General information
Main rules
Vehicle registration is managed by the Ministry responsible for Transport. Vehicle registration certificates are issued by the Société Nationale de Circulation Automobile (SNCA). There are two parts to the registration certificate. The SNCA issues a registration certificate on the basis of a valid European or national certificate of conformity for that vehicle. If there is no such certificate, the SNCA issues a registration certificate on the basis of minutes of the individual national type-approval of the vehicle. Old-format registration certificates not complying with Directive 1999/37/EC have all been exchanged or are invalid. A temporary registration certificate can be issued if a vehicle owner wishes to transfer the registration number from one vehicle to another vehicle. The certificate is issued for the old vehicle when the owner transfers the registration certificate for the old vehicle to the SNCA or to a vehicle trader. The temporary registration certificate may not be used to register the vehicle abroad and only covers use of the vehicle on public roads in Luxembourg.
Period of validity
A registration certificate automatically becomes invalid when the document has been withdrawn by Luxembourg officials or lost. It also automatically expires when the vehicle is lost or stolen, declared destroyed or not in use, transferred to a new owner, modified or transformed, not covered by a valid roadworthiness test certificate or conformity sticker (for vehicles not required to pass roadworthiness tests) or has overdue road tax (overdue for more than four years for vehicles of historical interest and two years for other vehicles). A temporary registration certificate automatically expires at the end of the third working day following the date of issue.
