbers to consult their points at the official site.

In the case of those who exchanged a French licence this would be the ‘NEPH’ code found on the top-left of the back on modern licence cards. 

Not notified

So far, however, many questions remain, particularly over how offenders are meant to be identified and how they will be notified of points losses if France struggles to obtain their address.

The existence of a website on which points can be consulted would not, in itself, fulfil the legal information obligations.

The senator said that when she raised the issue, affected drivers had not been receiving notifications: “Our compatriots could therefore discover, during a police check, that they were subject to a one-year ban, without ever having been warned that their points were dropping – it’s a matter of legal security and equal treatment.”

She added that many French people abroad no longer know their NEPH number, which would have been on French licences they handed in to obtain their current foreign licence.

Asked about how the system is meant to work, Alexandra Thérizol, deputy head of communication for the ministry’s road safety office Sécurité Routière, said: “The practical implementation of the provisions of article L223-10 of the Code de la route relating to the virtual points-based licence, and their impact on our information system, require technical developments which are currently under way.”

The system has also been subject to recent court rulings and a case dealt with by France’s rights defender (Défenseur des droits).

In 2025, top administrative court the Conseil d’Etat confirmed that a France-resident EU/EEA licence holder who fails to make a compulsory exchange must nevertheless have points deducted from a virtual balance. 

In doing so, it also confirmed the system was in fact legally in force despite the fact the expected decree setting out how it should work never having been issued (which likely explains why its use is so far so limited). 

A Défenseur case in June 2026 concerning a woman living in France with a valid Spanish licence highlighted existing errors in the system.

The woman had committed driving offences but had not exchanged her licence for a French one. 

She later found that her record incorrectly showed aucun droit (no rights) and zero points even though under the virtual-points rules she should still have had a positive balance and she had never been notified of points losses or recoveries. 

Police had told her she had no right to drive and her prefecture wrongly said she should take a new French driving test.

The Défenseur flagged a “significant delay in the putting in place of the virtual points-based licence system”, constituting a “public service failure”.

Sécurité Routière told the Défenseur that properly implementing the system for drivers without a French licence requires “numerous IT changes” to be carried out “from 2026 to 2028”.

A decree is being prepared to clarify procedures, Sécurité Routière said.

Points decision

Officials also said work is under way between Sécurité Routière and automated fines agency ANTAI to create virtual-points dossiers and to allow decisions on points removal and recovery to be sent abroad.

Driving lawyer Jean-Baptiste Le Dall, from Nice, said: “The main effect so far is that the French abroad should no longer get points removed from their original French licence, as there is a ‘virtual’ licence that exists for them. But the reality of how it’s being put in place is unclear.”

He added: “In France we are very ambitious when it comes to road safety legislation. There is always an idea of making a show of taking certain positions on issues.

"They were saying, no we are not only going to slap punishments on French nationals, people are not getting away with it.

“Removing points from foreign drivers also doesn’t make money for France. Perhaps that’s another reason for the delay.

“There are also practical and technical difficulties. We use a lot of fining by video now, but it’s hard for them to obtain the identity of foreign drivers that way.”

Ms Renaud-Garabedian also said it is unclear how France will identify drivers from foreign number plates, especially when many offences are picked up by automatic cameras. 

“The ministry indicated in 2019 that about 21% of offences picked up by radar concerned vehicles with foreign plates, and up to half in the summer, while they only represent 5-6% of traffic,” she said.

She said foreign drivers could likely be identified via France’s mutual information exchange agreements, however, she could not see how it would be possible to identify those from countries with no such agreement. 

France has exchange agreements allowing it to obtain registered-owner details from many European countries, but not, since Brexit, the UK. A large number of fines are, as a result, sent to such neighbouring countries as Belgium and Spain. 

Some speeding fines do, however, still make their way to the UK when French hire firms name UK-based drivers as having been driving at the time a vehicle was flashed.

Where a driver with a foreign licence and/or foreign-plated vehicle is stopped by police or gendarmes in France, they can be required to pay a fine and, for more serious offences, may face measures including immobilisation of the vehicle. In this case, driver details could also be obtained for virtual points removal purposes.

A Cour de cassation ruling last year, involving a Swiss licence, confirmed that a French court cannot annul a foreign driving licence because France did not issue it, but can impose a suspension where French law allows.

The court said French authorities may also retain the physical licence but must return it no later than when the individual leaves French territory.

Where offences are picked up by automatic cameras, fines can be sent for speeding or going through red lights if the owner’s foreign address can be obtained.

 French law allows several other offences, such as holding a phone at the wheel or not wearing a seatbelt, to be detected automatically, but no cameras are yet approved to do so.