How to leave vehicle for <180 days, fly out, then reinsure
 

December 2024: Customs form required again - sometimes


Leaving via Marrakech airport you can get the passport exit stamp without informing anyone you've left your vehicle in the country. But it's random. Early Dec 2024 one of us passed through; we two at other counters got sent right back, having to negotiate our way the wrong way through various security controls. So much of the info in posts below 2020/2 about offices etc is valid again.

UPDATE: My own experience below was early Dec '24. But see this post post mid Dec: the process has been simplified. The loop into Arrivals Customs office in the map below may be redundant.

• Go to the right corner to a service entrance leading into the Arrivals area. There will be a bloke and small xray. Explain 'fiche douane vehicule' or similar.
• Once xrayed, turn right and right by the Arrivals hall exit big luggage xrays to the public area you will see 3 Douane offices. Go in, show your white TVIP card and they will print off an A4 authorisation form. No need to show vehicle ownership doc.
• Go back out into the main public arrivals hall via a small service door and now proceed through the various departure controls as normal: boarding pass and passport hand scan > hand luggage xray > 2 Douaniers doing nothing.
• Right after them, as you enter the passport stamp hall queue, first go to 'Office 2' on the right. More Douaniers log your details off white card and A4 form. Or they give you a form to complete.
• Now proceed to police passport stamp, handing over your A4 form.
• After police stamp booths and before you go up the stairs to Duty Free/Departure, there is another exit stamp check.

https://sahara-overland.com/wp-conte...12/menara.jpeg

You have 180 days to retrieve the vehicle and leave Morocco.
Do not lose your small white TVIP card for when you come back.
When you fly back maybe months later the cop at immigration may remind you you have a vehicle in Morocco.

By then your Moroccan insurance (if needed) will have run out.
See later posts on how to reinsure (in Marrakech) without having to go back to a port.

Is there a time limit on how long you can leave it there without penalty (or worse)?

vehicles can only be in Morocco 180 days per calendar year

Chris you've been able to leave vehicles anywhere without keys for some time now.

New procedure at Marrakech Airport, turn right enter g the terminal, ask for customs office, go through metal detector and find office marked customs. Takes about 5 minutes and they give you a bit of paper. Present bit of paper at passport control, fly home. Simples

(I'm offering a vehicle babysitting service, payment in beer, food or diesel please)

As per TheWarden above, we did this yesterday. Very simple. No need to leave your keys.

Is there a waypoint or an arrow on a map for this Douanes airport office to save staggering about in the heat with all my gear?

Ta.

I've tried to find a floor plan online but no luck. I'll try to describe it.
If you enter the main terminal head to the right, follow the departure signs.
Go past the AirMoroc check-in desks and pass a pharmacy.
Continue to the entrances to the departure area (where you put your bags through the x-ray machines). Don't enter. Look to your right, there's a glass door with a "Services" sign above it.
Go through the door, there's an x-ray machine for your bags and yourself. Go through and turn right for maybe 30 metres.
You are now in the baggage reclaim area.
It feels like you're doing a u-turn back to the main terminal. The customs offices are just there, to your right.
Very helpful and easy:-)
They just need your passport, the credit card-sized white import document (TVIP) and vehicle registration.
Exit doors lead back int the main terminal.
You hand over the piece of paper to the Police when they stamp you out on the way through Departures

Ah, got it. Inside the terminal building.
For some reason I took it to mean some outpost portacabin in the airport complex.

That will be easy then.

ta

(thread shortened to stick to useful facts)

Got a safe place to leave my moto but where are people leaving their cars?
Some others in the same fix may need suggestions.
Does one have to pay?

Le Relais de Marrakech camping,
31.707179, -7.989949

airport carpark are 2 options.

I'll be out until May and happy to check in on vehicles stored when I'm in the vicinity

Tony and Jan Johnson said a couple of days ago they were headed south for a while but they have been maintaining a base camp at Le Relais for the past several weeks whilst visiting other parts of the country.

Given the choice between zombie-free Morocco and the nightmare of Spain (which in any case they can't reach), they will likely be in Morocco for some weeks.

I spent a couple of nights in one of the bungalows at Le Relais, it's a lovely site. Just watch out for the peacock scat (polite word for shite).

PM'd you!

Reactivating a TVIP after Covid shutdown
 

Am I right in assuming on arrival at RAK, one goes to the same Customs office in the airport to reactivate the TVIP (even if it has been way more than 6 months)?

Not sure you need to Chris, they waived TVIP requirements for overstays until the end of the year.

But being Morocco and uncertain times, it wouldn't hurt to confirm with customs at the airport when you arrive

Morocco TVIP
 

Fyi, on flying in (to repair my bike) I didn’t bother visiting the Customs at the airport and it seems there was no need (to complicate matters unnecessarily).

On leaving from RAK a week later (I was flying back later for the bike) I was sent back from the Immigration Police (the last check before entering the departure lounge) back through scanning to the Customs, as the system recognised I had a vehicle in Mk and I needed a new authorisation form.

That was easily done in an office right behind the Customs inspection desk on the right as you enter the scanning area (and where Customs occasionally stop you and ask about money and stuff).
This was not the harder-to-find Customs office out in the Terminal I used last time and mentioned above (pre-Covid).

With my old 2020 TVIP white card he did me a new authorisation in a couple of minutes but said when I came back (and before the end of 2021) I would have to renew my TVIP white card at Customs in Gueliz (a west Marrakech suburb) where the bike happens to be), prior to riding north for the ferry.

I went back through scanning and immigration where the Police kept the new Customs authorisation (white A4) and stamped me out.

Bottom line: the Customs authorisation to leave a vehicle in Mk needs to be re-issued each time you fly out (makes sense) but only takes a couple of minutes.

But to get your vehicle out of the country before the end of 2021 (or if you have left it here for more than 6 months due to Covid shutdown) you need to renew your TVIP at Customs in town.
Now 2023, post Covid and back to normal, leaving it more than 6 months is probably not a good idea.

The Gueliz office is here, just off Place de la Liberté (Mohamed V)

Added November:
The place linked is correct but the Douanes entrance is down the side street and left again through the big blue gates.
Wait to go into office - explain situation - he takes your small, white TVIP, puts # in the system and prints off an A4 TVIP update with a QR and ending Dec 31 2021, as mentioned earlier with regard to overdue Covid vehicles.
All took about 60 seconds.