Hello travelers,

I posted this question in ADV but got no answers, may be here someone has expericence with this.

Basically, has anyone traveled through borders in someone else's bike under a permission letter?

I'm planning a trip from Spain to Russia and Mongolia and one option is to have my brother, who live's in Spain, buy and register motorcycle there and extend to me a "permission letter" to ride it.

I plan to have the permission letter translated to English and Russian and signed by an atorney.
I'm a EU citizen, Italy, but has no residence in Europe, that's the reason why as far as I know, I can't register the motorcycle on my name.

Will the permit from my brother will be sufficient to get across the borders in Europe, Russia and Mongolia ?

thanks!

This question has been asked before and somebody pointed out that it is not a problem for lorry drivers to cross borders with vehicles that usually belong to somebody else so it should be no problem for motorcyclist to do it provided they have some sort of letter of authority.
There is also information on non-EU residents buying here which seems particularly easy in the Irish Republic, perhaps you could look into that if it is not possible in Spain.

Offhand, I'd suggest some kind of legal lease agreement with your brother--it would probably help

Not sure how things work in Spain with vehicle titles :confused1: ... but perhaps your brother can include YOUR name on the title when he buys the bike? His name and your name BOTH on the title?

This is common in most USA states and legal. Both technically are legal owners of the vehicle. Spain? ¡Yo no se!

For Latin America it's easier / less complicated to have bike with it's title in your name. In some countries letters from Lawyers or Notarized letters are ignored. Since these letters come from OUTSIDE of their country, they have no validity there.

They usually want an ORIGINAL TITLE, not a copy, and they want to see YOUR name on that title and it should match your Passport.

I'm really not sure about Russia, Mongolia and EU. Trucking companies have fancy lawyers to set up paperwork, so any of their drivers can travel, but an individual may not have the exact papers required ... for every country, as they are all somewhat different. A title with your name on it means no problems anywhere.

I drive a leasing car (My company) and have been round Europe (EU) with it and havent have any problem. Why should it be any diferent with a bike?
On the other hand, I remember I have som kind of paper from the inburande company that says I am alloud to drive it.

From Sweden with love

"In some countries letters from Lawyers or Notarized letters are ignored. Since these letters come from OUTSIDE of their country, they have no validity there.

They usually want an ORIGINAL TITLE, not a copy, and they want to see YOUR name on that title and it should match your Passport."

That it is exactly what I'm worried about.

I agree, probably within the EU they recognize other's countries atorney authorization and will have no problems.

I'm much more concerned about Russia, Mongolia and the few other non-EU countries borders I need to cross to get there.

Buying in Irleland: yes, I heard about it will keep that as an option thx.

Co- owner in the title: Nope, not possible: For owner or co-owner is not enough with the Passport, they ask a tax ID number caller NIF almost for any oficial transaction, that is complicated to get for non residents.

Well this could lead to an interesting itinerary ! ....just visiting the countries that will let me in, hitting borders and try ....even different borders in the same country may have different results!!

If some else has more info or ideas on the subject they will be welcome, I'm still a couple of month from the trip.

International lorry drivers either own their rig or are employed by the owner of the rig, so the same rules do not apply.

The answer is no, while there would be no problem at all riding around the EU on his brother's bike, EM25 will not be able to cross into Russia unless his name appears on the registration document. We came up against this in 2011 when a member of our group offered to loan his vehicle after he became ill and was unable to travel with us.

If your brother is buying the bike from a dealer, I'm betting he can have the dealer put the bike in YOUR name right from the start. The dealer only wants to sell the bike ... and are very good at navigating the system. Just supply the selling dealer with all your information. Should be doable, no?

Anyway, good luck! Hope you find a simple way round it all ...

(it's odd, because this sort of thing is so dead easy here in the US ... you just pay the fees, good to go!)

Thanks all for your answers and help.

I summarized what I've learned from the responses I've got so far and what I could find in others post in the net in case it could be useful in the future for someone with the same question.

- Most data seems to suggest that the chance to get through borders in Asia (Russia, Mongolia, stans) with a bike registered under someone else's name with out the owner being present is very unlikely.

- Atorney authorizations for driving someone else's vehicle from foreign countries may not be recognized or taken as enough proof of ownership.

- Crossing borders in Asia on rented motorcycles also seems to be either not possible or higly improbable.

- Having bike's insurance on your name or not is a different issue, this is about proof of ownership of the motorcycle.

- I've read about foreign people buying and registering bikes in Mongolia but they drove inside the country and sold them before flying out. They did not attempt to cross the border to Russia with them.

- An ADV member rode his bike from Austria to Magadan and then he took a flight back and had some other rider rode the bike back to Moscow. How he did it? I guess road Pólice is more flexible that the one at the Borders.

- Apparently in most EU countries for non-residents to get a vehicle registered on their name, they need to apply for a foreign register or tax number which is the same needed to allow them to rent a house, open a shop etc. Requirements vary but basically you need to justify why you need it, best way to justify the need is to have a contract for work there.

- Apparently non- residents can buy and register vehicles easier in Ireland than in other EU countries. There is a forum member in ADV that offer a service to help buy there.

Feel free to correct the info if so needed.

PD1: To the last response: yes I guess the dealer will probably sell me the bike, but they will have to provide the government office, that is the one that actually does the register, with a valid NIE number, which I don't have, now if they can do some "magic" there I don't know. For now I'm working to find out if I'm elegible to get a NIE number in Spain. thx!

PD2: It's funny, 20 years ago I bought a car in a used car market in Utrecht, Holland and registered it legally in just few hours... we traveled for 5 month through all Europe with it, got back and sold it legally again in the same place,...I guess the times has changed since then!

Do you have an update on your status?
I'm a British national and am thinking of shipping my daughter's bike from her home in New Zealand South America then ride it north to Canada.
I'm not sure whether registering the bike in my name in NZ would be sufficient as I'm not a NZ resident.

__________________
Elaine

Striving to live the ordinary life in a non ordinary way