Re-Registering a Car in Spain

Re-Registering a Car in Spain

This procedure means replacing your country's plates with Spanish ones and registering the car in Spain. In the end you will be issued a Spanish vehicle registration document, and the Ukrainian one will be taken for temporary storage. Within 6 months of changing the plates, you have the right to get your document back. To do so you need to submit a request. Preferential re-registration means that you cannot sell your car for 1 year.

How long can refugees drive on Ukrainian plates in Spain

In 2023 preferential customs clearance of cars in Spain is available to Ukrainians. From the moment you receive your NIE in Spain, the countdown begins for the time the car may stay on Ukrainian plates under "temporary protection" status. There is a preferential period of six months - 183+30 days - to re-register the car at preferential rates without customs clearance. Re-registering during this period can save you up to 45% of the car's value.

Preferential customs clearance of cars in Spain for Ukrainians

Below is the price of re-registering a car on preferential terms. The items FTR, ITV, DGT and plate printing are service fees, and the price does not depend on the car's specifications or value. IVTM is an annual tax and depends on the car's specifications and the region, but the price does not vary much. The DUA item  is where you save with preferential customs clearance. After the preferential period ends, re-registering a car will cost up to 50% of its value. In other words, old and inexpensive cars (2-4 thousand euros) are not worth clearing through customs - it is easier to sell them. Moreover, for old cars you will not be able to get environmental stickers that allow driving in big cities such as Barcelona and Madrid.

How much does it cost to register a car in Spain?

• DUA (customs declaration) 302€
• FTR (ficha técnica reducida - technical certificate) 60€
• ITV (technical inspection) 97€ + 22€
• IVTM (vehicle tax) 108€
• DGT (registration and assignment of plates) 100€
• Plate printing 30€

In total, doing the car re-registration in Spain yourself comes to about 719€.

• Plus insurance 200€ - 1500€

If you use the services of "helpers" for car re-registration, you will have to pay from 1700 euros. And you will still have to go to every office yourself! They will only tell you where and when to show up. In other words, you will overpay 2-3 times just for getting an appoint...

How long does car registration take?

DUA - 1 day
FTR - 1 day
ITV - a couple of days to several months. About a month on average.
IVTM - 1 day, but only if you pay online; otherwise you need to book an appointment (cita) in advance.
DGT - 1 day if you book an appointment (cita) in advance. Catching an appointment is hard.
In the end, our car registration took 1 month. But these timelines are strictly individual. It could have been faster if we had done the ITV in some village. We did it in Barcelona. There are a lot of nuances in passing the inspection, so it is better to approach this step thoroughly.

The sequence of re-registering car plates in Spain

What you need to start re-registering a car in Spain:

• be the owner of a car that you bought at least six months before this re-registration
• have not just a NIE, but an already received plastic TIE card. Keep this in mind, because getting the TIE takes about 1 month.
• have a residence registration in Spain. The document - a registration certificate / Empadronamiento or padrón is issued by the Ayuntamiento  (a city hall department), specifically at the Oficines d'atenció ciutadana (OAC) - the equivalent of our housing office. The paper is valid for 3 months from the date of issue.

No. 1 Obtaining the DUA (Documento Único Administrativo)  - customs declaration

From the moment you receive the DUA you have 60 days to complete the registration, so if you do not make it in time, the DUA will have to be obtained and paid for again. Also keep in mind that you are given 213 days from receiving your NIE for the re-registration, so it is better not to leave it to the last moment. Stories vary, and a lot depends on the human factor, but go by the stated deadlines and rules.

You need to find customs brokers online who will prepare the customs declaration for you. We recommend the ones we used ourselves. To do this, write via the feedback form or the e-mail given on the website gecotex.es. The internet says that some people reportedly do the DUA for free for Ukrainians in 2023.

You need to e-mail the customs brokers the following documents as photos or scans: the vehicle registration document, NIE+TIE, Empadronamiento, 4 photos of the car (front, back and both sides), and 4 documents printed and personally signed by you (the brokers will send you the forms). In response they will issue an invoice, which you need to pay and send them the payment receipt. To pay this invoice you will need a Spanish bank account, so think about it in advance. After payment they will e-mail you the DUA within a day. As you can see, this step is easy and fast to do online by yourself.

