import deadline eu?
 

Hello,

traveling with an Australian registered car back home to Germany. Does anyone know how much time I have once I reach the EU to do customs(import) and how long I will be able to drive it legally in Germany before I have to get a German registration?

Thx heaps

Sam

Sam

I think it depends on your residency. When I came to France the standard EU thing was 3 months after you take up residency or 12 months if you're not.

So a lot of it will depend on whether you're resident or not. However I also understand there's an EU directive that says any EU citizen may not drive a foreign registered vehicle in their country of residency, FULL STOP (well bar limited excpetions like replacement cars from insurers).

I've looked into this a bit as I'm leaving Aus soon and heading for the UK via Africa. The UK Customs website doesn't talk about residency but whether someone is 'established' outside the EU. I couldn't find any clear definition of what this actually means.

If they decide someone is established outside the EU and allow you to temporarily import (and not pay duty) the maximum time they will let the vehicle stay is 6 months. I could be wrong, but it looked like when the 6 months is up the vehicle would have to be exported outside of the EU and couldn't then be transferred to a permanent import.

I guess things may work differently in practice between the UK and Germany, as you'll be able to drive into Germany without anyone stopping you but coming off a ferry into the UK the paperwork will be difficult to avoid.

Hello,

thing is i am German. Import isnt my biggest concern as I already know its 29 percent of value which is on a 25 year old cruiser not too much.

But i am afraid of registration cause Germans are quite strict and i would need papers for all the accessories fitted to get German registration. I was hopping to have like a couple of weeks to be able to visit all my friends/relatives back home before settling down...

I've heard this before "However I also understand there's an EU directive that says any EU citizen may not drive a foreign registered vehicle in their country of residency, FULL STOP"
I mean I can drive around the world in this car so I should have some days in my home country???!!! Does anyone know? Anyone done this before?

Cheers Sam