Paperwork getting into EU

[Grant Lui]

Hi All,

Is a Carnet required when shipping a vehicle into one of the EU countries.

For road permits, as I know but not very sure, in UK and Ireland, one will need to apply a document called "International Circulation Permit - ICP" inorder to drive the vehicle legally on the road. Are there any such thing required in those EU counties ?

I saw some non offical information about bringing you own vehicle to Germany, they said you will need a German translation of the vehicle registration document.

An information to share with you guys.

Although I successfully entered into Japan and cleared my car at the Japanese customs without a Carnet, but since PRC is not a member of the 1949 treaty, my car's registation was not recognized by the Japanese authority, eventually I wasn't been able to drive my car there.

Now my car is shipped to Hong Kong, in HK you do not need a Carnet, custom clearence is quite straight forward, you can do it through local post office. There is no customs duty or any charge or deposit when importing a vehicle to HK (bike also of corse), not even a physical custom check on my car for my case. As I know unless you are going to register it as a HK registered vehicle. REMEMBER: Foreign registered vehicles are not allowed on the road until you obtain a road permits. For local road permits, it is pretty much straight forward me for instance I did the followings for getting my car into Hong Kong:

1. Obtain a 3rd party road insurance for your vehicle from local insurance company (contact me if u want me to recommend you one)
2. Ask the shipping company to give you a copy of the bill of lading
3. Go to the Hong Kong Transport Department (HKTD) obtain an application form for International Circulation Permit, Form no. is TD 54
4. Fill in the TD 54 form with the photocopies of the insurance docs. bill of lading docs. original copies of your original vehical registation document issued by your country.
5. They will issue an ICP to you according to the expire date of your visa, although according to HK law, an ICP can be issued for a maximum of 12 months. e.g. if the HK Immgration gives you only 90days (most cases) of visa, you will not be able to obtain an ICP for more than 90 days, however you can extend it by extending your visa, usual approach is going back and forth from HK to Macau or HK to China.
6. You will also be issued a temporary HK no. randomly, me for instance my temp. no. in HK is "FV 6083" it will be printed on the ICP. You will need to go to local car repair shop (usually repair tyres or selling car care product) and make a pair no. plate with the no. issued. The plate is not expensive, around HKD$150 (USD$19) , the one with yellow background should be placed at the rear while the white shall be palced at the front.
7. Stick the ICP on the left hand side of the windscreen of ur vehicle or your bike, THAT'S IT !!! YOU ARE LEGAL ON THE HONG KONG ROAD !!!


The following link is the law of road traffic regarding to foreign vehicles in Hong Kong

http://www.legislation.gov.hk/blis_i...0?OpenDocument

[Grant Lui]

A little bit more to share, in HK accept application of an ICP from a visitor no matter his/her vehicle registration is from or not a member of the 1949 treaty

[beddhist]

Hi,

As it says on the carnet page (link on the left) no carnet required anywhere in Europe (not just EU).

You should have an IDP, which is nothing but a translation of your drivers licence, and a registration paper readable by Europeans (i.e. not just in Chinese). You may have to get an official translation of it.

One thing you must have is third party insurance, aka Green Card. This is most easily obtained on the spot in Germany at any ADAC office on presentation of your car rego (readable, as above). If you ship to another EU country try contacting Knopf Tours before departure. They offer the same insurance as the ADAC, but yoiu don't have to be there yourself. Don't know for sure whether they do cars, though.

[Grant Lui]

Originally Posted by beddhist

Hi,

As it says on the carnet page (link on the left) no carnet required anywhere in Europe (not just EU).

You should have an IDP, which is nothing but a translation of your drivers licence, and a registration paper readable by Europeans (i.e. not just in Chinese). You may have to get an official translation of it.

One thing you must have is third party insurance, aka Green Card. This is most easily obtained on the spot in Germany at any ADAC office on presentation of your car rego (readable, as above). If you ship to another EU country try contacting Knopf Tours before departure. They offer the same insurance as the ADAC, but yoiu don't have to be there yourself. Don't know for sure whether they do cars, though.

Hi Beddhist,

Thanks for your information, for the custom part is it that straight forward ? even I dun need a carnet there in Japan, but the clearance was still a pain. I'm planning to have my car land on "Hamburg" this time, not sure if the German customs are easy to deal with