As Australians with no EU residency or passports, registering a car(or van in our case) is very difficult and seems near impossible. You can spend hours googling the internet and coming across articles with possible options, to then soon have your dreams crushed when you look into it more. We had gone through a list of so many countries and were ready to give up and rule out the possibility of registering a car, when Lockie came across the MT Plates option in Andorra. There is little information on it online but he was convinced it was doable and it was really our only shot at registering a car in Europe. We bought our 2014 Ford Transit in the Netherlands and got 14 day export plates so we could legally drive it to Andorra and start the registration process.
When we arrived in Andorra, we were so lucky to have had no major dramas finding the Automobil Club d’Andorra(ACA), which is the organisation where all your registration paperwork needs to be submitted. An added bonus for us was that one of the staff members spoke fluent English and helped guide us through the process. To help you all out, we thought we would write the step-by-step process to registering your car/van with MT Plates in Andorra. The process took us a lot longer than we expected and we weren’t prepared with the correct paperwork so this is a massive advantage and should save you a lot of time and headaches.
The vehicle you buy does have to meet a certain criteria to be able to register in Andorra, first of all it has to have a Euro 5 or Euro 6 emissions classification, you can check this link (https://www.theaa.com/driving-advice/fuels-environment/euro-emissions-standards) to see if your vehicle passes but it should be on your documents that you received with the car. Your car should be up to date with all the documentation, that means it has no additional accessories that aren’t documented on the vehicle paperwork. If there is its no big deal just remove it for the time being.
-The first thing that needs to be done, is you need a NIE number. You’ll need your passport, a email address, your address in your foreign country and a phone number. We took these documents to the government, and in 2-3 days we had our number.
-Once you have been approved and given your NIE number, you are now able to start the actual registration process. You will need to lodge these forms with the ACA;
- a copy of your current registration and insurance documents(in our case this was our Netherlands export plates).
- you need to have your vehicle inspected at the Inspecció Tècnica de Vehicles (ITV) which you will need an appointment for.
- you need your cars export papers(to get these papers you must lodge your car as an export at the country of purchase, to export it to a country outside the EU. Andorra is not in the EU).
- you must pay the Andorra import fee which is 4.5% tax on the vehicle purchase price to the Duana(customs).
- have insurance organised for your vehicle and a copy of the paperwork. The ACA can give you a third party insurance quote only, if you want full or comprehensive insurance you will need to organise that yourself. We used Assegurances Generals for our comprehensive. They conveniently have there office right in town not far from the ACA. They will give you a copy of your insurance papers and your car is now insured however, you need to go back to finalise and pay your insurance fees later on once you have your MT Plates.
-You can now lodge all the above forms to the ACA and pay there fees. Off memory it was under 100 euro.
-The ACA will now give you your yellow card and you must take it to the government to get approved. They will keep the card and will give you a time frame as to when it will be ready(2-7days approximately). They may ask for additional copies of any paperwork previously submitted to the ACA so have them handy. When you go back to the government, your yellow card will now have been stamped and approved. You will need to pay the Andorra government a fee of around 80 euro.
-You now take your yellow card back to the ACA and they will hand over your MT Plates.
-Once you have the plates in your hot little hands, take them back to your insurance company and pay your fees. Make sure you let them know the countries you intend to travel to as you may be required to carry additional paperwork with you and they will organise it for you.
-Now you can mount your MT Plates to the vehicle. We took ours to a local mechanic and he did it for us, we were told you could do it yourself but the plates have no pre-drilled holes and we didn’t have any tools on hand.
-Drive your vehicle back to the ITV(no appointment needed) and they will place your final sticker on the windscreen of the car.
CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE NOW SUCCESSFULLY REGISTERED A CAR IN ANDORRA THAT YOU CAN DRIVE ALL OVER EUROPE!!!!
We hope this information is as useful to you and your planning as it would have been for us, enjoy!
Lockie & Ash 
So can I ask you what they are charging you for your van for 3rd party and full comprehensive insurance coverage in Andorra? We were thinking about shipping our car from the U.S. but the only company I can find that will offer full coverage is in Germany and its almost $1200 for full and an additional $1000 for 3rd party for a year and that’s on a sedan. I feel like that is really expensive. Thank you for the really useful information! I think we might go this route.
LikeLike
Hi Amber, I think off memory this year our full comprehensive insurance was around $1200-$1800, I can’t remember exactly, sorry! We did have insurance with another company the previous year that was a lot cheaper but unfortunately, they have gone bankrupt so this was our only other option! The company is called Assegur that we are using, so might be worth checking it out! Just a heads up, Andorra is an interesting place and they work on their own time compared to the rest of Europe so things don’t always happen quickly. Good luck!
LikeLike
Hi Guys
A Zillon thanks 4 the information.
Admire ur courage n finding a way to register your Van.
I was going to do it in Bulgaria by setting up a company n etc…YOUR WAY IS THE BEST.
Keep travelling n living life…..hope our path cross in this small world.
