What country is the vehicle originally registered in? Just to get an idea on what to advise.

 

Country of registration - is Tajikistan

 

Main thing in the short-term would be to ensure any insurance policy you took out in Tajikistan for the car includes EU cover - in the UK, for example, most car insurance policies include EU cover for the car for a short-term period, up to around 90 days.

If your insurance doesn't include EU cover you'll either need to find one in Tajikistan that does, or see if you can take out short-term cover with an insurance company in France (which will likely be difficult as I don't know if such a thing even exists, and they may not offer on a car registered outside of the EU).

If you're planning to stay longer than 90 days at any one time then it becomes trickier to do. Legally, with valid insurance you can drive the car on existing plates and registration in France for up to a year from the date you 'moved' here (officially from the date you entered France), but if you intend to stay longer you'll need to import the car into France and get it registered with French plates - that comes with its own set of challenges.

 

Check this for your insurance...

Un étranger qui vient en France en voiture est-il couvert par son assurance ?

Votre assurance étrangère peut vous couvrir en France si votre véhicule est immatriculé en Europe ou dans un pays qui adhère au système de la « carte verte ».

www.service-public.fr

as it would appear that Tajikistan is not part of the Green Card scheme

However,the fact that you have a carte de sejour may well throw a spanner in the works as it could be said that you are actually living in France as your main home that you should have reregistered your car have French insurance and done all the other admin stuff such as submitting tax returns etc
With my policing hat on a car being driven on Tajiki plates may well draw the attention of even the slowest gendarme frankly and if they ask for your "papiers" and you produce a CDS questions may be asked.Even worse of course are the Douaniers who delight in hanging around toll booths and picking off foreign reg vehicles so you will need to play this carefully

 

Thanks for your reply! So, I am driving across the continent a lot and I believe if I have second place of residency, I don't need to change the reg plates everytime. Therefore, my concern, is there any rule or document in this regard? Appreciate your assistance!

 

You cannot be resident in two countries. You have a second home in France so as you are resident in Tajikistan you do not need to reregister your vehicle unless you are here for more than 6 months at a time. You only need prove your residency in Tajikistan and presumably you do not have an EU passport so your passport would be stamped anyway.

 

Now its much more clear....the bottom line, if I understood correctly the vehicle can stay in EU for a period of ONE YEAR, and then has to be driven out of Schengen zone. And for my passport stamps I have to prove my stay in EU for less than 6 months. Please correct me if I am missing something. Thanks

 

As has been said above [wascrabtree] if you have a CdS that confirms that you are a registered resident of France. As such it is illegal to own a car on plates other than French. As a resident of France it is illegal to drive that vehicle on non-FR plates anywhere else - EU, Tajikistan or UK for example. It must be imported and duties paid to Douanes., then registered to obtain the Carte Grise.

But your property is 'secondaire' and as I understand it you are a registered resident of some other country [eg Tajikistan] You are holding a CdS under a false premiss. It is known among the Anglophone immigrant community in FR that people obtained WA CdS's under false premisses. If and when that emerges you will be in serious trouble.

I have imported 3 vehicle, from UK. Douanes are not without cutting a little slack on importing a vehicle. I did it three weeks after arriving from UK because the first van I imported turned out to be beyond economic repair and I lost the €1120 import charges handing it back to the seller in UK for a refund. A couple of weeks to confirm the problem before importing it would have saved me the €1120.

But you can't import your vehicle because you are not a resident of FR. This fact would emerge when your CdS status was investigated.

Your position is perilous. You appear to have a CdS to which you are not entitled, not being a resident of FR. As a resident of Tajikistan you are subject to the 90 day rule unless you have a 1 year 'Long Stay Visa'. As a non-resident of FR you cannot register the vehicle to FR plates. It would be illegal for you to own it if somehow you did.

If you were stopped and asked to show the registration doc of the vehicle [not French] and your CdS, 2 +2 would not =4. Just seeing the non-FR plates and your CdS would do it

How do you come to have a CdS but not be registered as resident of FR? It is not possible for a person to be a registered resident of more than one country. Holding a CdS [albeit under a false premiss] why are you driving a car registered in Tajikistan? The usual fate of owners of vehicles that should have been imported and registered to FR plates is 1] Import duty and charges on the value of the vehicle + VAT 2] A swingeing fine 3] Possible impounding of the vehicle if there are other factors [false CdS].

