OCturbo

Larry Cable

The BIG issue is taxes AFIAK, it will probably be liable to both import and VAT taxes!:
https://franceintheus.org/spip.php?article782

note this section:
If you move house to France on a permanent basis (as distinct from a seasonal resident) and you had been living outside the European Union for the last 12 months prior to your arrival in (or return to) France, you may import your vehicle free of duty and VAT, provided you meet the following conditions:

it is not a commercial or industrial vehicle;

you have been the actual owner it for at least 6 months prior to exporting it to France;

you have paid all applicable internal taxes in Canada or the US when purchasing it (which normally excludes cars owned by diplomats, for instance, unless they prove that they have paid those taxes);

the vehicle is specified in the comprehensive list in duplicate, signed and dated, of all the goods you are moving to France, with the identification of its value, make, model and serial number, where applicable

Also for each EU country have different compliance rules (again AFIAK) it might require either an EU Certificate of Conformity (from PAG) or it will be liable to individual vehicle approval.

hope this helps?

OCturbo

richardbf

I have always wondered how this process works. I have been spending a lot of time in Ontario the last few years and the thought of permanently moving from the Detroit area to the GTA crosses my mind but I am not sure what becomes of my vehicles and firearms.

GiuseppeM

DaveGordon

Forestek

I just exported my 991 GT3RS from Dubai to France so I can help a little here.

Besides the TAX/VAT already mentioned above the cost of registration itself is pretty high due to our CO2 emission tax, I paid around 14K Euros for registration only!! But as it was part of a definitive move I didn't have to pay any import duty/VAT and as the car itself is cheaper in Dubai all in all I made a wash (adding the shipping cost of 6500 dollars including insurance, another trick to know is the transportation bit from port to home was as expensive as the ship part therefore I went to collect it myself at port after custom clearance).

To certify the car is not that complicated but can take time, these are the steps to follow:

1. Request to Porsche France a "certificat partielle de conformite", you need the VIN number and it's around 350 euros. This certificate will list all the parts not conform to French legislation, I suggest you do that first and you have an idea of what the toal cost will be to import the car. As an example in my case, it was only the side mirrors (writing in arabic), pollution (in Middle East the mapping is not same and some sensors are not acitvated), noise (they checked all parts of exhaust and there were good for France) and they need to order a sticker with the official weight (another 300 euros) etc...

2. Make an appointments to Porsche Center to do all the modifications on the basis of the paper received earlier, it took me 1 months to get a spot...

3. Make a request to the French regulations authority around your place, "DREAL", that you will be importing a car as a "isolated" import because it's not from Europe country, you have a form to fill and documents to provide, once this is done and you have changed all the parts you can request for a meeting date.

4. As soon as you have done the work on the car, you need to contact Porsche France again to provide you the final paper that certify your car has been converted to French rules, do it quick because this can take anything form 10 to 20 days... Without this paper they will not give you the final document requested for registration even if you show the car, the bill of the work done.

5. Once you have this paper, go to the apointment to show the car with all the required papers, pay 82 euros and they give you a paper to register the car.

6. Go to a Car center to make the registration card and this is where you pay the 14'000 euros

Here you are, a French car :-).

Couple of things, you can only drive 30 days with your export plate in France, you need to insure the car with this plate if you plan to drive it and in case it takes longer I suggest you ask for temporary registration plates as this will allow you to drive in France only for 90 days.

Let me know if you have more questions

Kenny

_fletch

Thanks so much for the posters in this thread. Im potentially moving to France (reluctantly) in the future and worried about the feasibility/bureaucracy of bringing my GT3T with me. This answers a lot of questions thanks!