Driving a UK-registered car in Cyprus: the six-month rule, the five-year limit, what registering costs, and what to do instead

How long can I keep it on UK plates?

It depends on where your normal residence is: the place you usually live for at least 185 days a year because of personal and work ties. Someone whose normal residence is outside the EU may use a UK-registered car in Cyprus for up to six months on a temporary permit, which must stay in the car and be shown to the police on request. Full-time students may use the car for the length of their studies, and specialist workers on fixed-term contracts with the government or certain public bodies for the length of the job. The car may not be lent, hired out or sold, or driven by a Cyprus resident. Before the permit expires, the car must be shipped out through Limassol or Larnaca, or go through Cypriot registration. Once your normal residence is in Cyprus, you don't qualify for the permit at all. On the UK side, the registration doesn't lapse, but the DVLA expects to be told when a car leaves the UK for 12 months or more, as a permanent export.

Can a right-hand-drive car be registered?

Cyprus drives on the left, so a right-hand-drive car needs no conversion. The obstacles are approval and age. Since 15 February 2021 the Road Transport Department registers a used UK passenger car only if it is no more than five years old when it arrives at a Cyprus port, counted from its first registration, and only if an EU whole-vehicle type approval covers it, shown at point K of a V5C issued up to 31 December 2020 (for example e4*2007/46*0186*11), or it gets a single vehicle approval in Cyprus. Cars already in Cyprus, or shipped to a Cyprus port by 15 February 2021, can be registered whatever their age. Vans, pick-ups and other goods vehicles have no age limit if they met the EU emissions standard at first registration and have ABS.

What registering it involves

1. Before shipping: check with the Road Transport Department that the car can be registered (age on arrival and type approval).
2. A single vehicle approval in Cyprus, if the V5C doesn't show an EU whole-vehicle type approval.
3. A Cyprus roadworthiness test (MOT) at a vehicle test centre.
4. Registration with the Road Transport Department with the original V5C, Cypriot plates, Cypriot motor insurance and annual road tax.

What it costs

• No registration tax as such: the old charge on cars ended on 22 March 2019 (Law 39(I)/2019).
• Registration fee, plates and the roadworthiness test, then annual road tax, which for newer cars is based on CO2. Expat guides put the registration and certification fees at about €150; check the current figure with the Road Transport Department.
• A single vehicle approval, if the V5C doesn't show an EU whole-vehicle type approval.
• An eight-year-old UK car that arrived after 15 February 2021 can't normally be registered, whatever you are willing to pay.

The alternative: sell it back to the UK

The obvious comparison is shipping it back to the UK yourself: a roll-on, roll-off or container booking, port charges at both ends and then the job of selling the car in the UK. Selling it in Cyprus rarely works either, because a Cypriot buyer can't register a used UK car more than five years old. We collect it free from your address, ship it, handle the export paperwork, and pay you in pounds sterling (£) by bank transfer on collection day.

Common questions

Rules, rates and thresholds change. This guide is a general summary as of October 2026, not legal or tax advice — check the current position with the registration authority before relying on it.

← Sell your UK car in Cyprus