The insurance position is also suspect. "see if you can take out short-term cover with an insurance company in France ". My broker arranged my policy to cover my vehicles while still on UK plates but with a time limit during which I had to import and register them to FR plates. The policy would lapse if I could not provide a Carte Grise within the time allowed. But the policies were valid only because I was a registered resident of FR. You are not - not legally, as far as I can tell.

If you were stopped you'd have to show 1] Passport 2] Car reg doc 3] Insurance doc. 4] 'MoT' cert [if such a thing exists in Tajikistan. Any vehicle must be legal in the country of its registration to be legal [inc insurance] on the road anywhere else. I know this to my cost when I was stopped in Spain in a UK van with no MoT. In the middle of nowhere in central Spain they had access to UK DVLA data]

It could get very messy.

There is a Brit with a business doing registrations for Anglophones wishing to import their vehicles to FR. He's done mine and other people I know. His service is 1st Class. I advise you to run your position past him and take his advice. Mark Rimmer .... dukwman@gmail.com

 

Thanks for explaining all these above!!! Probably I was not explaining very well this situation from the start. I have one year visa which I understood is equivalent to CDS which has to be extended after expiration of one year. Meanwhile, I am driving a vehicle with EU insurance, as crossing the boarder of EU frequently. From your above explanation, when the time comes to apply for extension of my long stay visa (to request CDS) and if I get it, then what will be the way forward? I don't have the rights enter France on a vehicle registered in my main resident country - Tajikistan? This looks confusing...
I hope I am not bothering your with so many issues!

 

Good morning. No problem. If I can help you avoid a very unpleasant and expensive encounter with Douanes/vehicle reg dept/police, I will try.

The visa aspect is indeed a useful detail. It does indicate that you do not have a CdS under false premisses.

However, the rules remain the same. It is important that you understand that this is the rule everywhere.

It is illegal to own/drive a car on plates of country X [any country] whilst being a registered resident of country Y [any country]. EU or not, that doesn't come into it. Hire vehicles are obviously exempt.

The vehicle must be road legal in the country of it's registration - that means 'MoT', [Controle Technique in FR] insurance and any government road tax/licence fees applicable in that country.

If and when you apply for a CdS you are applying to be registered a a resident of FR. That being so you have to take immediate steps to regularise the situation re your vehicle. You must declare it to Doaunes and 'import it'. This can be done online. I did it and was surprised how easy and rapid the process was. earch online to find the nearest Doaunes office to your home in FR.

The charges you will pay will be +/- 33% the value of the vehicle. The docs you must submit are the application form, a copy of the reg doc of the vehicle and a receipt/bill of sale showing how much you paid for it. If you don't have that, Douanes will calculate it from their data base. I didn't have to physically present the vehicle but if you try to swing a very low value they will probably want to inspect it.

You must then submit the vehicle to the Controle Technique test. You can't register or insure a vehicle without it. The FR are very generous with timing. If your vehicle fails the C.T. you have 6 weeks to get it fixed.

You must then apply for immatriculation [registration] which eventually produces the registration doc, commonly know as 'La Carte Grise' [because it's a document printed on grey paper]. You send a copy to your insurance co/broker and the full Monty policy will be issued. A good broker will set up a FR policy which will give you 90 days [in my case, anyway] to get the Carte Grise reg doc to them.

Usually, the time they take to issue the C.G. is many weeks - into months. They will immediately issue a 'receipt' that your application has been received. This will stand in for a C.G. if required by the police to show it. However, as Mark Rimmer [see my earlier] said, "Miracles can happen!" He submitted my application after hours on Day 1. He reckoned it was worth a try to do it with a 'Fail' C.T. cert. By 10:00 Day 2 they'd issued the C.G.! For my car it took 8-10 weeks.

You are now fully legal to drive in FR and elsewhere on FR plates as a resident registered in FR.

For registration procedures/application: Mark Rimmer dukwman@gmail.com. For a first class insurance broker - all the staff have excellent English - katherine@fabfrenchinsurance.com

 

Thank you very much! I definitely use your provided contacts, when time comes.