Registering Imported Vehicles and Caravans

An imported vehicle, a self-build or a caravan without paperwork cannot be registered in Greece while it falls outside any valid type approval. Individual approval is the route that settles it, and the office handles that route from the first inspection through to delivery.

Which vehicles need it

Individual approval applies to vehicles not covered by a valid type approval. In practice the office mostly sees these cases:

• Imported vehicles from third countries, or carrying an approval that is not recognised here.
• Caravans and motorhomes. Whether it is a used unit that arrived from abroad without a complete file, or a van converted for living, the route is the same.
• Self-builds, along with individually constructed vehicles.
• Substantial conversions — bodywork, axles, wheelbase, change of use.
• Vehicles without an identification number, and vehicles whose documents have been lost.

Is it required?

Only when the vehicle is not covered by a valid type approval. If a valid certificate of conformity exists, registration follows the ordinary route and no individual approval is needed. When it is missing — a vehicle from outside the EU, a self-build, a vehicle converted before first registration — the individual approval of article 23 of Joint Ministerial Decision 29949/1841/09 is the only route to a registration document.

What makes it difficult

The number of documents is rarely the problem. Files usually come back for reasons that are not obvious at first glance: technical figures that disagree between documents in the same file, classification under the wrong category, mass distribution calculations that do not hold up under review.

Then there is the legislation. Regulatory acts change, and a file resting on a provision that has since been replaced will struggle to get through.

The application is not submitted online; it is filed in person or by post. From that point the clock belongs to the authority and is not something we commit to.