Importing a car to Portugal: customs, ISV, matrícula and what happens to your insurance

Bringing a car with you is one of the last things people plan and one of the first things that goes wrong. The vehicle arrives, the paperwork does not start, and by the time anybody looks it up the first deadline has already passed. The sequence itself is not complicated — a customs declaration, a tax, an inspection, a plate — but each step has its own clock, and the clocks start at different moments.

This guide sets out that sequence, says where the motor policy fits into it, and is explicit about the points where the answer genuinely depends on your own circumstances rather than on a rule that applies to everyone. It is general information, not advice on your case: the deadlines below are administrative and are revised from time to time, so every one of them is linked to the authority that publishes it.

First, work out which route you are on

“Importing a car” covers several situations that are handled differently, and a lot of bad advice comes from someone describing their own route as if it were the only one. Before anything else, establish which of these you are in:

• You are moving your residence to Portugal and bringing a car you already own. This is the route with a possible tax exemption attached, and it has conditions you may already have met or already missed.
• You are already resident and buying a vehicle abroad to bring here. The registration process is the same; the exemption is not available.
• The vehicle comes from another EU member state, where it was already in free circulation, or from outside the EU, where customs import formalities apply in addition to the vehicle tax.
• You are visiting, or the car is staying on foreign plates. Then you are not importing at all — see below.

The steps that follow describe the ordinary case of a light passenger vehicle being brought into Portugal and put onto Portuguese plates. Motorcycles, motorhomes, goods vehicles, heavy vehicles and vehicles over a certain age each have their own variations.

Step 1 — the customs declaration (DAV)

The vehicle's tax position is opened by a Declaração Aduaneira de Veículo, the DAV, submitted electronically through the Portal das Finanças. The deadline is the one people most often miss, because it does not run from the purchase or from your move:

The DAV must be submitted within 20 working days of the vehicle entering Portugal.

The Portuguese government's own service page states the period as “no prazo máximo de 20 dias úteis, após a entrada do veículo em Portugal”. Twenty working days is roughly four calendar weeks, and it is counted from the day the car crossed the border, not from the day you got round to thinking about it. Confirm the current position on gov.pt before you rely on a date.

The declaration identifies the vehicle and its technical characteristics, so you will need the foreign registration document and the vehicle's homologation or conformity data. The original foreign registration certificate is deposited as part of the process — you do not keep it and hand it over later.

Step 2 — the ISV, and whether you are exempt

The Imposto sobre Veículos is assessed on the basis of the DAV. It is calculated from engine capacity and CO₂ emissions, with a reduction for the vehicle's age — which is why two cars that cost the same abroad can attract very different amounts here, and why nobody can tell you the figure without the technical data. The Autoridade Tributária's customs portal states the payment period:

“O prazo de pagamento do ISV é de 10 dias úteis a contar da notificação da liquidação.”

Ten working days from being notified of the assessment, not from submitting the declaration. The rules are set out in the Código do ISV, approved by Lei n.º 22-A/2007, and summarised on the ISV regularisation pages of the Portal das Finanças.

The transfer-of-residence exemption

If you are moving your residence to Portugal and bringing a car you already own, the ISV exemption in articles 58.º to 61.º of the Código do ISV may apply. It is not automatic, it is not granted on the strength of having moved, and it has to be requested. The conditions published by gov.pt are, in summary:

• you are over 18;
• you lived abroad for at least six months;
• you owned the vehicle in the country of origin for at least six months at the moment residence is transferred, counted from the date of the document that proves ownership, or from the date of the leasing contract;
• the vehicle was bought in the country of origin or a previous country of residence, with the taxes due there paid, and with no tax benefit taken on bringing it here;
• one vehicle per person; and
• the request is made within twelve months of the date you transfer your residence to Portugal.

The request itself is free. What catches people out is what comes after it: under article 47.º of the Código do ISV, a vehicle admitted with an exemption cannot be sold, given away, rented or lent for twelve months from the date the exemption is granted, and a disposal after that but within five years can still attract tax in proportion to the time remaining. Those are two separate twelve-month periods with two different starting points — twelve months from the move to ask, twelve months from the grant before you can dispose — and conflating them is one of the more expensive mistakes in this process.

Checked in August 2026 against gov.pt and the Autoridade Tributária's customs information portal. Amounts, periods and country lists in this area are administrative and are revised; we state the shape of the process and link to the authority for the numbers rather than quoting a figure that may have moved.

Step 3 — homologation, inspection and the matrícula

Once the tax position is settled the vehicle still has no Portuguese identity. That comes from the IMT, and the route depends on what documentation the vehicle carries:

• With a European Certificate of Conformity (CoC). New light vehicles with European type-approval take the simplified route: the national type-approval number is obtained from the IMT first, because the customs step needs it, and the vehicle is then presented for a registration inspection at a category B inspection centre.
• Without a CoC but with a model already recorded nationally. The IMT publishes an online lookup for models already registered in the national system; the declaration it produces has replaced the old modelo 9 form in most cases. An inspection certificate (modelo 112) from a licensed technical inspection centre is required alongside the authenticated foreign registration certificate.
• Without a CoC and without a national type-approval. A national type-approval has to be requested, supported by the foreign approval documentation, before the registration can be attributed.

The IMT charges a fee for attributing the registration, and the amount differs between those routes. The definitive document list and the current fees are on the IMT's registration pages — that is the page to work from, not a forum post.

