Getting an ATA Carnet in France

The carnet process is the same across the EU - one customs territory, one stamp chain, explained in the EU carnet guide. This page covers the French implementation. ATA Carnets are issued by the chambers of commerce and industry (CCI), under the guarantee of CCI Paris Île-de-France, not by customs (la douane). And there's exactly one way to order: the national electronic platform GEFI (Gestion Électronique des Formalités Internationales) at formalites-export.com. Whichever regional CCI you deal with for pickup and advice, the order itself goes through GEFI. Two routes inside the portal:

• Self-service: you draft the carnet yourself on GEFI; the goods list is generated by GEFI-WebATA after the CCI checks it.
• "Formule tout compris": a CCI adviser drafts the carnet for you. Worth it for a first carnet, especially if your goods list is long.

Who can apply

Companies, artisans, associations, liberal professions and private individuals can all hold a French carnet. The first application asks for proof of who you are:

• Companies: an original company-register extract (extrait KBIS) less than 3 months old. A SIRET number is required in the usage agreement, along with the share capital and NAF code.
• Artisans: a trade-register extract (répertoire des métiers) less than 3 months old.
• Associations: the declaration receipt (récépissé de déclaration).
• Liberal professions: the professional card.
• Private individuals: ID plus proof of address less than 2 months old.
• Everyone: a copy of the ID of the holder (company director or association president). Anyone signing other than the legal representative needs a written authorisation (mandat d'habilitation).

The goods list (liste générale)

The goods list is the heart of the carnet, and France has firm rules for it:

• Every item gets a sequential order number. Identical items may share a line, as long as each still gets its own number.
• The commercial description is in French (some destination countries ask for a translation on top).
• Serial or manufacturing numbers must appear whenever the goods have one. For a robotics company that means the robot, controllers, laptops and sensors all get their serials listed.
• Value = the ex-VAT commercial value in euros, rounded to whole euros. Undervaluing exposes you to customs sanctions.
• Consumables, goods for sale, and goods for repair or transformation abroad don't belong on a carnet. The goods must come back unchanged.

What it costs

France uses a single national tariff (CCIs are public bodies; there's no member/non-member price split). The figures below are from the national tariff as of 1 January 2025, the latest published version we found. Confirm the current numbers on GEFI when you order.

Item	Amount
Base package (online service, base carnet, processing), 1 return trip	€75 incl. VAT
Each additional trip	€15 incl. VAT
International guarantee chain levy (CIG)	€30
CCI certification (visa) per return trip	€30
Guarantee premium (prime de cautionnement)	per value, see below - non-refundable
Express issue (under 24 h)	€40 incl. VAT
Pickup at the CCI	free
Registered post	€5.30

So the cheapest realistic carnet (one destination, one trip, goods up to €11,000) lands at about €205: 75 + 30 + 30 + the €70 minimum premium.

The guarantee premium

Like Germany, France takes no Swiss-style refundable deposit of 20–40% of the goods value. Instead you pay a flat, insurance-style premium that you never get back, even if the carnet goes unused. It covers the CCI's guarantee costs, scaled to the carnet value. The published national schedule (dated 1 January 2023, the latest we found; verify when ordering):

Carnet value (EUR)	Premium
up to 11,000	€70
11,001–20,000	€115
20,001–30,000	€155
30,001–50,000	€210
50,001–75,000	€300
75,001–100,000	€400
100,001–150,000	€500
150,001–200,000	€650
200,001–300,000	€850
300,001–400,000	€1,200
400,001–500,000	€1,500
above 500,000	flat 0.22%

• For an expensive robot this is usually much cheaper than locking up a Swiss-style deposit. A €200,000 robot costs €650 in premium instead of €40,000–80,000 of parked cash.
• The flip side: it's gone whether or not anything goes wrong, and the insurers can demand additional security (a bank guarantee, for instance) in some cases. No published threshold for when.
• The premium insures the CCI, not you. You still need to insure the goods themselves and the contingent customs exposure (110% of the applicable duties and taxes) yourself.

