Foreign-registered car in Spain: how long it can be driven

How long a foreign-registered car can be driven in Spain depends on where you live, not on a fixed number of days. If you live in Spain, the car has to be registered here: if you do not apply for definitive registration within 30 days of starting to use it in Spain, the registration tax falls due anyway. If your habitual residence is in another EU country and you are only here temporarily, you do not have to register it in Spain.

What matters is your residence, not the plates

Spain's Special Taxes Act (Ley de Impuestos Especiales) requires vehicles, new or used, that are intended to be used in Spanish territory by persons or entities resident in Spain, or by owners of establishments located here, to be definitively registered in Spain. What triggers the obligation is who uses the car and where they live, not the plate it carries.

To work out where your habitual residence is, the European Commission's Your Europe guide describes it as the place where you habitually live, work or have your family, for more than 185 days per calendar year. If you do not work, it is the place with which you have close personal ties.

If you live in Spain: the 30-day deadline

The law subjects to the registration tax the circulation or use in Spain of a car for which definitive registration has not been applied for here within the 30 days following the start of its use in Spain. In other words, once that period has passed the tax falls due even if the car still carries its foreign plates.

• When the count starts. As a general rule, from the date the car is brought into Spain. If that date is not reliably documented, the later of these two dates is used: the date the car was bought or the date from which you are considered resident in Spain.
• If it arrives with your move of residence. The period is extended to 60 days when the car is used in Spain because its owner is moving their habitual residence here and the exemption provided for that case in article 66 of the law applies.
• How to comply on time. The obligation to register is not enforceable if, within those periods, you have self-assessed and paid the tax or have asked the tax authority to recognise that the car is not subject to the tax or is exempt, where the law provides for it.

We explain how that tax is calculated in the registration tax on an imported car.

What happens if you do not regularise it

If the tax authority or the DGT (Spain's traffic authority) finds that a resident is using in Spain a car that should have been registered here, they give that person five days to comply or to provide a bank guarantee or a surety insurance certificate guaranteeing payment of the tax. If the car is neither registered nor guaranteed within that period, it is immobilised until its administrative and tax situation is regularised.

The Your Europe guide also reminds you that you can be fined if you have to register the vehicle and do not do so on time, if you do not pay the corresponding taxes, or if you drive a car registered in another EU country without proof of your habitual residence in another EU country or a valid technical inspection certificate.

While registration is processed: the temporary permit

If you have bought a car with non-Spanish plates, in Spain or abroad, Spain's General Vehicle Regulations (Reglamento General de Vehículos) allow you to apply for a temporary sixty-day permit to drive while the definitive registration is processed. These are the well-known green plates, which you apply for at the Traffic Office (Jefatura de Tráfico) of the province where you live.

• Fee. The DGT website gives fee 1.4, of €20.61, for the temporary permit, in addition to fee 1.1, of €99.77, for the definitive registration.
• File. It is submitted with the complete ordinary registration file, including proof of payment of the road tax (impuesto de circulación) and, if the car was already registered in another country, its full original documentation.
• Extensions. Successive sixty-day extensions may be granted if requested before the permit expires and if you show that the car has not been registered for reasons not attributable to you.

We detail the rest of the file in how to register an imported car with the DGT.

If you live in another EU country

If you are in Spain temporarily and do not change your habitual residence, according to Your Europe you do not have to register the car here or pay registration taxes: you can keep it registered in your country of residence.

• Carry the documents. Your Europe advises carrying the registration certificate, the certificate of ownership and proof of your habitual residence, because at a check you will have to show that you do not live here permanently.
• Do not lend it to a resident. You cannot lend or rent that car to a resident of the country you are in, because they could be fined.
• Students and cross-border workers. They have their own rules: a student who lives in another country only to study can, in general, drive their car registered in their home country, and anyone who lives in one country and works in another with their own car must register it where they live.

Insurance and technical inspection

Compulsory third-party liability insurance for a car registered in an EU country is valid in all the other EU countries. What is not harmonised is voluntary cover: Your Europe warns that your policy may limit it by time or distance, so check it before travelling.

When the car is going to be registered in Spain, you will have to show that it is insured and first pass the pre-registration inspection at the ITV (Spain's roadworthiness inspection). We explain what is required in the ITV inspection for an imported car.

Mistakes to avoid

• Believing that foreign plates give you a long grace period. If you reside in Spain, the relevant period is the 30 days from the start of use here.
• Being unable to prove when the car entered Spain. Without a reliable date, the period is counted from the purchase or from the moment you became resident.
• Confusing green plates with registration. The temporary permit is for driving while the definitive registration is processed; it does not replace it.
• Assuming your foreign policy covers everything. Compulsory insurance is valid across the EU; voluntary cover depends on your contract.

If you are planning the whole purchase, start with how to import a car from Germany step by step. For a specific case, consult the Spanish Tax Agency (AEAT) or the DGT.

Sources consulted

Checked on 11 October 2026. We link to the original source so that you can consult the current text.

• Ley 38/1992, de 28 de diciembre, de Impuestos Especiales (texto consolidado): artículo 65 y disposición adicional primera. BOE.
• ¿En qué plazo debo presentar la declaración? (primera matriculación de medios de transporte). Agencia Tributaria.
• Matriculación de vehículos en otro país de la UE. Comisión Europea (Tu Europa).
• Real Decreto 2822/1998, Reglamento General de Vehículos (texto consolidado), artículo 43. BOE.
• Matrícula temporal (placas verdes). DGT (sede electrónica).
• Validez del seguro del coche en la UE. Comisión Europea (Tu Europa).