France Identité: Carry Your Driving Licence Digitally

A feature that is still not widely known.

To be clear, it is now possible to drive in France without carrying the paper version of your driving licence. For several months, this essential document has also been available in digital form directly on your smartphone.

As Le Journal du Geek explains, the driving licence has been included in the France Identité app since last year. If you are stopped by the police, you can therefore show your phone as proof that you hold a licence. Both the old pink driving licence and the newer version can be added.

Adding your driving licence to France Identité

The process is very straightforward, although you must first have added your new-format identity card to the service. Our colleagues also outline the steps to follow:

• Download the France Identité app.
• Add your digital identity card first.
• Visit the Mes Points Permis website and download a certificate of driving entitlement.
• Use the France Identité app to scan the certificate’s QR code and add the document.

Using your digital driving licence during a check

If you are stopped, simply select “show your driving licence”, give your consent and display it to the officer. The officer will then use NFC technology to scan the document and confirm that it is authentic. However, for this to work, you will need a smartphone running at least Android 11 or iOS 16.

The pink driving licence will soon no longer be valid

As mentioned above, the pink driving licence remains valid for the time being. That will change, however, as the “bank card” format will become compulsory from 2033. From that date, the old document will no longer be accepted by the authorities, so you should apply for the replacement within the next six years. We hope this article will make your everyday administrative procedures easier.

Have you chosen this new digital version of the driving licence? If so, what do you think of it? Let us know in the comments.