I want to bring my car from an European Country this summer to Poland. I have seen a couple of cars here with foreign license plates and I am wondering if they are checked at all for the time they have been here. So my questions are:
- How long can you drive a car, registered and insured in another EU country, in Poland? - Does police care about you driving with a foreign license plate? Do they pull you over more? How do they check for how long you have had the car in Poland?
- If I want to register my car later on and switch to a Polish license plate how much will everything cost me? Also to be able to have the yearly inspection on the car and not have to go everytime back to my native country.
If you are in Poland and you bought the car on foreign plates, you have 30 days to register car in Poland. If you are from EU and you've got a car registered in EU I don't see any problem with driving in Poland ;) Just remember about your driving license, ID and registration document (of your car) together with liability insurance. Some people register new cars in Czech Rep. or Lithuania to pay less and they can drive without any problems.
About police hmmm, if you don't brake the traffic law, no one will care about you (unless you've got German plates, some Poles buys cars form Germany and they do not register them in Poland). You can meet many different foreign plates in Poland, e.g.: Swedish, Norwegian, Russian, Belarussian, Ukrainan, Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, Slovak, Czech, Spanish, British, German etc. Fines are the same for everyone, do not try to bribe police officer (you pay fines via bank transfer, if you are not sure how to do this, you can go to post office, they take about 10pln for that) unless you know someone.
If you want to register a car, check this: europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/vehicles/registration/formalities/poland/index_en.htm
I am a Belgian, married to a Polish wife, and currently living in Warsaw, Poland. Since two years, I have been surviving perfectly with public transportation only and Ubers, but as we bought a house in the suburbs (Wesola), we are buying a car. I have a PESEL and pay taxes in Poland.
My dad in Belgium is selling his own car (Volvo V60, 2009, Euro 5) for a symbolic price to get a new one. The car is insured for me, as his son, himself, my mom and my sister.
I am going to drive together with my sister and her bf with the car to Poland to make a road trip, first.
The idea is: when the car is already in Poland, my sister will take the plates off which she will take back by plane to Belgium.
The purchase agreement will be signed either in Belgium between my dad and me to take place from the date my sister will take the car plates back, or in Poland by proxy by my sister with a power of attorney (we are still figuring out what works best there).
Now my question: when the car is in PL already, with Belgian documents, what are the steps to follow to a. register the car, b. get it technically approved for road fitness and c. get my PL car plates?
Home / Law / How long can you drive a car registered in another EU country in Poland?