Quest Greek Islands

Registering Your Car in Greece

To register a car in Greece a very important fact to remember is that you must have owned the vehicle and a valid license for at least 6 months. Without this, it is guaranteed that you will have major problems.
If you do plan to import your own car into Greece, you are allowed to keep the car without being registered in Greece, for a maximum of 6 months. This is provided that you have travelled from another country within the EU.

Those travelling from outside the EU may be advised to buy a car in Greece; therefore it will be already registered.
Cars in Greece are relatively inexpensive and with the benefit of being fully equipped for left hand drive,this makes it both much easier and safer to drive. For U.K cars this can be a huge hindrance when driving on the other side especially when overtaking.
To avoid the difficult process of having their cars re-registered with Greek license plates, many people travel back to their home countries to keep up with tax, MOT and insurance but this is expensive and time consuming.
Generally anybody with foreign licence plates gets stopped by traffic police more than those with Greek registration plates.
If however you have decided to make Greece or the Greek Islands your home, and prefer to bring your own car, it is worth making the extra effort and to get the car re-registered .Time spent ensuring all aspects of life in a foreign country are correct help save future problems that you may encounter!
To be able to apply for Greek license plates, you must be able to produce these documents at the vehicle registration office:
·    Original passport (not copy)
·    Vehicle registration disc
·    Certificate of ownership of the car
·    Original current driver’s license
Greek residency permit    
·    Certificate or proof of residency from your home country
·    Copy of mortgage or rent documents
·    Copies of tax returns or wage packets from the past 2-3 years
·    Signed declaration to prove that you have never asked for Greek residency before this time
·    25 Euro in cash
Depending on which country you are from and what your situation is in Greece, these requirements may vary. You must then produce these documents to the Greek consulate in your home country, which after this, you will be issued with a certificate allowing you to change your license plates to Greek ones, and this must be collected from Athens. The cost of getting your car registered in Greece, costs no more that 2, 000 Euro.
If this procedure is too inconvenient or difficult, you have the option to pay 100% import tax on your vehicle, to minimize any complications. After having your old license plates removed and replaced with Greek ones, the license plates will be kept by the Greek vehicle registration office and sent to the vehicle registration office in your own country.