Canadian Plates, how to renew registration while the vehicle is outside of Canada?
 

hello,

my motorcycle is plated in Alberta, but as it is currently outside of canada, my insurance company will not sell me any kind of insurance, so i cant renew my registration...

any suggestions as what i can do?

the plates will expire in aug. 2014, and then im not sure whats going to happen when i cross borders, fingers crossed, nothing at all.


thank you

I doubt you will have a problem unless you volunteer the information, I have crossed several borders without road tax, what we call our registration fee in the UK without a problem, I did give the Australians a bit of BS but even got it into the country there without any.
Out of interest why was your insurance refused?

You're lucky, we have a similar deal in DC but our registration gets cancelled as soon as the insurance is terminated or we get a huge fine. My company (nationwide) allows us to maintain bare bones insurance though they won't cover anything abroad. Maybe try another insurance company? I was able to arrange it totally over email. They really don't need to know where your bike is, only that it isn't being used for commuting-recreational only:)

If your registration does expire that should be ok though. In our experience border officials wanted to see some official paper with the plate number, sometimes the VIN, make & model. They didn't care if it was the title or registration, it's all "bike paper"

Good luck

Have to prove insurance in Alberta to get registration. It is easy to renew insurance with who ever you used in Alberta previously, just send the money, then you need someone there to physically go to the registry with your renewal and proof of insurance and reregister.
Then you could just 1 or2 weeks later cancell your insurance. Of course you ned insurance for where ever you wil be travelling. Best to have someone in Alberta help you,I am in France now travelling with Bulgarian insurance.

the bike is registered in Alberta (calgary), but the insurance company demands to see the bike in order to insure it..

the complication also includes, a few years ago, while traveling around (the world), my alberta drivers license was about to expire and there was no way i could make it back to renew it, so i traded it up for a hong kong drivers license, in alberta i had a class 1 & 6, they gave me class 3 & 6. so last year i tried to change it back to an alberta license, to my surprise.... they only offered me class 5... argh.

that insurance company was the only one that i could find that would insure my bike as i dont have an alberta drivers license, they charged a small fortune...

last monday, i dropped by the office, in the attempt of renewing it, i tried the "honesty is the best policy" route, but learned my lesson on that one.. PL PD costs cdn$651, i was trying to avoid paying the full premium,

so now, they wont renew my insurance as the bike isnt in the country (doesnt make much sense to me, seems like an easy way to make some cash) but either way, my plates are good until august.....

as for now, im flying back to the EU today to pick up my bike for round 2 of central asia and russia, guess i will find out what will happen...

If you don't plan taking the bike back to Canada for sometime either keep the current plate on it if there is no expiry date or legal requirement to hand it back or get a UK plate on ebay with the same number on it and use that.
I cannot imagine that any foreign police or customs will know the difference and as long as you don't tell anyone they won't know the registration has expired.

alberta license plate as seen here (found off the internet):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/woodys...78/8716718860/

also on the paper part of registration, mentions expiry date..

i not bothered telling a few "porky pies" just wondering if this is some huge cardinal rule that i am breaking, before i do it...

cheers
ed

Edd:

It is arguable that you don't even need to renew the sticker on your Alberta plate if your bike is outside of North America. This topic has been discussed at some length previously here in the HUBB. The result of that prior discussion was a general agreement that the requirement to keep a Canadian plate valid if the bike is on another continent is kind of a 'grey area'.

The executive summary of the prior discussion goes like this:

You need three things to legally operate a vehicle anywhere: Proof of ownership and registration of the vehicle, proof of adequate liability insurance, and a driver licence.

Your existing Alberta registration document (the slip of paper that accompanies your licence plate) proves that you own the bike, and also proves that the vehicle is registered with the Alberta government. These two facts are not invalidated if the plate permit sticker (the annual renewal sticker) is out of date. Proof of this is that if you were to store the bike in your garage in Alberta and not use it (or renew the sticker) for 5 or 10 years, that document would still prove that you own the vehicle and that it is registered with the Alberta government as belonging to you. You could, if you wish, sell it to someone without renewing the plate sticker.

It follows from that that the plate sticker is, in simplest form, proof of having paid a tax that entitles you to operate the vehicle on Alberta roads. As a result of legislation, treaties, and co-operation between North American jurisdictions, a valid plate sticker is also required to operate the vehicle on the roads of other provinces and other North American countries (USA, Mexico, possibly other central American countries, but I don't know about that).

It is unlikely that there is any legislation, treaty, or co-operation in place between the Alberta government (or Canadian government, for that matter) and motor vehicle jurisdictions on other continents, simply because so few North American vehicles travel to other continents. Hence the probability of you needing to have a valid annual sticker (a tax sticker, in effect) to operate on other continents is minimal. If you are concerned about the out-of-date sticker currently on your plate, just warm the sticker up with a hair dryer and remove it... now you will have a plate without anything on it that suggests that the registration / tax / annual permit is out of date. The metal plate itself (now without the expired sticker) will still conform to and match up with your registration document.

Obviously, you will still need to carry out your own due diligence about what the legal requirements are in the country you are operating the vehicle in. Hopefully, though, the above comments will provide you with 'food for thought' and perhaps a temporary solution to your problem.

The bigger question is how long you plan to operate the Canadian plated vehicle in the foreign country. In other words, if you keep the Canadian plated vehicle in another country for a longer time than what that country permits for 'visitors' or 'tourism', you may be faced with a more pressing obligation to register the vehicle in the country you are operating it in. That is analogous to your obligation to register the bike in another province if you were to move to that other province, or stay there longer than what is considered to be a 'visit' or 'tourism'.

Michael

Edd:

Here's a direct link to a similar discussion that is currently active: Expired registration out of country!?

Michael

Our Ontario plates expired a long time ago and we've been riding through Central and South America for over a year and a half on expired plates. Nobody's stopped us, either at the border or on the roads.

We did scratch the validity stickers off the plates though. Didn't want to give anyone a reason...

As for insurance, your Canadian insurance only works in North America. There's no reason to pay premiums if your bike isn't in Canada or the US, because they're certainly not going to cover any claims outside of NA.

If the expiry date on the registration is an issue, scan, photoshop & print might be the best bet. We've handed good quality colour replicas of our Ontario registration to all the border officials (just in case they hold our documents hostage). No one's blinked an eye.

We could have easily altered any information before printing the copies, there's no link to Canadian databases to double-check.