Carnet - importing at the end of the trip and other complications
 

Hi,

This is my first post here and I did try to search and read up as much as possible but it either hasn't been discussed before (I doubt) or I couldn't narrow it down enough.

Current situation: I'm a Hungarian citizen living in Australia at the moment temporarily (last 2 years and another year to go). I own an Australian registered motorcycle here and I hold a UK license (but I'm neither citizen of the UK or Australia and I haven't been living in Hungary last 6 years).

I decided to do the usual OZ->Europe thing, but I have couple of questions with the Carnet:

1, Which organisation should I apply at? RAC in the UK, AAA in OZ or the one relevant to Hungary?

2, Would having an Australian license make things easier from general paperwork point of view?

3, Most importantly: I understand the Carnet process and the requirement of returning the vehicle to the country of origin. The problem is that I'm not planning on coming back to Australia after the trip is finished and would like to keep the bike in Hungary. The route obviously involves countries with 400%+ duties so paying that is not a solution. So the question: if I officially import the bike to Hungary, is that a solution for ending and returning the carnet?

I should probably just phone AAA, but if someone was through this and is willing to share, that would be most welcome.

Thanks,
Andras

We travelled in an Oz registered landcruiser from Oz to Europe to South Africa.

1. Our landcruiser was/is registered in NSW. We contacted the NRMA in NSW who in turns deals with the AAA, who issues the Australian carnet.
2. We are South African/British, and travelled on our Australian licence with Australian international licence. latrer on in the trip we used our GB licence, because our Oz international licence expred and we obtained a GB international licence.
3. Importing vehicle. You need to establish what the duties will be in Hungary. Every country is different. We've managed (almost, just finalising a few things) to import our landcruiser into South Africa as a returning resident, therefore not having to pay any import duties. Hungary may or may not have a similar program - check with Hungarian customs and tax authorities. One of the requirements to import into South Africa is to obtain a 'Letter of Compliance' from the manufacturer in the country of origin, for eg, if its a Honda, you need to contact Honda Australia to get this letter from them. Not sure if this would apply to Hungary too, you'll have to check. Best to get it from the manufacturer before you leave, one less thing to worry about later on then.

Hope this helps

Check out the links page on our website for contact details for AAA and for other info
pumbaa's home

Thank you, that clarified quite a bit of the situation.

Question 3, was mostly from the Carnet point of view (if importing at the end of the trip satisfies the Carnet people). So I guess the answer is Yes.

The actual import process might be a bit of a nightmare as I don't even think the motorcycle will be road legal in Hungary (pretty much nothing is nowadays that was modified the slightest way) and perfectly fine in Australia. Gonna start looking at that as well just to make sure there is a secure ending to the trip.

Andras, getting your deposit back on your carnet does NOT require you to return the vehicle to the country of origin.

In my experience, I took out a carnet for my bike in Melbourne Australia through the RACV, rode it to Europe and then 11 months later I posted the carnet back to Melbourne and had the deposit refunded. Simultaneous with this I obtained a new carnet from the AA in the UK and used that to ride down to Africa.

Once you arrive in Hungary (where a carnet is NOT required) you should be able to send your carnet back to Australia for the deposit refund.

Thanks Garry, that's really helpful!

Make sure you get the 'certificate of presence' on the last page filled in as per instructions on the carnet.

Some clubs (ADAC, ...) require proof of permanent import somewhere, but the club in question will tell you when you obtain the carnet.

General requirement is that the carnet is issued by a club in the country where it is registered.

Thanks Peter!