News & Guides /
How to Register an Imported Car in Romania: RAR Requirements, COC & Fees (2026 Guide)
Registering an imported car in Romania takes two institutions, one folder of documents, and — if you prepare it right — about two to four weeks. The technical part happens at RAR (Registrul Auto Român), which verifies the car and issues its Romanian identity card, the CIV. The administrative part happens at DRPCIV, which issues the registration certificate and plates. The single document that decides whether the RAR stage is quick and cheap or slow and expensive is the Certificate of Conformity (COC).
With a COC in your file, RAR treats your car as what it is: an EU-approved vehicle with known technical data. Without one, you may be routed into individual homologation — a longer procedure that can cost more than the certificate itself. This guide walks through the whole process in order: who does what, every document you need, the real fees in lei, and the mistakes that get files rejected.
Who actually registers your car: RAR and DRPCIV explained
Two authorities share the job, and mixing them up is the first thing that costs people time.
RAR — Registrul Auto Român is the technical authority under the Ministry of Transport. For an imported vehicle it does up to three things:
- Authenticity verification (verificarea autenticității): confirms the VIN is genuine, the car isn’t reported stolen, and the identity of the vehicle matches its documents.
- Issues the CIV (Cartea de Identitate a Vehiculului): the Romanian vehicle identity card. No CIV, no registration — this document follows the car for life.
- Individual homologation (omologare individuală) — but only when the car’s EU conformity can’t be proven with documents. This is the stage the COC lets you skip.
DRPCIV — Direcția Generală Permise de Conducere și Înmatriculări is the registration authority under the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Once RAR has issued the CIV, DRPCIV takes your complete file, issues the registration certificate (certificat de înmatriculare) and your plates.
The order is fixed: fiscal registration first, then RAR, then insurance, then DRPCIV. You cannot book the DRPCIV stage and hope to sort out RAR later — the file is incomplete without the CIV.
The documents: what goes in the file (and where the COC fits)
Here is the complete file for a used car bought in another EU country, in the order you’ll be asked for it:
| Document | Where it comes from | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Foreign registration documents (original) | Comes with the car | Both parts, where the country issues two (e.g. German Zulassungsbescheinigung Teil I + II) |
| Purchase document | Seller | Contract of sale or invoice; a Romanian translation may be requested |
| Certificate of Conformity (COC) | Manufacturer or authorised provider | The document that proves EU type approval. With it: direct CIV. Without it: individual homologation |
| Proof of fiscal registration (ANAF) | ANAF, before RAR | The fișa de înmatriculare stamped/validated for the new owner |
| CIV | Issued by RAR | The output of the RAR stage — goes into the DRPCIV file |
| Authenticity certificate | Issued by RAR | Valid for a limited period — don’t let it expire before your DRPCIV appointment |
| Valid RCA insurance | Any insurer | Must exist before DRPCIV; you can insure on the VIN before plates |
| Your ID | — | Original + copy |
| Payment proofs | — | Registration certificate fee (49 lei) + plates |
One thing worth knowing before you order anything: check that your car actually has EU type approval. Look at field K of the foreign registration certificate — a type approval number starting with a lowercase “e” plus a number (e1, e4, e11) means the car was approved for the EU and a COC exists for it. We’ve covered how to get the COC itself in a separate guide — the short version is that you only need the 17-character VIN, and the original arrives by courier in a matter of days.
For cars first registered after roughly September 2018 (the WLTP emissions era), expect the COC to be treated as effectively mandatory: RAR needs the WLTP emissions values, and the COC is where they live.
The process step by step: fees and timeline
Step 1 — Fiscal registration (ANAF). Register the acquisition with the tax authority and get the fișa de înmatriculare validated. Free, and increasingly doable online. Budget a few days if you go in person.
Step 2 — RAR appointment. Book online at rarom.ro — in Bucharest and the large cities, the first free slot can be two or three weeks out, so book before the car even arrives if you can. Bring the car and the full file. For an EU car with a COC, the visit covers authenticity + CIV, and the package (with ITP where needed) runs around 740–850 lei. If the car has no COC and RAR routes you to individual homologation, the RAR bill changes category: 1,000–1,650+ lei on top of the standard package — roughly twice what you’d pay at RAR with the certificate in hand, and more than the price of most COCs, which start at about €115 (excl. VAT). And it’s not just the money: individual homologation means a separate, longer procedure — a second appointment in a queue that’s already weeks deep, additional technical verifications on the car itself, and in practice several extra weeks before you ever see the CIV.