After the vehicle's tax position is regularised there are 60 days to pay the registration fee at the IMT and request the registration certificate.

That 60-day window is stated on the government's matrícula service page, together with the point that the request has to come from whoever was responsible for bringing the vehicle into the country. The registration certificate is issued by the IMT only once the tax has been paid.

Driving the car while the paperwork is running

There is a defined window in which a vehicle still on valid foreign plates may be driven here while its position is being regularised. The Autoridade Tributária states that circulation is permitted for vehicles carrying valid foreign registration, provided the vehicle carries a copy of the DAV and is driven by the owner, their spouse or their de facto partner — running from the end of the DAV submission period until the tax payment deadline expires.

Two things follow from that, and both matter more than they look:

• The permission is conditional. A colleague, a friend or an adult child driving the car during that window is outside it, whatever the insurance says.
• It is a window, not a state. It closes on the payment deadline, and a vehicle found circulating outside these rules can be notified and, ultimately, seized.

Where the insurance fits

Compulsory motor third-party liability cover is not suspended while a car is being legalised. What changes is which policy is doing the work.

• While the car is on foreign plates. The contract that answers is normally the foreign policy, or a green card where the vehicle comes from outside the EU/EEA. Whether that policy continues to respond once the vehicle is permanently in Portugal, and for how long, is a question for that insurer — ask in writing, and keep the reply.
• While the registration is in progress. Insurers in the Portuguese market can generally arrange cover against the vehicle identification number or the pending Portuguese plate, so there is no uninsured gap between the foreign policy ending and the Portuguese one starting. This is the stage to plan rather than improvise.
• Once the matrícula is issued. The vehicle needs a policy written against the Portuguese registration. Cover written for the old foreign plate is no longer the right contract for it, and the plate has to be notified to the insurer.

Keep the foreign registration document, the DAV and the proof of the registration request together. Insurers use them to identify the vehicle and to date your risk correctly, and the same bundle is what an underwriter asks for when you want a foreign claims record taken into account.

On that last point, a distinction worth being clear about: the registration process is administrative law, decided by the Autoridade Tributária and the IMT. Whether a Portuguese insurer recognises your no-claims record from abroad is an underwriting decision made by each company on its own terms, not an entitlement that comes with the plate. Our guide to car insurance for expatriates goes through what a bonus-malus certificate needs to show.

Foreign-registered cars that are not being imported

Not every foreign-plated car in Portugal is an import in progress. A vehicle brought here temporarily by a visitor, or one that stays registered abroad because its owner remains resident elsewhere, is a different question, and the answer turns on residence rather than on the car. Once you are resident here, a vehicle kept permanently in Portugal is expected to be on Portuguese plates, and the temporary-admission routes have their own conditions and their own limits.

The insurance consequence is the practical one: a Portuguese motor policy is written for a vehicle registered in Portugal. If the plate stays foreign, the cover normally stays foreign too, and it is worth confirming with that insurer what it will and will not do for a car that now lives here. The complete guide to car insurance in Portugal covers the foreign-plate scenarios in more detail.

Common mistakes

• Counting the first deadline from the wrong date. The 20 working days run from the vehicle entering Portugal, not from the purchase, the shipping date or your residence permit.
• Assuming the ISV exemption comes with the move. It has to be requested, within twelve months, and the six-month residence and six-month ownership conditions have to have been met before you moved — which is not something you can fix afterwards.
• Selling, lending or renting an exempt vehicle too soon. Twelve months from the grant of the exemption, with a tapering exposure for five years.
• Letting the foreign policy lapse first. Cancelling abroad before the Portuguese cover is in place creates exactly the gap the whole process is meant to avoid.
• Letting someone else drive during the interim window. The permission is limited to the owner, their spouse or their de facto partner.
• Budgeting for the car and not for the ISV. A vehicle that looked cheap abroad can attract a substantial tax here, and the calculation depends on emissions and age rather than on what you paid.
• Taking a forum answer about a different origin country as universal. An EU vehicle in free circulation and a vehicle arriving from outside the EU do not go through the same formalities.

What this depends on in your case

There is no single import procedure, and the honest version of this article has to say where it stops being general. The steps, the documents and the amounts differ according to:

• Country of origin — another EU member state, where the vehicle is already in free circulation, or a third country, where customs import formalities apply as well.
• Your residence status — whether you are transferring residence, already resident, or neither.
• Vehicle type — light passenger, goods, motorcycle, motorhome, heavy vehicle, agricultural.
• Vehicle age and emissions — which drive the ISV, and which also decide whether the car is treated as a classic, where the registration route and the insurance valuation are both different. See classic and collector cars in Portugal.
• Documentation — whether the vehicle has a European Certificate of Conformity, a nationally recorded model, or neither.

Where those variables land is what the Autoridade Tributária and the IMT decide, on the documents. What we can do is make sure the cover lines up with it: that the foreign policy is not cancelled too early, that the interim is insured, and that the Portuguese policy starts against the right plate on the right day.

This article is provided for general information and does not constitute personalised advice or a statement of your tax position; the customs, ISV and registration treatment of any vehicle depends on its own facts and is decided by the Autoridade Tributária and the IMT. Deadlines and procedures in this area are revised from time to time — check the linked official sources before acting. Adler & Rochefort is a commercial brand of Ownizo, Unipessoal Lda., mediador registado na ASF n.º 425591790/3.

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