Is it possible to leave an EU bike in Russia?

[Daze55556]

I'm hoping to leave my Irish registered Transalp in Irkutsk in storage or to sell to another traveller.

Is this possible with the temporary import situation?

[colebatch]

Not legally.

Its a temporary import because its temporary. You get 3 months tax free entry. You can extend it a little (I think to 6 months). The idea is you are allowed to bring it into Russia tax free, only because you are promising to take it out again, relatively soon.

But if the bike is in country longer than the temporary time on the import docs, then its no longer a temporary import. Its just an import. And as an import, you need to pay import duty.

When you temporarily import a bike into Russia (or most countries for that matter) you have three choices

(1) take it out on time
(2) pay import duty
(3) do neither and risk problems with Russian customs and immigration

There may be a 4th option ... some countries like Australia and Morocco allow you to go to a customs approved wrecking yard and crush the vehicle, so it can not be used nor can spare parts be used from the bike (since the bike has not had duty paid on it, no part of it can be used in country). If you do that, make sure you get a customs certificate saying the bike was crushed.

[Daze55556]

Thanks for that, I was really hoping to ride from UB to Irkutsk to see lake Baikal, it might be easier to leave the bike in UB and get a train to Irkutsk.

Any idea what the import taxes are if I did sell it in Russia?

[colebatch]

Or ride it to Baikal and then back to the Mongolian border.

From memorys sake, there are a bunch of vehicles (usually Mongol Rally vehicles) abandoned in the no mans land between the Russian and Mongolian borders at Altanbulag.

Also the Oasis Guesthouse in UB has been known to store vehicles over the winter, so there is clearly some scope to do it in Mongolia. The Mongolians don't give you a temporary import permit for your vehicle.

The temp import permit is a QR code sticker customs at entry will stick on the back of your customs form. The form must be kept and hand handed in to customs when you exit, and must be shown to traffic cops on demand.

[crisidsto]

Originally Posted by colebatch

[...]
Also the Oasis Guesthouse in UB has been known to store vehicles over the winter, so there is clearly some scope to do it in Mongolia. The Mongolians don't give you a temporary import permit for your vehicle.
[...]

Walter, can you explain how this works in Mongolia, if you know?
They don't register your entrance with a bike when you enter at the border?

I read many times about people storing their bikes in Mongolia but I never read about papers etc...

[Regit_Regit]

Import taxes could be paid only by Russian nationals or legal residents. In total you can just add 42% to the average Schwake price of your bike to understand the sum of all payments.

[stickysidedown]

6 months is the official maximum in Russia as I understand it, I know this because the guy I rode to Mongolia with crashed and the bike ended up being taken to Moscow from Ishim where it was taken in by a garage.

My friend was told the limit was 12 months and thought no more of it until trying to leave Russia the following summer

However they did concede to let him go without a fine/bribe or penalty

[colebatch]

Originally Posted by crisidsto

Walter, can you explain how this works in Mongolia, if you know?.

I dont really know in detail, but in all the times I have been to Mongolia, i was never once given anything I had to show on exit. The Russian customs zone does.

The Mongolians seem to faff around with computers a bit when you enter the country, but I dont know exactly how thorough and comprehensive their system is. I will say its a lot less thorough and comprehensive than the Russians system tho.

None of the people I know who have kept their bikes in Mongolia over the winter seem to have had issues upon taking the bikes out 9 months later.

On the other hand, I also dont want to encourage Mongolia to start cracking down on imported bikes. If a bunch of people suddenly start riding bikes to Mongolia and not taking them out, then it does encourage them to clamp down on it.

So it seems to be a bit of a window for now, but the danger in telling people about it and encouraging people to use this window is that it draws attention to it and encourages the authorities to close it.

Use sparingly or in case of no other alternative ... would be my call. (as opposed to abusing the system)

[Zimi]

Actually, I am in the same situation, only that I want to leave the bike in Magadan...

