How to register an American car in Spain? The Story of One Family and Toyota Sienna

It happens like this. A company relocates employees or simply opens an office in Spain and invites a specialist to move. A family plans to move along with their favorite car. The head of the family packs things, loads them into the car and goes to Spain, and the family flies on a plane a month or two after him.

During this time, a man must manage to do a lot: find a house, collect a lot of documents, register a car, etc.
If he is relocating for work, then the HR department will take on some of the concerns. If he does it himself and works at the same time. It is difficult.

Usually, a realtor selects and registers an apartment, special companies help with a residence permit and other migration documents, but many forget about the car.

According to Spanish law, it must be re-registered and cleared through customs within six months. Otherwise, there are fines and the inability to use the car. And if you wait longer, you can lose the opportunity to clear customs at all.
In addition to all the worries, a new one is added - legalization of the car. The process of clearing a car through customs is not easy, but if you have an “American” it is doubly difficult.

This story will have it all: the Spanish “mañana”, the imperfection of laws, the non-binding nature of lawyers, Russian ingenuity and another 100500 reasons why few can legalize an American car in Spain. So, let's go.

Vladimir (name changed at the client's request) arrived in a Toyota Sienna from Kaliningrad and did not clear it through customs. 8 months passed.

Once he was stopped by a road patrol, they checked the documents and issued the first warning. In short, either clear it through customs or leave. If there is a repeat check after such a paper, then there is every chance of ending up at customs on a tow truck accompanied by a police officer.

Vladimir turned to a car registration company for help and they started doing it. When it came to the documents, it turned out that Vladimir did not have a paper on consular registration - this is when you are deregistered in Russia and registered at your place of residence.

That is why the specialists refused Vladimir.

Then he turned to another place. This time they did not say anything about the document, they sent you for a technical inspection. During the technical inspection, they found violations - many elements of the car did not comply with Spanish law. Brake lights, turn signals, no rear fog lights and running lights, plus a couple of comments on the suspension.

Vladimir received a list of necessary corrections and contacted the mechanics. Here it is necessary to make a remark that the level of garage service in Spain is not like in America or Russia. You still need to look for the right hands.

He started to pass the technical inspection again, and there they say, - "Where is the VIN number on the frame?" And many American cars do not have a VIN from the factory. The guys from the company that helped Vladimir with customs clearance refused.

He was left alone again. But soon he was advised to contact Para2move.

The documents were submitted for standard customs clearance, since he had already missed the deadline for submitting documents for preferential customs clearance.

The car in Spain costs about 30 thousand euros + 7.5 customs clearance cost.

We knew that the car had a problem with the VIN number, we clarified all the details with servicemen, mechanics, lawyers. Everyone answered that no, nothing will work, if there is no VIN number, you will not be legalized.

We arrive with Vladimir for maintenance, and there are a lot of questions about the car: running lights, brakes, fog lights, turn signals. The entire inspection takes place on the verge of refusal and all this is in Spanish - answers, questions, solutions to difficult issues. No one speaks English.

They let the turn signals, brake lights, even the custom rear fog light through. But we stumble on the tinting. The Toyota is tinted “to zero” from the factory. To find out if it was from the factory or not, they started scratching the windows. When they didn't find the film, they skipped it.

They got to the VIN on the frame:

— Why not?

We show the instructions: the VIN is only on the glass and doors, but not on the frame.

— According to Spanish law, there must be a VIN. Apply it as you wish.

We begin the procedure for restoring the VIN...

We learn that there is a complicated procedure: you need to go to an official dealer, he must find the VIN number in the documents, confirm the existence of such a car, that it was legally purchased, etc. and issue a special document.

In the general databases, we found the necessary information and made a document. Here we were lucky.

Otherwise, the Toyota employee would have filed a complaint with the police and the administration. In this case, the car is completely checked against all databases, they make sure that it is not stolen.

After this, the technical inspection workers draw up documents and send a request to the administration. All that remains is to wait. The client leaves money and documents, and flies home.

As soon as we receive the document, we go to the official service, make a VIN number, undergo technical inspection, collect all the documents and go to customs.

Here is a short list of the stages of registering an American car in Spain. Surprisingly, the Spaniards themselves do not have such experience and say completely different things. I had to double-check everything, because the price of a mistake is very high.

Is it worth it? Yes, if it is your favorite car. Moreover, Para2move specialists will go through almost all the stages themselves.

Arrived - left the car and part of the money - picked up the already registered car right at the door of the house.