Getting your car in Germany

Germany has very good public infrastructure and commuting through the cities is often easy and simple, but when you need to get outside the city and go to other places, often having a car is a more convenient solution (faster commuting, you don't have long waiting times between trains etc.)

So as a new expat in Germany you have the right to bring your car from your homeland with you in the first six months after your arrival in Germany.

The rules are:

• The car must be yours in the past 12 months priror moving to Germany.
• You must request for car import within the first six months after your first entrance in Germany
• You must translate all documents to German (sometimes English are accepted, but to avoid any misunderstanding and not spending time, it is always better to have them translated to German). Required documents are Vehicle log/book, car insurance.
• You must not sell your car for the next 24 months after the import.

In between the process you will need to get a clarification form Zoll (customs) that you are free from import tax, you will then need to go to do a technical inspection of your car (TÜV).

Once you complete the process you will get the new German vehicle documents (part 1 and part 2) which later can be used for getting a german insurance and issuing a new license plates of the car.