DMV Certificate of Exportation: Is It Required?

Shipping your vehicles from the United States is a road filled with rules and regulations. US Customs requires certain procedures to be followed and paperwork to be completed. The destination country you are shipping to also has requirements to be met in order to get your vehicles into the country. Then there is the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) which also requires you to submit a Certificate of Exportation (Reg. 32). But are you required to waste a few hours at the DMV in order to export your car? Not necessarily. 

The primary reason why the DMV wants to require you to submit the Certificate of Exportation is to make sure you have paid all the fees on the vehicles to the DMV. However, what if you purchased a car from a seller who owes fees on it? The DMV expects you to pay it before taking the vehicle overseas.

You will still be able to export the car from the US whether the DMV fees are paid for or not. US customs is only worried about vehicles that are either stolen or have liens on them from a bank which are not paid of, or are forbidden to be exported by the bank. 

So don't waste your time at the DMV trying to settle up someone else's debt.