Job Discussion Forums

TeacherDude95 · Joined: 10 Jul 2015 Posts: 19

Hi,

I wonder if anyone can give me advice. I will be relocating to Bahrain for work soon, after 5.5 years in KSA, and I am looking for information about how I can transfer my Saudi registered car to be re-registered in Bahrain.

I also want to move my furniture over there so would like to know whether it is just easier to sell everything and buy it all again once in Bahrain or try to move it over myself or with some removal companies?

Anybody have any suggestions? My car is about 4 years old and registered in Riyadh. Some people say it's easy to re-register it in Bahrain while others say it isn't.

Anyone have any information or links about this? I have looked on the internet but cannot find anything at all.

Thanks in advance.

TD95

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

I would ask a local moving company. Ask around there and see if anyone has worked with any of them. I moved a 1/2 container by ship from Kuwait to Oman some years ago and the moving company took care of everything. It shouldn't cost that much for your short move since it can be trucked over.

Of course, the simplest thing is to just sell most everything and buy new... but you should be able to drive your car there... and fill it with what you want to keep. It shouldn't be all that difficult to transfer a 4 year old car. Yes, it will be a PITA, but cheaper than selling and buying a new one. You will probably need an export tag from Saudi... and then you register it in Bahrain.

VS

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

There are specialist companies that will move the car and get it registered for you. Ask around locally.

Doing it yourself is possible but is guaranteed to raise your BP and test your skills in Spoken Arabic.

sicklyman · Joined: 02 Feb 2013 Posts: 930

From a colleague who has done it:

Exporting/Importing the car was a very long and frustrating process which I don’t recommend. Half way through I wished I had never started it, but it was too late by then and my only option was to push on.

I should have written all the stages down, but I didn’t and there were too many to remember. Briefly the stages went like this:

1. You have to start at the traffic police in Saudi. Take an Arabic speaker with you. They inspect the car and take your estimara from you, remove your plates and put export plates on the car.

2. Then you go to the export section on the Saudi side of the causeway. The have weird clerks that process the clearance papers of the car.

3. Then you arrive in the import section on the Bahraini side. You have to pay the duty on the car and have the car inspected again. And then there are some more weird clerks who process clearance papers on the Bahraini side. You also then get Import plates there. I can’t remember if you need to have had the car insured by a Bahraini insurance company before or after this stage, I think before, or else your car will get stuck there. You get insurance based on the chassis number of the car because you don’t have plates yet.

4. Finally you go to Isa Town and complete the registration and they will give you your actual plates.

Each of the steps above has at least 10 steps within them and requires multiple forms to be stamped many many times.

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

I assume that just like between Kuwait and Oman with my car, a moving company can deal with all of this. I was only involved in a couple of the many steps. I had to go with the man from the moving company to get the export plate in Kuwait. And I had to provide a letter of employment on the Oman side. It tends to be worth every cent to pay people to do these things... especially as it was a brand new car.

VS