God Bless
Singh
LikeLike
Not a problem, we hope it all works out for you!
LikeLike
Do you find that you get pulled over often by the police with that kind of MT plate from Andorra?
LikeLike
It doesn’t happen often but has happened from time to time. No issues when it happens, they are more curious than anything and always like to have a chat!
LikeLike
What papers are you requested to show when it does happen? Also, thanks for the post + YouTube video, it helped me in the same situation and am about to go through with a Vehicle registration in Andorra! 🙂
LikeLike
just your registration papers like usual. Glad we could help, good luck with it all 🙂
LikeLike
You never mentioned that the vehicle has to be less than 6 years old to be allowed Andorra registration.
How do you go about renewing the registration each year? 😀
LikeLike
Sorry about that.
You can either renew by going back to Andorra or via post.
LikeLike
I found a company that offers renewal for like 350 euros, is there a way to do it yourself remotely via post?
https://prime.ad/all-about-andorra/cars-import-registration/mt-plates-andorran-tourist-plates/
LikeLike
You really need to have someone reliable there to do it for you or otherwise yes paying a company to do it.
LikeLike
You stated “your address in your foreign country”. Do you have to provide an address in Andorra, as I would not have one other than an AirBnB, or can I provide my US address? Thanks.
LikeLike
Hi Richard, no address is needed in Andorra, it is actually registered to your home country address
LikeLike
Were you able to register the car with less than 1 month? I saw somewhere that the vehicle would need to be in the person’s name for at least 6 months. Is there such a thing? Thanks for the information!
LikeLike
Were you able to register the car with less than 1 month? I saw somewhere that the vehicle would need to be in the person’s name for at least 6 months to be able to register. Is there such a thing? Thanks for the information!
LikeLike
Never heard of this, we bought the van and then registered off export plates within one month
LikeLike
Looks like there’s an option, was in Turkey but cost to buy & build van ouch.. so went back to biking. But now looking at scooter traveling 😕 so that would help for registration as now that covid-19 comes to an end not doing residency anymore..
LikeLike
There is other options available but this was the best for us! Hope you get it all sorted
LikeLike
Hey thanks for all this information! Do you have to repay the import fees every year?
LikeLiked by 1 person
No problem! No you don’t
LikeLike
Hi Lockie and Ash!
Was looking for something like this for a long time so thank you 🙂 Do you know if this method of rego is still valid today, no changes to laws or anything that would make this not possible.
Also did you say it was about a month process in total from the point you bought the car? We’re trying to buy and register a car as fast as possible (to drive 1 month from now). Appreciate the advice, thanks!
LikeLike
So sorry for the late reply!
We are not too sure, but we have been told that now you cannot register a vehicle older than a euro 6 on MT plates.
Yes, for us the total took about one month, we did have no guidance so hopefully the process was quicker for you!
LikeLike
Thanks for the post, really helpful. One detail, can you suggest what is NIE number? Where to get it?
LikeLike
The NIE number is your identification number that you get from the government.
LikeLike
Nice article. I am about to also register a campervan, one that we are possibly buying in Andorra from Wecamper dealer. I hope the process is shorter. As the vehicle is new a d not a import. Crossing our fingers?
LikeLike
I hope its a smooth process for you guys! Good luck!
LikeLike
Thank you for sharing this info! What would you say the total cost was for the vehicle and full process? We are looking into doing this since we are planning on being in Europe for about a year on a tourist visa with our dog, 90 days in the schengen zone, 90 days in the UK and repeat. We are comparing shipping our car over vs buying a car there. Do you think staying in Andorra for 10 days to do this process is enough? Do you have a place you recommend to stay there? Thank you SO much!!
LikeLike
It depends on which vehicle you purchase and how equipped you want to make it. You can easily keep costs down but it will just mean it’s a more basic setup. I guess you have to look into shipping costs and see if it’s worthwhile. For us, shipping a van from Australia is very costly. The registration process can take time. I would recommend allowing at least 3-4 weeks. We moved around between campsites, the closer you stay to Andorra La Vella, generally, the more one will cost per night.
LikeLike
Hi! Wondering if you could say more about how you got your NIE? I’ve tried googling Andorra NIE and Spain comes up every time. Where exactly did you get your NIE in Andorra? If Spain and Andorra NIEs are the same then I could just get that in Spain ahead of time I’m thinking(?)
LikeLike
You get the NIE from the government in Andorra. As far as we know, this we have to be done in Andorra.
LikeLike
This is so incredibly helpful thank you!!
We’re trying to figure out if we should buy a vehicle in Spain and drive it to andorra or buy a car directly in andorra, do you have any opinions on that?
Also wondering how to pay for it, if we can take cash out of an atm, use our American Bank accounts or if we’ll need a EU bank account, what did you guys do please?
LikeLike
You are welcome!
We aren’t too sure on details for buying in either of those countries, sorry! We never looked into it as we purchased elsewhere.
We did a bank transfer but I guess it depends on who you purchase the car off, as to what they prefer.
LikeLike