Keeping an Australian bike in Europe
 

Hi everyone,

so I've sadly come to the end of my journey from Australia to Europe and I'm finally settling down in Germany to study for the next two years. And now there's the problem of what to do with the bike. I'd love to keep it here to do some short trips around the place, but I'm not really sure how I should deal with the importation problem. I'm currently in Europe with the bike on a temporary import, which is valid for 6 months from entry. The way I see it I have a few options:

-Importation: I go through German customs and fully import the bike. By all accounts an expensive option and with the state of my bike right now, it might never pass the roadworthy required to import the motorcycle. Though, I did read somewhere that, as a foreigner moving permanently to Germany, I could be exempt from any import duties on the bike.

-Legal temporary import: Another option would be to keep the bike in Europe up to the 6 month limit, and then drive the bike to a non-european country (maybe in the Balkans), leave it there for 6 months over winter, and then drive it back for 6 months over summer. I'm not sure if this would be frowned upon to be having a foreign vehicle as a resident, if I was stopped by the police, for example.

-Just keep it: I'm leaning to wards this example. Better to ask for forgiveness than permission. If I keep the bike insured with the (expensive) fronteirs insurance, then I somehow suspect that I won't have any problems driving the bike. I even read a story of a guy that kept his bike in england for years and even registered it stolen (!) with no problems. I wonder if they even have easy access to the entry date of the vehicle at a traffic stop etc. Maybe in the case of an accident it would be a problem?

-Has anyone here done any of the three options and could give some advice or warnings? Any idea of the cost/difficulty of importing a bike into Germany? Am I allowed to have a bike in Europe on a temporary import as a resident?

I look forward to any advice/suggestions.

Cheers,
Jason

here you can find some information.

you need to declare it as an "Umzugsgut" or "Übersiedlungsgut" directly at the border!

Here you can check if it is an "übersiedlungsgut"
Zoll online - Warenkreis

requirements of custom for an übersiedlungsgut:
Zoll online - Voraussetzungen

Here the link for the form 0305 https://www.formulare-bfinv.de/ffw/a...oke.do?id=0350

for technical inspection you need to contact the tüv: https://www.tuev-sued.de/auto_fahrze...ugen/umzugsgut

actually if you can declare it as an "ÜBERSIEDLUNGSGUT" it shouldn't be an expensive option. you need to check if you can apply for it.

I hope you learned a bit german yet ;)