What changes with a car from France.
France is one of the simplest origins to document: the vehicle usually has a single registration document.
What to be clear about
- One document: the French certificat d'immatriculation. Ask for the original and check it matches the car and the seller.
- If you buy from a private seller, also ask for the signed certificat de cession.
- If the purchase is by contract (no company invoice), transfer tax (ITP) must be paid.
- New vehicle: a vehicle is treated as new if it has under 6,000 km or under 6 months since first registration. In that case VAT is due instead of ITP.
- If you buy from a company, its invoice must be verifiable in the EU VIES system: check the seller VAT number before paying.
Frequent mistakes
- Assuming the certificate alone is enough: the invoice or contract and the holder still need checking.
- Paying before checking that a company invoice verifies in VIES.
- Assuming the car has European type approval. Check box K of the registration document: it shows the type-approval number (like e1*2007/46*...). If it is empty or dashed, the car has no European type approval and cannot be registered as it is: an individual vehicle approval (homologación unitaria) is needed. We offer it: €1,500 plus VAT.
Real timing
With complete documents, green plates can be ready in 24 hours; once the vehicle has a valid ITV (roadworthiness test), the process takes another 24 hours. If something is missing or there is an incident, timing is confirmed case by case.