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Frequently Asked Questions
While the country has several ports bustling with activity (and others temporarily disrupted), the biggest and most important export/import center for Ukraine is the Odessa Sea Port. It is the largest port in the country and a major commerce center in the Black Sea region.
Not only does Odessa handle freighting operations in bulk, but is also a hub for passenger transport operations alongside the sister ports of Chornomorsk and Yuzhne. It has an annual cargo tonnage of over 31, 368,000 tons, 523,881 TEUs of yearly container volume, and passenger traffic exceeding 4 million every year!
For most of the international shipping operations, including car shipments, the port of Odessa is the most suitable destination seaport.
The cost varies drastically based on the type of vehicle being shipped and other factors like the optimal route, the container shipping services and whether or not you get a tax exemption. In general, the cost range is $2,400-$5,200, and if you’re confused about such variance, that’s because car shipment involves a lot of variables.
Do your research thoroughly and see how you can minimize the costs, i.e. by securing tax exemptions, better route planning, choosing a suitable vehicle shipment option to ship vehicles through, and so on.
The major portion of the time taken by the shipment process is covered by the overseas delivery of the cargo. Here, the time taken depends on the total distance traveled that varies from route to route. Based on the original location of the vehicle, you will have to pick a departure port, and your final destination port will most likely be Odessa.
For the California port to Odessa route, your shipment will take about 65 days to get through. However, if you choose the New York port to Odessa course, your car shipment will reach Ukraine in around 32 days. Of course, your choice of the departure port will depend on the current location of your vehicle.
A two-month delivery time is possible with the New York to Odessa route, however, if your shipment is coming from California, then you'll have to be more patient because in that case, it will take 65 days only to scale the overseas distance.
Here is the list of required documents for car shipping from the USA to Ukraine:
- Lading bill
- Your passport
- A valid visa
- Driver’s license from the USA
- Insurance coverage documents, applicable internationally
- Cargo declaration documents for the customs department
- Documents proving the origin and model year of the vehicle
- Certificate of conformity
- Taxes and duties payment record/receipts
- Bill of sale/invoice stating the price of the vehicle and its specifications
- Customs value declaration
- Certificate of title for the vehicle
If you have all of these at hand, then clearing the Ukrainian customs should not be troublesome for you, just make sure that the details on all of the documents are accurate.
The preparation part is very important if you want to avoid any trouble with the customs and the imports processing. You'll first have to clean the vehicle, both the exterior and the interior; this includes cleaning the undercarriage as well, preferably via steam cleaning.
Also, if you’re planning to use the open-air shipment method (roll-on, roll-off), you’ll have to make sure that none of your personal belongings are inside the vehicle.
Plus, you’ll have to fill the gas tank to the quarter of its limit, no more than that. You have fill the oil and check the water level also.
With all of this done, you’re good to go!
Once your vehicle arrives at the destination port, the customs department will take over. Their job is to ensure that the vehicle is the same as declared and that all the details declared on the documents are accurate so that they can determine the tax and duties.
As for the duties and taxes, there is a formula through which the department will assign you a sum in duties. Recently passed laws in the country have established base rates: EUR 50 in the case of gas-run vehicles and EUR 75 in the case of diesel-run vehicles.
These base rates are then multiplied with the cubic capacity for fuel storage of the car and its age (i.e. the time from the manufacturing date to present).
It works out something like this:
Base rate x fuel capacity x vehicle’s age
The resultant sum will be the customs duties for an imported vehicle, plus you'll also have to pay a value-added tax (VAT) of 20%, a 10% import duty, and a 3-5% contribution to the pension fund. Of course, you don't have to pay any of this for temporary import, but for permanent imports (as a Ukrainian citizen), all of this will be applicable.
In theory, the laws for car imports in Ukraine couldn’t be better, but in practicality, it is a completely different thing.
The customs officials and the bureaucrats are known for making the process much more complicated than it needs to be, and this often leads people to not registering their vehicle at all (and bribing traffic officers whenever stopped).
This is, of course, far from the ideal situation.
You can avoid such troubles by giving charge to a reputed car shipping company like A1 Auto Transport. This way, you’ll ensure that your vehicle passes the customs and the rest of the process problem-free, we’ll see to it that this is the case.
Intermediary services like this are necessary if you want to get things done, especially since you need to be able to speak and understand Ukrainian to get things done, which most temporary immigrants can’t.
Can you summarize the car registration process for imported vehicles?
As noted earlier, you'll need to speak Ukrainian to get your car cleared and registered in the country. If you don't have a decent grasp of the language, you'll need someone to lend you their services in the matter.
When you reach out to the registration office, you’ll need to provide them the following for getting your car registered:
- Customs clearance documents
- Export Vehicle Documentation including Vehicle registration documents from the USA (or the country originally registered with)
- A copy of your passport
- License plates from the USA
- Visa (only if it is applicable in your case)
- Insurance documents
- Payment for license plate and car registration
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