Vehicle Registration for Multi-year Trip

[Late tom]

We have a 4Runner licensed and registered in Texas, United States.

We will ship our 4Runner to Australia in May 2016. Phase 1 of our travel will end in Turkey in Dec. 2017. Phase II will begin in Turkey in Jan. 2018 -- home for Xmas in 2017.

Our registration for our 4Runner is good for one year. It is our plans for our 4Runner to be in various parts of the world but not Texas, U.S. for the next several years.

Is a license plate sufficient when traveling or do you need a registration sticker? If you need a stickler how does one secure a sticker when the vehicle is no longer in its home country much less its home state?

 

[The Howards]

I don't think a lot of countries in Americas care, but if Australia does, Arizona allows you to register for up to 5 years at a time, as long as you don't live where emission tests are required, which is Phoenix and Tucson.

 

[Mr Rehab]

We have a 4Runner licensed and registered in Texas, United States.

Is a license plate sufficient when traveling or do you need a registration sticker? If you need a stickler how does one secure a sticker when the vehicle is no longer in its home country much less its home state?

We have an Australian registered truck we have been using through SE Asia -China-Russia-Central Asia-Europe over the last 4 yrs. Nobody has ever looked for or queried a rego sticker however our registration papers are used at border crossings to arrange a temporary import, mostly this has been pretty relaxed but sometimes the Customs officials will crosscheck engine numbers against the rego details. We carry copies of our original sales purchase for proof of ownership - Aust rego papers carry statements that they are not proof of ownership, which can be unhelpful.
Maintaining valid registration for your home country is also important for any insurance coverage.

 

[Late tom]

After emailing everyone I could think of and visiting the local county courthouse: (1) you may re-register your vehicle in Texas while you are outside the state of Texas (2) there is a form which you may download from the internet which allows you to by-pass the required TX inspection until the vehicle is back in the state of TX (3) you must show proof of insurance -- and the insurance company must be registered in the state of TX, so you must keep your US insurance although it is no good in a foreign country and no foreign country's insurance company is registered in the US so although you must buy a foreign policy it doesn't help with maintaining your registration in the state of TX, USA. You might want to chance keeping your insurance for a month, get your registration, and cancel the insurance but this may cause your vehicle to be flagged and cause problems the following year when you attempt to re-register again in Texas.