Step-by-step guide to registering your car in Donostia, Spain.
View the Project on GitHub MazenAli/Car-Registration-Donostia
Hello and welcome to my step-by-step guide to the unnecessary complicated process of registering a EU vehicle in Donostia, Basque Country. As a prerequisite, you will need your NIE, residency (“empadronamiento”), and a Spanish phone number for this. You need to do the steps in this order, sequentially, as each step requires the last. For all papers, it’s best to bring the originals and 2–3 copies, although they should usually make copies themselves.
Note: I’ve been told by others that it’s possible to hire someone to do all of this for you in a couple of weeks for around 300 - 500 EUR (although the quotes can vary a lot). If you don’t feel like spending time and nerves on this, you might want to look into that.
Closest to Donostia is ITV Urnieta (https://www.itevelesa.com/es/nuestras-estaciones/itv-urnieta). The online appointments won’t work with a foreign license plate number. Call 943550000, press 1 for Euskera (even if you don’t speak Euskera), ask there for an appointment for a foreign vehicle. They should tell you what you need. But they’re not always accurate, so just in case, see below. Note: none of these documents have to be translated into Spanish!
Cost: about 110 EUR. Expect to spend at least 2 hours at the ITV on your first appointment, only about 20 minutes on the 2nd.
Beware that processing foreign-registered cars in the evening could be problematic. If they give you an appointment after 19h, make sure that they understand you do not have a Spanish registration at the moment.
There are 2 types of taxes for transferring your car: registration tax and road tax. You only have to pay the latter! See https://administracion.gob.es/pag_Home/Tu-espacio-europeo/derechos-obligaciones/ciudadanos/vehiculos/traslado/impuesto.html. For the registration tax, Impuesto de matriculación, make an appointment at the tax office https://www.gipuzkoa.eus/es/web/ogasuna, Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa, located at Errotaburu Pasealekua, 2, 20018 Donostia, Gipuzkoa.
You will need:
Cost: 0 EUR. Expect to spend 1 hour at the appointment. You will get the tax exemption on the spot.
Pay the road tax, impuesto de circulacion. Make an appointment here: https://www.donostia.eus/AurreHitzordua/udalinfo/aa14aBusqueda.jsp?lang=es, and go here: Ijentea Kalea, 6, 20003 Donostia, Gipuzkoa.
You will need:
Cost: varies, roughly 60 EUR for me. Expect to spend about 30 minutes at the appointment, get the proof of payment on the spot.
Make an appointment at the DGT for matriculacion. The appointments are made online only, here: https://sede.dgt.gob.es/es/otros-tramites/cita-previa/. The system is trash because the appointments are “all out” in 5 minutes after “opening”, as if the internet is some kind of finite, precious resource. You can only “click” on the appointment during work hours, but as soon as possible, ideally at 9:00 am. If they’re out, try again the next day…
On the day of the appointment, you will go here: Julio Caro Baroja Plaza, 2, 20018 Donostia, Gipuzkoa. You need:
Cost: 99.77 EUR. Expect to spend about 30 minutes at the appointment. You will not get the registration on the spot and will have to come back in a couple of days, without an appointment. Beware, once you pick up your registration papers, you will have to give them the originals of your car papers from the home country. If you need these to deregister your car at home, make the necessary preparations beforehand.
As soon as you get the registration papers and your license plate numbers, get a car insurance. Ideally, do this before you change your plates. You can compare insurances at https://www.acierto.com. This can be done within a day, online and by phone. Costs anywhere between 200 and 500 EUR per year. Some insurers will tell you a EU driver’s license is not enough, and you need a Spanish driver’s license. This is BS, so safely ignore or go to a different insurer.
Finally, go to a car mechanic shop and order your license plates. You will need the DGT permisso de circulacion with the registration number. This will take 1-2 days, costs about 20-30 EUR.
If you need to deregister your car in your home country, make preparations beforehand. Your home country papers will be retained by the DGT. Consider, e.g., changing to export license plates before you move here or similar. Within the EU, your home country should get notified and your car automatically deregistered but that often doesn’t work as it should.
This will take you about 6 weeks, it will cost you only about 250-300 EUR and your sanity. Et voilà — your car is registered in Donostia in no time.