Taking your car to Turkey

Start with the question nobody asks

Most people ask how to import their car. The prior question is whether a UK car can be registered in Türkiye at all. Turkish registration rules have long treated right-hand-drive vehicles as not registrable for ordinary road use, with narrow exceptions, and a UK car is right-hand drive. What that means in practice is that the routes below for duty-free permanent import, which exist for returning citizens and retirees, are of little use to someone whose car has the steering wheel on the right; they were written with cars bought in Germany or the Netherlands in mind. Confirm the current position with the Ministry of Trade’s customs helpline or a Turkish customs broker before you spend money on shipping. For a left-hand-drive car bought in the UK, the routes are open. The vehicle import page tracks the rules.

Route one: temporary entry on UK plates

A person whose residence is abroad, whether a British visitor or a Turkish citizen living in the UK, can drive a foreign-registered car into Türkiye and keep it there temporarily. The permitted stay is expressed in the customs rules as a number of days within a longer window (currently described as up to 730 days in a three-year period), with the vehicle recorded against your passport on entry and required to leave before the period ends or when you leave for good. The car cannot be sold, lent to a Turkish resident or left behind when you fly home, and being in Türkiye more than 185 days in a year can shift your residence in the eyes of customs. The documents at the border are the V5C, your passport and licence, and insurance valid in Türkiye: a Green Card from your UK insurer extended to Türkiye or a Turkish border policy bought on arrival. Nothing needs translating for the border itself, though a Turkish translation of the V5C helps if the car is stopped or involved in a claim inland.

Route two: permanent, duty-free import

Two groups may bring a car in permanently without duty: citizens returning for good with an İkametgâh Nakil Belgesi from the consulate, and retirees drawing a pension from abroad. Both routes require that the vehicle was registered in your name abroad for a period before the move, set an age limit on the car, and allow one vehicle per household. The consulate’s note for the retiree route specifically requires the UK pension statement to be translated by a translator on the consulate’s list and certified at its notary unit, which is one of the few cases where the consulate route rather than a Turkish notary is prescribed. The pension statement page and the kesin dönüş checklist cover the surrounding documents. Even on these routes, the right-hand-drive problem remains, and the vehicle must pass a Turkish roadworthiness inspection (TÜVTÜRK) before registration.

The documents and their translations

• V5C logbook, the registration document, translated into Turkish for customs, the registration office and insurers; see the V5C page. Customs officers read the translated version to match chassis number, engine size and first registration date to the import file.
• UK driving licence, needed for the temporary route and for later conversion; see driving in Türkiye on a UK licence.
• Pension statement for the retiree route, translated through the consulate.
• İkametgâh Nakil Belgesi for the returning-citizen route, issued in Turkish by the consulate.
• Purchase invoice or proof of ownership period where customs asks how long the car has been yours.
• Insurance: the Green Card or Turkish policy.

For customs and the registration office, the V5C and any purchase document are translated and notarised in Türkiye; we do that in Ankara from a scan. The logbook is a two-page document with codes and the notary charges by page, so the cost is modest.

Timing and costs

• Temporary entry: no fee beyond insurance; the border records the vehicle in minutes.
• Permanent import: customs duties and taxes are waived on the qualifying routes but the registration fees, inspection and special consumption tax questions are for a customs broker; brokers charge a fee that is usually worth paying.
• Shipping from the UK: several weeks by sea; driving takes four to five days across Europe.
• Notarised Turkish translation of the V5C: £6.50 per page for the translation plus the notary tariff of about £13.50 per page and a £5 handling fee; consulate-route pension statement translation quoted separately; courier £30. No UK VAT.

Mistakes that strand cars

• Shipping a right-hand-drive car for permanent registration without checking whether it can be registered.
• Overstaying the temporary period, which leads to the car being impounded and a fine.
• Letting a Turkish-resident relative drive the car on UK plates.
• Arriving with a UK-certified translation of the V5C that the registration office rejects.
• Forgetting that the UK insurer’s cover may not extend to Türkiye without a Green Card.

What we do

We translate and notarise the V5C, purchase documents and licence in Ankara, and arrange the consulate-format pension statement translation where that route applies. We do not advise on customs law or on whether a particular vehicle can be registered; that is for the Ministry of Trade or a broker.