No. 2 Obtaining the FTR (ficha técnica reducida) - technical certificate

We recommend the service fichareducida.com for doing it yourself online. Below are the required fields to fill in, with the right option selected from the drop-down list. In response to the completed application form, they will send you a list of documents to send back by e-mail as photos or scans: the vehicle registration document, NIE+TIE, a photo of the body VIN (it can be under the hood, on the side of the door frame or under the floor mat), photos of the car (front, back and both sides), photos of the tires (so that the size and the load and speed indices are visible). If the front and rear tires are different, the photos are provided separately. You also need a photo of the tire size plate, which is located on the frame between the doors or on the door. In addition, write in the comments that the certificate should state the CO emission standard - for example, EURO 6. In response they send you an invoice, you pay it and send them the receipt. Within 1 day they will e-mail you PDF files. You need to print and sign them, and also copy them to a flash drive for the next stage of the car re-registration.

No. 3 Passing the ITV - technical inspection of the car in Spain

Passing the inspection in Spain during re-registration differs somewhat from the regular annual inspection. With Ukrainian plates you cannot book an appointment (cita) online; you have to go to the inspection station in person and book on the spot. Passing the inspection during re-registration is only possible after the first two steps are done. The detailed inspection process is described further below in this guide. You can have the inspection done anywhere convenient for you where there are free slots.

First visit to the ITV  - they may take all your documents and book you for a specific day for the inspection itself, or they may only set a day when they collect all the documents you gathered in the first two steps. Payment for the inspection is made in two stages - one when you hand in the documents, the other right before the inspection, 97€ + 22€. Everything is paid on site by card or cash. On the day of the inspection they take your vehicle registration document and give you an A4 sheet stating that the car is changing its registration document. They will tell you when to come back - roughly in 5-7 days. When you return at the given time, they will hand back your Ukrainian registration document and the forms confirming that you passed the inspection.

No. 4 IVTM  (Impuesto sobre Vehículos de Tracción Mecánica) - paying the annual vehicle tax

Payment works differently in each region. In Barcelona you can pay online at https://seuelectronica.ajuntament.barcelona.cat/APPS/portaltramits/formulari/ptbautoliqivtm/T61/ivtm/es/PTCIU.html?stepName=viewFormulariInicialStep. Click the button shown in the photo below and fill in all the fields using a translator. At the last step you need to enter your credit card details to pay the vehicle tax.

No. 5 Agencia Tributaria (getting Modelo 06 and paying the tax)

You need to book an appointment (cita) in advance on the website sede.agenciatributaria.gob.es:

• Choose Cita previa, then Solicitud de cita previa para particulares, tick La cita es para mí and fill in the fields
• then Otras gestiones,  then Más gestiones and then Impuestos y Tasas, choosing Matriculación de vehículos (I.E.D.M.T.). Then Siguiente and confirm the pop-up window. Choose the Agencia Tributaria in your city. Choose the date and time - Seleccionar. Finish booking the appointment with the Confirmar cita button. Enter your contact details and Confirmar again.

At the appointed time you must bring all the printed documents from steps No. 1-4 above (including the residence registration, the Ukrainian vehicle registration document and the NIE / TIE). You also need to bring the printed Modelo 06 form. The same website has a PDF file with this form; you need to fill it in and print it, or print it and fill it in by hand.

Printing Modelo 06:

In the search bar of the website sede.agenciatributaria.gob.es type “Modelo 06”, choose Modelo 06, in the Ayuda section choose Modelo 06 again, then the item Modelo 06. Borrador de la declaración and fill in all the fields using a translator.

Go to the Agencia Tributaria with all the documents. Hand over the documents and pay - the visit takes 15 minutes. Then go to the Dirección General de Tráfico.