Processing time and delivery

Standard processing	48 hours (service opening hours)
Express	under 24 hours, €40 surcharge
Pickup at the CCI	free, usually by appointment (see below)
Registered post	€5.30 (CCI Paris also offers DHL courier)
Customs validation before first use	plan extra time - see the domiciliation rule below

Pickup points we verified:

• Paris (CCI Paris Île-de-France): 11 rue Léon Jouhaux, 75010 Paris, ground-floor reception, by appointment. The published pickup hours are ambiguous (the page renders both a continuous day and a split day), so call ahead: ATA service 01 55 65 44 44, GEFI helpdesk 01 55 65 31 70 / gefi@cci-paris-idf.fr, carnet team webata@cci-paris-idf.fr.
• Lyon (CCI Lyon Métropole): pickup on site by appointment on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Friday mornings (per the CCI's page as indexed; we couldn't read it directly, so confirm when booking).
• Marseille (CCI Aix-Marseille-Provence): at the CRF (Centre de Réglementation et de Formalités), 9 La Canebière, 13221 Marseille, by appointment only; 04 91 39 34 34; office hours Mon–Fri 08:30–12:30 / 13:30–17:00.

Many other CCIs issue and hand out carnets too (Yonne, Seine-et-Marne, Nord Isère, Normandie, Alsace and more). Since the order always goes through GEFI, just pick the CCI nearest you and ask about pickup.

The French quirks

The domiciliation rule (box H)

A freshly issued French carnet isn't ready to travel. Before first use, customs must see the carnet and the goods: you take both to the competent customs office nearest the goods' departure point, the inland office known as the bureau de domiciliation, for an identification visit. The officer checks the goods against the list and stamps box H on the green cover ("Attestation des autorités douanières"). The rule comes from customs bulletin BOD n°6652 of 16 December 2005, and it's France's version of the EU-wide "open inland, before travel" habit.

Finding your office: the official annuaire des services douaniers, or call Infos Douane Service on 0 800 94 40 40. Note that some goods categories have a mandated office: jewellery carnets in the Paris region, for example, must go through the Paris Principal bureau. Robots don't, but it shows the office choice isn't always free, so check.

Eight admissions, twelve months

• A French carnet allows a maximum of 8 temporary admissions. Trips can be simple returns, circular or star-shaped, and combined, but eight is the ceiling. (German and Swiss carnets, by contrast, have no trip limit.)
• Validity is 12 months, never extendable. Destination customs can shorten your stay; the binding date sits in box 2 of the relevant counterfoil.

Who may present the carnet (box B)

France is strict about this. Only a person named in box B ("Représenté par") may do the customs formalities with your carnet. Anyone else, including a carrier or freight forwarder, needs a customs power of attorney (pouvoir de représentation en douane) issued by the holder; GEFI provides a template during the order. And the vouchers are signed only at the border, in front of the officer, never in advance.

Return it to the CCI

Return the complete carnet to the issuing CCI, ideally right after the last trip and at the latest before the end of the month following its expiry date. Send it by registered post or hand it in against a receipt. The CCI checks the counterfoils and discharges the carnet. If something doesn't add up, the CCI tells you - see fix a problem.

Where customs handles your carnet

Charles de Gaulle (Roissy): the OPCO Aérogares office

Passenger-side carnet formalities at CDG are handled by the customs control office "Roissy OPCO Aérogares". Its main antenna is on Terminal 2E and covers all of Terminal 2; a Terminal 1 antenna covers T1 and T3 when it's open, and when it's closed the 2E antenna covers every terminal. Go there with carnet and goods before check-in.

Goods flying as cargo rather than checked luggage go through Roissy's freight side instead, with its own access procedures for the freight terminal. Your forwarder handles that; make sure they carry the carnet (or a power of attorney - see the box-B rule above). For business advice around CDG, the customs economic action unit (Pôle d'action économique Roissy) is reachable on 01 48 62 62 88 / 01 48 62 75 28, pae-roissy@douane.finances.gouv.fr.

