Moving to Norway with your own car, motorhome or caravan

Under certain conditions you may bring household removal goods (flyttegods) into the country without duties, for example if you have lived abroad continuously for at least one year. Those conditions apply to ordinary belongings, not to the car. Skatteetaten's list of exemptions from the one-off registration tax does not mention moving either.

So your car goes through the normal import:

• customs clearance at Tolletaten, with 25% VAT (mva) and the tax on greenhouse gases in the air conditioning;
• approval by Statens vegvesen;
• the one-off registration tax (engangsavgift) and the vehicle scrap deposit tax at Skatteetaten, with an age deduction (bruksfradrag) from Skatteetaten's table for a used car, for example 19% once it is over one year old and 50% at five years;
• registration at a trafikkstasjon, with Norwegian traffic insurance.

For electric cars in 2026, VAT is charged only on the amount above NOK 300,000. How the customs value is set for a car you have owned for some time is something to ask Tolletaten directly. Each step is described on our page about importing a car into Norway.

Skatteetaten is clear: if you have permanent residence (fast oppholdssted) in Norway, you may use a foreign-registered car only in certain cases. The underlying regulation goes further: once you have permanent residence, on arrival or later, the temporary use must stop and the car must be presented for customs clearance straight away.

On application, the tax office (skattekontoret) can allow you to keep using the foreign-registered car for up to 14 days from the moving date. You prove the move with a moving certificate (flytteattest), an employment contract or other relevant documents. Apply to Skatteetaten in advance, and ask them which form to use and how long it takes.

After customs clearance you have up to 30 days on valid foreign plates if the car is insured and roadworthy; otherwise you need temporary plates (prøveskilt), NOK 340 per day according to Statens vegvesen. So plan to declare the car when you arrive and to book the approval and registration soon after. If you do not follow the rules, you still pay the duties and you risk additional tax (tilleggsskatt).

Not every stay is an emigration. If your stay is temporary, for example for a fixed-term job, you can use a foreign-registered car for up to two years:

• the first year without applying, if you can show that you will stay no more than a year;
• the second year with a driving permit (kjøretillatelse) on form RF-1330, applied for within one year of entering the country; allow at least 14 days for processing.

Your stay does not count as temporary if, in the two years before entry, you spent more than 365 days in Norway or were registered in the population register. If the stay becomes permanent, the car must be exported or cleared through customs. Tolletaten's rule that people who live abroad permanently need not declare a car they drive into the country for private use is meant for visitors; it does not cover someone who moves there.

Before the car leaves, we deregister it for export in the RDW register. NederlandWereldwijd says that if you move to a country outside the EU, you must declare your car to Dutch Customs as export goods, even when nothing is sold. Our EX-A export declaration service covers that; for a move without a sale, contact us beforehand so we can look at your situation.

Your Dutch car insurance stops being valid once the car is removed from the Dutch register, and NederlandWereldwijd advises temporary insurance until the car is registered in your new country. That is the 14-day export insurance with a Green Card we arrange through our insurance partner, and it can be extended. For the Norwegian registration you then need Norwegian traffic insurance from a Norwegian insurer. Taking a motorhome or caravan too? See motorhome and caravan export.

If your car got its Dutch registration on or after 16 October 2006, part of the BPM (the Dutch registration tax) may be refunded on export. The Belastingdienst (Dutch Tax Administration) names Norway explicitly, and the car must be registered there within 13 weeks of getting the status Export at the RDW. Because Norway has no moving exemption for cars, a refund cannot clash with one. Our BPM refund service checks the conditions and files the request; the Belastingdienst decides.

Already living in Norway, with the car still on Dutch plates? We can still arrange the export with the export certificate (kentekenbewijs deel II), entirely remotely, through a different procedure that runs by post. Shipping is insured with DHL: standard in about 5 working days, DHL Express in about 1 working day. Contact us in advance; we will then also discuss the export declaration.