No. 6 DGT (Dirección General de Tráfico) - registration and assignment of car plates

Fill in and print the TRÁMITES DE VEHÍCULOS sheet from the link https://sede.dgt.gob.es/sede-estaticos/Galerias/modelos-solicitud/01/Mod.01-ES.pdf. Book an appointment (cita) online at https://sede.dgt.gob.es/es/otros-tramites/cita-previa-jefaturas. Please note - the website is glitchy, errors often pop up, and a free appointment can appear at any time of day. In other words, you will have to catch the appointment) Via the link choose Solicitud de cita previa, choose your city in the Oficina donde desea solicitar la cita field, and for Tipo de trámite click Trámites de oficina. Then Matriculación de vehículos and finish with Continuar. Fill in your contact details and click Solicitar. Choose the date and time and finish with Continuar. On the appointed date arrive early. They will take all the documents described above, including the Ukrainian vehicle registration document, and you need to pay by card for the assignment of the plate right there. You cannot choose / buy a new car plate (as you can in Ukraine); the system issues it automatically at random. The documents will be returned to you at the end of the process. Only instead of the Ukrainian document you will be given a Spanish vehicle registration document in the form of a sheet of paper. The Ukrainian document is kept in the archives for 6 months and then destroyed. While it is stored, you can still request it back.

After receiving the plates, follow this link (used earlier in step No. 4) https://seuelectronica.ajuntament.barcelona.cat/oficinavirtual/ca/tramit/20070000444, but this time choose Autoliquidaciones tramitadas: comunicación de la matrícula from the three options and enter the Spanish plate number of the car.

No. 7 Making the Spanish plates

With your Spanish registration document and NIE/TIE, you need to find someone who prints plates. Search Google for "print matriculas / plaques de matricula". The plates will be made in front of you in 10 minutes. You will have to attach them to the car yourself.

How to pass the technical inspection in Spain?

The inspection procedure

You need to book an appointment (cita) online on the websites of the inspection stations closest to you, for example itv-tuvrheinland.es or aibs.appluscorp.com. With Spanish plates, once you book the appointment, you are immediately assigned a day for the inspection and you do not have to hand over any documents. Payment for the inspection is made on site on the day of the inspection. You need to arrive at the time given in the appointment, and your car will be checked in front of you in 40-60 minutes.

What can slow down the inspection?

• the age of the car, if it is not young
• the origin and equipment of the car - an "American" car, or one with modifications
• the need to get an emissions sticker when the documents are not all in order

Car insurance in Spain

In the Telegram chat "Auto chat in Spain" you can look for insurance brokers. We arranged ours online on the website https://www.axa.es/seguros-coche. We had to take photos and a video as requested in an SMS and send them via a link that arrives on your phone. Payment is also made online through the website.

The AXA website has an insurance calculator. Basic mandatory insurance (terceros) is third-party liability + towing, ~300 euros. Extended (terceros) is third-party liability + towing + theft + fire + windows, ~600 euros. Comprehensive (Todo Riesgo) is extended terceros + own damage (hitting a pole, scratching the car in a parking lot, etc.) - the equivalent of Ukrainian CASCO, from 1000 euros.

Help with car re-registration in Spain

The internet is full of offers of help with car re-registration in Spain. These services cost fabulous sums, although they are completely unjustified. The main lie is that if you re-register yourself, the whole procedure will take up to 6 months! In reality, clearing a car yourself takes 3-4 weeks. Moreover, no firm can re-register a car without your personal presence. All the firms can do is book appointments for you, while you will have to come and attend all the meetings in person. The second lie is that without knowing Spanish you will not be able to get through the whole re-registration procedure. In fact you only need to learn the key phrases for each stage. In the worst case there is always a voice translator in your phone, although in practice we did not have to use it at all. Most offices really do not speak English, but knowing the key phrases and having properly prepared papers settles everything in minutes. Spaniards are very friendly, but not particularly proactive. If you approach them, they will listen carefully and give you as much time as you personally need. You will always get an answer to your question from a Spaniard, but do not expect initiative from them, and certainly not life hacks)