Green plates in Spain: what they are and when you need them
Temporary plates from the DGT, green on white, that let a car with no valid registration make the trips its file requires — above all the trip to the inspection station. They are not a way to use the car. Here is when they are genuinely needed, when they are sold to you for nothing, and what we charge for them.
The short answer
When Spain’s tax authority explains that residents may not drive foreign-plated cars and that owners have 30 days to register an imported vehicle, it adds in the same sentence that temporary plates can be obtained from the DGT until the procedure is complete. Those are the plates everyone here calls placas verdes — green plates. They exist because a registration file has a physical step in the middle of it: the car itself has to arrive at an ITV station.
When you actually need them
There is a simple way to decide. Ask whether the car can legally make the trip to the station as it stands today, on valid plates with valid insurance. If yes, you do not need green plates. If no, you do. In practice the «no» comes from three situations, and we see all three:
- The home-country inspection has expired. A German car whose HU ran out, a Polish car whose inspection lapsed last month, a UK car with no current MOT. The plates are still valid; the permission to drive on them is not.
- The plates are already gone. The car was de-registered abroad before shipping, or the plates were handed back on sale. There is nothing on the car to drive on.
- The car has never been registered anywhere in the EU. Typical for a car arriving from outside Europe: it clears customs and then has to reach the station with no European registration behind it.
And the situation where they are not needed, which matters just as much: an EU car with a valid inspection, valid plates and a live insurance policy can drive to the station. Being charged for temporary plates in that case is being charged for nothing.
What they are not
Green plates are tied to the file, not to your convenience. They cover the journeys the registration requires — station, workshop, administration — not the school run and not a weekend in Valencia. Insurance follows the same logic: the cover is taken for the trip, and a policy for one day is a different product from a policy for three weeks.
What we charge
These are our own published figures, produced by the same calculator that produces every number we send a client:
- An optional extra on the 900 € service. It appears on your quote only if your car needs it, and we tell you the figure before we order anything.
- Included in our 1,400 € and 1,750 € turnkey import lines — there is no separate charge there, because a car we buy and bring from abroad needs them by definition.
- Not the same thing as the DGT fee. The registration fee our files carry is 99.77 €, it is a charge of the administration, and it is paid when the car is registered whether or not temporary plates were ever used. Anyone presenting the two as one number is either confusing them or hiding one inside the other.
Source of those figures: our own tariff decision of 12 October 2026 for the option, and a registration quotation of 2 October 2026 for the DGT fee line. Both are carried in our calculator with their source attached, which is why we can put them on a public page instead of «ask us».
How it fits the rest of the file
Green plates buy time inside the 30-day window described in how long you can drive a foreign-plated car in Spain. They get the car to the inspection described in the import ITV — what the station checks. They have no effect whatsoever on the registration tax, which is produced from a government table and explained in Spain’s registration tax, explained.
Questions people actually ask
What are green plates in Spain?
Temporary registration plates issued by the DGT, green on white, that allow a vehicle without valid Spanish registration to make the journeys its registration file requires — to the inspection station, to a workshop, to the traffic office.
Do I need green plates to register my imported car?
Not always. If the car can legally reach the ITV station on its own valid foreign plates and insurance, you do not need them. You need them when the foreign inspection has expired, when the plates have already been cancelled or handed back abroad, or when the car has no valid registration anywhere.
What do green plates cost?
On our 900-euro service they are an optional extra, added to your quote only if your car needs them. On our 1,400 and 1,750 euro import lines they are already included in the price, so you can use the car almost straight away while the definitive registration is processed.
Is the DGT fee included in the green plates?
No. The registration fee of 99.77 euros is a separate line and is paid when the car is registered, whether or not you ever use temporary plates.
Your own case
Send us the car’s papers — registration document and the current inspection date — and we will tell you whether your file needs temporary plates at all. WhatsApp +34 644 324 195