Possible to fly out of a country temporarily and then back in, leaving bike behind?
 

Wondering if anyone knows if the following is possible:

Enter a country using a carnet, let's say Turkey.
Fly out of that country for a week to, let's say Morocco. Leaving the bike in Turkey
Fly back to Turkey and continue on the journey using bike and carnet?


I guess the question is, when using a carnet are any notes/stickers/stamps put in the my passport, or when I turn up to the airport to fly out will my passport look just like a normal traveller and I will have no problem leaving then coming back a week later?

Any advice/experience appreciated.
Cam Brookes

depends on the country. I am pretty sure that in turkey if you leave the bike behind you have to leave it in a customs warehouse or something like that. Please let us know what you find out re turkey!

Thanks motoreiter. So you're saying it can be done but you're not sure of the details?

Anyone else?

In Carnet-countries I have never had any bike-details in my passport so it would have been possible to leave the country.

When it comes to Turkey it's a bit odd because when I've entered from Europe they don't ask for the carnet but when I've entered from Syria they don't. If you tell them that you got one they will use it, but you don't need it.
I can't remember if you bike-details are noted in your passport if you don't use the carnet but bike-details has not been noted when I used the Carnet.

In -out, the bike stays
 

Most countries have all your details online nowdays. If there is some hitch in information in when you entered, then there should be no problem. I left my bike in Damascus to join a group touring Syria and Jordan, carnet stamped in, parking bill and group itiniary showed I was coming back. The missing motorbike was immediatly discovered, but the problem went away when S£ 500 changed hands. Moral - if the customs people incoming do the job properly it's going to cost you for messing up the system. If they suspect fraud you will probably go to jail until the matter is settled.
Putting the bike in some sort of customs warehouse might work, but will probably be surprisingly expensive.
Good luck, safe travels
Peter, in Oslo

In Australia you can NOT leave without your vehicle. Which is a pain visa-wise, as the 12-month visa you get online for free requires you to leave every 3 months. As said above, it depends on the individual country. It works in Indonesia.

Peter,

we had people, leaving their german registered Land cruiser on our place for 9 month.No one drove the vehicle during this time. When they came back, just recharched the battery, gave the car a wash and off they went. That' s about 5 to 6 years ago. They went back without any props. Probably not 100% by the book, but they came twice in a year, spend money here and left including the Toyota.
Car came by ship and went through port formalities, people by plane and airport procedure. Don't know if there is kind of a linkup?

In their case, it worked great.

Cheers Helgo

Yes, I looked into this about a year ago, and I am almost certain that you can do it in turkey, but have to leave it in a customs warehouse. You might want to contact some of the moto rental places in turkey, maybe they know the rules and can help out.

Thankyou very much everyone. Very helpful! I will post on this thread what I find out...

is new zealand as bad as oz for trying to leave the bike and fly out for a few weeks?

Seeing that the rules regarding temp import have recently changed it is likely that you can't get away with it any more. I met a French guy in Timor Leste with a truck who for this reason couldn't get the 12-month e-visitor permit, as it requires him to leave every 3 months. Check the Oz customs web site, I seem to remember reading there that leaving the country without vehicle is prohibited. As Oz seems all computerised now I suspect that there will be a linkup somewhere. Certainly, in Oz I would stick religiously to any rules customs specify.

No, NZ is still pretty relaxed. I'm not aware of any such rules.

I called Australia Customs yesterday.
They said yes, you can fly out for a couple of months, but you have to e-mail the office at the port you entered with carnet #, expiry date, when you are leaving and returning, particulars of where the vehicle is stored and security arrangements, etc.
The man said "we have relaxed the requirements recently".
Good news for me, I have a highly paid job and don't wish to to be away from it for more than 2-3 mos at a time.
Though I will have to for the SE Asia-Europe leg of my trip.

Charlie