Step 3 — RCA insurance. Any insurer, on the VIN, before registration. Price depends on engine, age, and county.
Step 4 — DRPCIV. Submit the file: CIV, authenticity certificate, fiscal proof, RCA, ID, purchase document, foreign papers. Fees are modest — 49 lei for the registration certificate and around 40 lei for standard plates. The certificate usually arrives within days; you drive out with plates the same day in most counties.
Total, realistically: for a COC-equipped EU import, most owners land between 1,300 and 2,000 lei all-in (RAR package, DRPCIV fees, plates, translations if any) — excluding RCA. Without a COC, individual homologation pushes the total to 2,600–3,500+ lei — roughly double, plus the extra weeks of waiting. Put bluntly: skipping a ~€115 certificate is the most expensive saving in this whole process.
Timeline: two to four weeks end to end with a COC in the file, and the RAR appointment is almost always the bottleneck. Without one, individual homologation adds its own appointments and checks on top — realistically pushing the whole process past a month. The paperwork itself is a formality when the file is complete.
Why files get rejected: the five classics
RAR and DRPCIV reject or suspend files for predictable reasons. In rough order of frequency:
- Missing conformity proof. No COC, no equivalent type-approval data → the file stalls until you either produce the certificate or enter individual homologation. This is the expensive one, and the most avoidable — we’ve written about what actually happens when you try to register without a COC.
- Incomplete foreign documents. Only one part of a two-part registration document (the German Teil II is the classic missing piece). The seller has it; get it before you pay.
- VIN mismatches. A digit transcribed wrong in the purchase contract, or a genuine identity problem found at the authenticity check. The first is fixable with a corrected contract; the second is a bigger conversation.
- Expired authenticity certificate. It has a validity window. If your DRPCIV appointment slips past it, you’re back at RAR paying again.
- Fiscal registration skipped. Buyers go to RAR first, get turned around, and lose the appointment slot. ANAF comes first. Always.
A note for electric and hybrid imports, which are arriving from Germany in record numbers as leasing returns flood the market: the process is identical, but the COC matters even more, because it carries the WLTP electric range and consumption values RAR records in the CIV. We’ve covered the EV-specific details separately.
FAQ: registering an imported car in Romania
Is the COC mandatory to register an imported car in Romania?
For EU-approved cars, RAR needs proof of conformity, and the COC is the standard way to provide it. For newer cars (WLTP era, roughly September 2018 onward) treat it as mandatory. For older cars, RAR can sometimes work from existing type-approval data — but if it can’t, the alternative is individual homologation at a higher cost than the certificate.
Does RAR accept a PDF COC, or do I need the paper original?
Take the paper original to your appointment. The PDF is useful the moment it arrives — checking data, insuring, preparing the file — but Romanian practice expects the original document in the folder. Serious providers deliver both: PDF by email first, original by courier.
How long does the whole process take?
Two to four weeks for a prepared file, with the RAR appointment as the main variable. Order the COC before the car arrives and book RAR early — those two moves compress the timeline more than anything else. For comparison, Poland gives you exactly 30 days to do the same thing, with an automatic fine if you miss it.
How much does it cost in total?
With a COC: typically 1,300–2,000 lei in fees (RAR ~740–850 lei, DRPCIV ~90 lei with standard plates, plus translations), excluding RCA. Without a COC, RAR routes the car through individual homologation at 1,000–1,650+ lei on top of the standard package — the state fees roughly double, to 2,600–3,500 lei or more, and the process itself stretches from weeks into a month or more, because homologation means extra appointments and extra technical checks.
Can I drive the car while I wait?
Not on the expired foreign plates, once deregistered. The legal bridge is temporary registration (numere provizorii) from DRPCIV — red plates, short validity, and you’ll need them if the RAR queue is long and the car has to move.
What if my car was never approved for the EU — a UK, US, or Japanese import?
Then no COC exists for it, at any price, and individual homologation at RAR is the only route. Check field K before you buy, not after.
Before you order anything, spend thirty seconds checking whether a COC can be issued for your exact vehicle. Enter your VIN in our free eligibility check — you’ll know immediately whether the certificate exists for your car, and you’ll have it in your inbox before RAR has a free appointment to offer you.