what happens if you let your carnet expire while travelling?

specifically - if you leave australia with a carnet, then get stamped out of egypt & travel for a while through africa where carnets are NOT required, and the carnet then expires... can the bike be sent back to australia and clear customs again?

i asked RACQ australia, who contacted customs, and apparently customs seem to think the carnet must be valid. this seems a bit silly, and would be costly too - $400 application fee etc. for a new carnet, or about the same to extend in south africa because the original valuation on my bike was too high...

also the carnet can only be extended once, for a maximum of 12 months. this means i could only have the bike outside australia for 2 years... my rtw plans are a bit longer than this..

once expired, i wouldn't want / need it again other than to re-enter australia.

anyone come across this before?
thanks
dave

This sounds wrong, although I remember reading another post somewhere saying you need a carnet to leave Oz. Now, the carnet is a document guaranteeing the re-export of a vehicle visiting a country. So, you shouldn't need one to re-enter Oz with a bike from Oz.

Unless Oz bureauprats have gone completely mad...

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Cheers,
Peter.

Europe to NZ 2006-10

We are currently in South Africa with a NSW registered Landcruiser.

Our carnet expired when we were in Egypt. I managed to get the Egyptian AA to change the date with a stamp to show it's valid for another 12 months. they will do this providing they receive instructions from the issuing authority via fax (no emails). The Egypt AA guy refused to change all the dates (ie about 20 pages in the carnet). he only changed 10 pages, because according to them I wouldn't need them all. I tried to convinced him to change more but I think it was the authority thing coming into play. Anyway, I entered SA with a sheet which didn't have a date change on and received an email from the NRMA in the last month or so. They received a claim from SA customs because the carnet 'expired' and they wanted proof that the car has been exported.

The car is still in SA and will remain here. All i got was for the AAA to send a letter to the SA customs saying that the carnet is still valid. That would hopefully close the claim.

From my understanding, the carnet does not need to be valid for you to re-enter Oz. So providing you've planned your trip so that your last countries are the ones you don't need a carnet for, you should be fine.

On another note, the carnet issued my NRMA (NSW) explicitly states that for the carnet to remain valid, the vehicle should be registered and roadworthy in Oz. No sure if this is the same in Queensland. I had to get a roadworthy done in Zambia and send it to the NRMA to get my rego renewed and I still had to get 3rd party insurance even though the car is not there. There is no other way around it in NSW as far as I'm aware.

Good luck

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www.seeyouwhenwegetthere.com

Hi all!

I have a slightly different dilema. We're starting our RTW trip with the Americas where you don't need a carnet. We'll be shipping the bike to NZ and OZ and then SE Asia and so on where you need a carnet. Can I apply for it in the US or do I have to pay a fee beforehand in the UK? Is it possible to arrange the carnet here in UK first without paying the fee and then once we need it get it couriered out to us after paying the fee?

Lost and confused
Andy

P.S. Apologies for the slight Off topic.

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I believe this is possible. Speak to the RAC person (Paul?? someone) to see what needs to be done. I'm sure you can leave the completed application etc in the UK ready to be submitted when you need your carnet.

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