Hello everyone. I have relatives here in Germany that live about 50km south of Frankfurt. I will be living with them for a year, just to learn German and possibly go to school here. I have a few questions:

Do i need to register the car or can i keep my USA plates? USDM s2k bumpers aren't big enough to fit the European plates..

Do i need to obtain a German drivers license?

Do you know of any good companies to transport my s2k from America to Germay?

How can I obtain a work visa or work permit or will I not need one for being here only 1 year?



Thank you for your time, and if you have any more suggestions please do let me know.

 

Currahee474,

I live in Germany via military (approx. 120 km west of frankfurt, "Kaiserslautern") and I just asked some locals about your situation. I am told that you will have to register your car in the german system. You might want to have your family look into what the requirements are for it to pass T

 

I believe if you stay in Germany for over 3 months, you are required to have a Visa. I don't know if things have changed since I stayed in Germany in 2003, so you may want to verify that. I stayed for about 2 1/2 months, so I wasn't required to get one, but I was told by my program advisor at the time that there was the 3 month rule.

 

Look here: http://www.germany.info/relaunch/index.html

Look under the information services tab.

Most of the site is in English but the portion about importing a car is in German. I am still learning German but a rough translation is that if you have owned the car for six months then you do not have to pay taxes on it except registation fees but if you have owned it under 6 months then you will have to pay a 19% tax and another 10% tax plus registration fees. You must also show proof of insurance. Your relatives here can most likely give you a better translation and tell you about the German vehicle inspection process. Their mechanic inspection is very intensive. Also if you have any Mods you will have to provide a TUV for them. ask your family about this.

This is not stated but by experience if you have a lien on the car, you will need a letter from your lender allowing you to ship it.

Where in Germany are you moving too? I live near Mannheim

 

shipping in a containeer from east coast usa to bremen is about 1000usd
but there is a chance that there will be storm at the ocean and your containeer can sunk be careful, your car can be damadged when loading/unloading too