But I also got an idea reading this thread. So if I pay the import duty of 42%, I am free to leave my bike as long as I want in Russia, right?

That means, if I find a guy in Magadan that would store my bike for 1 year or more, I could leave it there and then come back to pick it up when I want to continue exploring Siberia...

Seems that it's not a very bad idea... And I just happened to have a contact of a friend from Ekaterinburg in Magadan.

Now somebody knows how complicated it is to make this paperwork in Magadan and if it is possible? On what is the price of the value of the bike based?
I have a custom paper from the company I used to send the bike to Mongolia, with a value of 2'500 euro for the bike (KTM 640 Adv 2004), which is underrated. any chance to make them think the bike has less value?
Did somebody already tried?

The thing is, I know that I could make it when I cross the border of Mongolia to Russia, but then, we never know what can happen during the trip, I would rather do all this once I reach Magadan.

[maria41]

One of our 2 bikes just died again today in Staraya Russa ( western Russia).

If we cannot repair the bike, any idea what is the procedure in Russia to declare it as wreaked? And leave it there?

Or should we hire a truck and get to the nearest border ( Estonia)...?

We will try tomorrow to find a workshop but it is the third time and this time big explosions.... Cdi was wrong since we changed the engine in Osh... Maybe it can be fixed but sick of it!

Any suggestion welcome!

[crisidsto]

Originally Posted by maria41

One of our 2 bikes just died again today in Staraya Russa ( western Russia).

If we cannot repair the bike, any idea what is the procedure in Russia to declare it as wreaked? And leave it there?

Or should we hire a truck and get to the nearest border ( Estonia)...?

We will try tomorrow to find a workshop but it is the third time and this time big explosions.... Cdi was wrong since we changed the engine in Osh... Maybe it can be fixed but sick of it!

Any suggestion welcome!

I don't know the procedure in Russia, but I suppose is not an easy one.

Being only 300 kms from the border, I would go for the truck option

[colebatch]

you are pretty close to the border there. I would suggest by far the easiest thing to do will be to truck it to the border, push it thru the border and then leave it parked for scavengers near the Estonian Russian border

Originally Posted by maria41

One of our 2 bikes just died again today in Staraya Russa ( western Russia).

If we cannot repair the bike, any idea what is the procedure in Russia to declare it as wreaked? And leave it there?

Or should we hire a truck and get to the nearest border ( Estonia)...?

We will try tomorrow to find a workshop but it is the third time and this time big explosions.... Cdi was wrong since we changed the engine in Osh... Maybe it can be fixed but sick of it!

Any suggestion welcome!

[Daze55556]

I ended up selling the bike in UB to an Irishman, however I believe the laws in Mongolia have recently changed due to the mass dumpings of Mongol rally vehicles.

You now temporarily import the bike to Mongolia, this is recorded on computer and you have to produce a duplicate slip of paper with your details and the bike details upon exit. Additionally you receive two entry stamps one for you and one for the bike. I was told you need to leave a $2000 bond if you exit without the bike.

Myself and Tadhg got notary letters in Mongolian and Russian regarding the sale of the bike (dirt cheap in UB).

Having said all of that nothing was mentioned about the bike when I flew out of UB!

[tadhg123]

Ill complete the story in case anyone is in the same boat in future.

I bought the transalp from Daze. Mongolian customs put a bit of effort into stamping the temporary import slip out iincluding sending meto the "senior" customs officer when they could not find it on the system. Despite knowing that it entered through a different crossing they seemed genuinely surprised that they could not find it.

As regards notary letters the Mongolians didn't care but the Russians were a lot more interested (having gone through a number of central asian borders with a Kazakh bike I learned to minimise the amount of documents presented).

The notary in the Russian embassy was suggested to us but that turned out to be a dead end. Translated and notarised letters is fine.

[colebatch]

Thanks for the update on the Mongolian situation guys.

I feared that all the dumping there would soon lead to tighter controls there too. And so it has proved to be.