Hi, I´m actually trying to help out a friend here, not planning to do this trip myself, but the principle is what matters.. so here goes:

The Finnish AA no longer issues carnets. This is taken from the Swedish AA (Motormannen) website, and that is the body, which we are nowadays forwarded to, when it comes to carnets:

https://www.motormannen.se/resan/bil...on-in-english/
“ The deposit will be refunded when your vehicle is back in the country of registration and the carnet has been returned to us. - See more at: https://www.motormannen.se/resan/bil....IGB8BxR8.dpuf “

I remember from my own experience, that when the Finnish AA was still issuing carnets, they demanded exactly the same thing – that the vehicle returns home first.

Is this the same thing all over, or only the Finns and Swedes happen to play it this way (we are both ´nanny states´, so this would not be so hard to believe)??

SO, if you plan to leave, or sell, your vehicle in a country, that is not in the carnet system, and your carnet is clean (it has appropriate entry AND exit stamps from every carnet country, that you visited), then you still do violate your agreement with your carnet issuing body, and will not get your carnet bond back...? That does sound a bit over the top for me. One would think the carnet issuer has to worry about the vehicle staying in carnet countries, but it seems they worry about staying in all other countries as well.

Yeah I know – I´ll have to ask the Swedes directly. In fact I already did that, but so far no answer. I will probably ask the German ADAC as well, but currently unsure, if they would issue carnets for Scandinavians... just posted this, in case someone else has already faced this same issue, and how did you handle it?? Anybody got their carnet bond released before the customs of your home country have physically seen the vehicle?

Thank you in advance for any comments on this!

Received (some sort of) answer from AA Sweden... I read that so, that it might not be impossible to get the bond back, even if the vehicle does not return to the country of registration. But, this will not certain, such cases will always be handled individually, it could take a long time to actually get the bond back etc....

They do mention the Certificate of Location (on the last page of the document, if my memory serves me well), and that they usually require this to be filled by the customs of the country of registration, so if then later on there comes a claim from any one of the carnet countries, they can use this to quickly clarify the matter.

Actually I don´t see, what difference it would make, if the Certificate of Location is not filled by the customs of your home country but rather by the the customs of the country, where the vehicle will stay, as long as that country is not a carnet country?

I got money returned on an Australian carnet without the vehicle being back in Australia.


The vehicle was shipped from Australia to South Africa then driven overland to Egypt. Then the ferry (when it was still running) to Italy. So the last exit stamp was Egypt, and obviously no carnet needed for Europe.


I don't know if it made a difference but I have a UK passport. Told the carnet issuer I was staying in the UK and they didn't insist on seeing any import documents for the vehicle before they paid up. I used the insurance indemnity option on the carnet so it wasn't a huge amount of cash, maybe would have been different if it was a bond.