The economic situation has caused many Spaniards to decide to emigrate to Germany. Despite the fact that the two nations are from the European Union, if you are also going to emigrate and you are going to take your Spanish car to the German country, you will have to re-register it so that it carries the German regulatory plates.
Steps to follow:
The registration plates must be changed if you are going to be in Germany for more than 6 months. There are two exceptions:
- Students.
- Cross-border workers.
Before going to change the plates, you must make a series of steps to bring all the necessary documents. First, you must get temporary car insurance in Germany and get proof that you have it.
Next, even if your car has the ITV passed in Spain, you must pass the equivalent test in Germany. You will present the Spanish ITV card and the circulation permit. The cost of this procedure is around 90 euros.
Then, you can now go to the German traffic office to change the Spanish license plate for the German one. In addition to the supporting documents of the two previous procedures and the Spanish documentation of the car, you must provide:
- Proof of registration in the German municipality in which you reside.
- German road tax form.
- ID card or passport.
- Spanish registration plates (it is convenient that you take a screwdriver to remove them).
Once this procedure has been completed, for which you will have to pay just over 40 euros, you will already have a German registration number for the car, but not yet your plates, but a receipt that allows you to go buy them. They will give you a document that proves that you already have the car registered in Germany.
With the receipt, you can now go to buy your German car registration plates. They cost 35 euros and you can buy them in specialized stores, which are usually next to traffic offices.
Then, go back to the German traffic office with your plates, to have them stamped. Then you can put them on the car.
They will already give you the German documentation for your car, one part is for you to carry in the vehicle and the other, which proves ownership of the vehicle, it is preferable that you keep it at home.
The rest of the procedures, in addition to making the German insurance definitively, must be carried out through the Spanish authorities:
- Deregister the car at the DGT.
- Cancel the Spanish insurance.