Orly: call before you commit

Orly's customs bureau sits in the freight zone, not in the passenger terminals, and we found no published carnet desk hours anywhere official. Even the address below comes from directory aggregators rather than a page we could verify directly. Treat Orly as a phone-first airport for carnets: confirm where to go and when before booking around it, or fly from CDG.

The business-advice contact for Orly is the Pôle d'action économique Orly: 01 49 75 84 11, pae-orly@douane.finances.gouv.fr. The out-of-hours brigade fallback described for CDG comes from the same customs direction that covers Roissy-CDG, Orly and Le Bourget, but don't count on it: same one-off-necessity restriction.

Driving to the UK: Calais & Eurotunnel

The France-UK road corridor packs two customs events into a few kilometres: the French/EU exit stamp on this side of the Channel and the UK import on the other. The published guidance is thinner than we'd like; where we lean on secondary sources, we say so.

• Leaving via Calais port: per driver guidance from a UK chamber, you present the carnet at the French customs booth ("pit stop") at the port, where the export voucher is stamped. We haven't found this on an official French page, so confirm the exact stop with signage and port staff on the day; the obligation to get the EU exit stamp before boarding is not in doubt.
• Eurotunnel (LeShuttle) at Coquelles: Eurotunnel's official freight documentation lists the ATA Carnet among the customs documents to have ready alongside your GMR / ELO Border Pass. Freight-industry guidance says carnets go through the Coquelles freight terminal (GMR needed to enter). For passenger cars with carnet goods, no procedure is published at all - contact Eurotunnel before you book and follow the customs signage on the day.
• The UK side: this corridor's working answer for UK stamps is the Sevington inland border facility near Ashford. The full UK treatment, including what's changed at Dover, is in our Dover & Eurotunnel guide (UK side).

Checking hours and getting help

• The authoritative office lookup is the official annuaire des services douaniers.
• General questions: Infos Douane Service, 0 800 94 40 40 (free from France; +33 1 72 40 78 50 from abroad).
• Heading to Switzerland by road instead? The binding constraint is usually the Swiss side; see the Swiss road borders guide.

Quick answers in the EU Carnet FAQ; recovery playbooks in fix a problem.

Sources

Every factual claim on this page comes from the sources below, checked on the "last reviewed" date in the footer. Official resources are linked in whatever language they are published in.

• GEFI - Carnet ATA product page ↗ (French)
• CCI Paris Île-de-France - Carnet ATA fiche pratique (8 admissions, validity) ↗ (French)
• CCI Paris Île-de-France - délivrance des formalités internationales (pickup, contacts) ↗ (French)
• CCI - Le carnet de passage en douane ATA, mode d’emploi (documents, list rules, premium, domiciliation, representation, return) ↗ (French, PDF)
• National GEFI carnet tariff as of 01/01/2025 ↗ (French, PDF)
• National guarantee-premium schedule as of 01/01/2023 ↗ (French, PDF)
• CCI Aix-Marseille-Provence - exportations temporaires et carnet ATA ↗ (French)
• CCI Lyon Métropole - carnet ATA ↗ (French)
• douane.gouv.fr - Carnet ATA (admission temporaire) ↗ (French)
• douane.gouv.fr - annuaire des services douaniers ↗ (French)
• DGDDI operators’ note of 30 April 2024 - Roissy OPCO Aérogares (hours, antennas, out-of-hours rules) ↗ (French, PDF)
• Business West - important information for drivers with ATA Carnets (Calais pit stop, SIVEP, orange itinerary) ↗ (English, secondary source)
• LeShuttle Freight - border formalities (carnet listed among customs documents) ↗ (English/French)
• Freightlink - Eurotunnel freight crossings with an ATA Carnet ↗ (English, secondary source)