Moving to Greece with your car: the relocation exemption

Who qualifies for the relocation exemption?

Anyone, Greek or foreign, whose normal residence was outside Greece for at least the last 24 months. Your personal belongings, including the car, are exempt from customs duty, registration tax and VAT. From an EU country there is no duty anyway, and a used car (more than 6 months since first registration and more than 6,000 km) owes no VAT either, so there the real benefit is the registration tax.

“Normal residence” means at least 185 days in every twelve months, because that is where your life is: your work and your personal ties, or only your personal ties if you do not work. If you work in one country and your family lives in another, and you return there regularly, your normal residence is where your family lives (law 5222/2025, article 135). That is why, according to ΑΑΔΕ, the Greek tax and customs authority, a married person or civil partner without children who left alone for work, leaving the spouse or partner in Greece, does not qualify. Remote work for a country where you are not physically present every day is not enough on its own, and studies at a university or school abroad do not count.

The exemption is also given to someone already in Greece who declares that they will move their normal residence here within 24 months, or within 36 months of arrival if they are retiring. The car must have been used for at least 6 months before arrival (article 157, paragraph 2).

What changed in 2025: the new National Customs Code (law 5222/2025) repealed the old decision of 1988. The exemption is now given per person, not per family, and for the six months before relocation it is enough that you used the car (ΑΑΔΕ, Ε.2076/2025). The 24 months abroad apply to everyone, Greek or foreign.

What conditions apply to the car?

You must have used it yourself for at least 6 months before moving. For those six months what counts is use, not whose name the car was in, as long as you can prove it. When you submit the relocation application, however, the car must be 100% yours; if you had it on a lease, you must have bought it out before applying (ΑΑΔΕ, Ε.2027/2026). For customs you will also need the car's own papers.

• One car per person, not per family, as long as each person meets the conditions alone.
• Private use only, not for business activity.
• Cars of Euro 1, 2 or 3, and cars with no Euro standard and no proven CO₂ emissions, are not included in the relocation certificate, because they cannot be registered in Greece.
• If the car is registered outside the EU and EEA (for example in the USA or the United Kingdom), it must meet the European emission standard of the year in which it was registered new.

Where do you get the relocation certificate?

From the Greek consulate responsible for the area where you live. Its issue date counts as the date of your relocation, and from then the certificate is valid for 12 months. Each consulate has its own list, but it usually asks for:

• your passports or identity card,
• residence and work permit, and proof of work, tax and social insurance in that country,
• a rental contract or the title deed to your home, and electricity, water or phone bills,
• evidence that you used the car in the last 6 months.

For translations or certification of documents, ask the consulate before you book an appointment. Keep copies of everything, because the same documents are uploaded again at customs.

What does the relocation declaration say?

You declare in writing that you are moving your normal residence to Greece, with your passports or identity card, the address where you will live and whether a certificate has been issued in your name before. You also declare that you have never received a car under the relocation exemption and that you do not currently own a car with another registration tax exemption. With it you submit a list of the belongings you bring, where the car is listed with its chassis number (VIN).

How does customs clearance work?

Electronically. The customs document (the Special Declaration, ΔΕΦΚ, or an import declaration) is filed through the ICISnet system with the exemption code, and the certificate, the consulate documents and the car's papers are uploaded with it. The car must be cleared within one month of entering Greece, and always while the certificate is valid. The other belongings can be cleared together or in parts. What a clearance involves in practice is in our import guide.

Can I sell the car straight away?

No. For one year from acceptance of the customs document, the car cannot be sold, given away, rented, lent or pledged. As an exception this is possible only with customs approval and payment of the taxes you were spared, with surcharges; without approval it is a customs offence. From the second to the fifth year it can be sold with approval, after paying part of the registration tax: 50% in the second year, 40% in the third, 30% in the fourth and 20% in the fifth, based on the value on the day of clearance (article 157, paragraph 8). After five years, no approval is needed.

Can I get the exemption a second time?

Only for belongings you did not bring the first time. The exemption is given once to each person: if you live abroad again for at least 24 months and qualify for relocation again, it covers only those belongings, so if you brought a car the first time, you do not get a second one under relocation.

Coming from the Americas, Africa or Oceania?

If you move your residence from the Americas, Africa, Oceania, or from Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar or the United Arab Emirates, you have an alternative. Instead of your own car with the full exemption, you may get a partial registration tax exemption for one car you buy anywhere, new or used, without the 6-month use condition: 80% up to 2,000 cc and 50% above that. VAT is not covered, but on a used car from the EU (more than 6 months since first registration and more than 6,000 km) there is none anyway. The car must be cleared within the 12 months the certificate is valid, and a Euro 4 or Euro 5 car also owes the environmental fee, with the exemption applied proportionally.

So you do not have to ship your own car across the Atlantic. You can buy one in Europe, and that is where we come in: we find it, check it and bring it by road from Germany. Our customs calculator shows what the registration tax would be without the exemption.

How long can a foreign-registered car stay in Greece?

Six months, continuous or not, in every twelve-month period, if your normal residence is in another EU country and the car has regular plates from that country (Directive 83/182/EEC, article 3; decision Δ.247/13/1988, article 4(2), as amended by law 5000/2022). After that it must leave Greece or be immobilised in a private parking space, on application to customs before the six months end and with a guarantee for the taxes, for up to 24 months. Only you may drive it; without customs approval, only your spouse, children and parents, if they have the same right. It may not be sold, rented or lent.

Once you live in Greece (at least 185 days per twelve months under Greek law, article 135 of law 5222/2025), the right ends, except for a few categories set by ΑΑΔΕ, such as people working abroad at least six months a year. A car you bring for good is declared to customs on arrival and its registration tax is due by the 30th day, unless you qualify for relocation, in which case it may be driven on its foreign plates for one month to be cleared. A resident who keeps an EU-registered car without declaring it is fined €2,500 to €10,000 depending on engine size (€1,300 to €4,000 for fully electric cars) once that deadline has passed, and the tax remains due (article 154). The full rules are in our Greek article on foreign-registered cars in Greece.

Which mistakes cost you the exemption?

Buying the car at the last minute, leaving it waiting after it enters Greece, and giving it away in the first year.

• A last-minute car. Without 6 months of use before you move, the full exemption is lost.
• A car left waiting in the garage. From the day it enters Greece you have one month to clear it.
• A “gift” to your child in the first year. Giving it away also needs approval and payment of the taxes.

If you have three or more minor or dependent children and already live in Greece, see our Greek article on the large-family exemption. Bear in mind that in the relocation declaration you confirm that you do not own a passenger car with another registration tax exemption.

Sources

All sources are in Greek. Final approval of exemptions and the assessment of documents rest with the competent consular and customs authorities.

• Law 5222/2025, National Customs Code (Government Gazette Α΄ 134): articles 135 (normal residence) and 157 (relocation).
• ΑΑΔΕ circular Ε.2027/2026: relocation, ownership at the time of application.
• ΑΑΔΕ circular Ε.2076/2025: what changed with the new Customs Code.
• ΑΑΔΕ decision Α.1137/2025: procedure and documents.
• Decision Δ.247/13/1988 (Government Gazette Β΄ 195) and law 5000/2022, article 18: six months in every twelve, immobilisation for up to 24 months.
• ΑΑΔΕ, questions and answers on temporary importation (version 2.0, 23 April 2026): who may drive the car, special categories.
• The same guide in Greek: μετοικεσία αυτοκινήτου.

Frequently asked questions