How to Register a Car and Get Number Plates in Jordan

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Getting a car registered in Jordan is not one single process. It depends on where the car came from. A freshly imported car needs a first registration. That has to happen before it can legally hit the road. A car you already own just needs its registration renewed. Renewal usually happens once a year. Both paths end at the same government office. But the steps before that point look quite different.

This guide walks through both cases. It also covers how Jordanian number plates work. That includes a real, dated change the government made to certain plates in 2025.

Who Handles Registration in Jordan

The office you deal with is the Drivers and Vehicles Licensing Department, known as DVLD. In Arabic it’s إدارة ترخيص السواقين والمركبات. DVLD sits inside the Traffic Department. The Traffic Department is part of the Public Security Directorate. That directorate reports to the Ministry of Interior.

You don’t need to memorize that chain of command. Just know this: when people say “go to the licensing department,” or “دائرة الترخيص,” they mean a DVLD center. These centers exist in several cities. Each one runs the same basic services: new registration, renewal, and the paperwork tied to both.

One note before we go further. This guide covers registering and renewing a vehicle, and how plates work. It does not cover moving a car from one owner’s name to another. That’s a separate step called ownership transfer. We’ve written about it in detail in our guide to car ownership transfer in Jordan. The two processes are related, but they are not the same thing. Mixing them up is a common mistake for first-time buyers.

Registering a Car for the First Time After Import

From the Port to the Road

Most cars that need a first registration in Jordan arrived from somewhere else. They usually enter through Aqaba port. From there, they get processed at the Zarqa Free Zone.

At that stage, the car goes through a few checks. Officials confirm it meets Jordan’s technical rules for import. It also gets checked against an Interpol database. That confirms it wasn’t reported stolen somewhere else. None of this is registration itself. But a car can’t move on to registration until it clears these checks.

Then comes customs. Jordan Customs works out duties on the car based on things like engine size and value. Those duties have to be paid before the car can be registered. That’s its own process, with its own paperwork. It’s genuinely a separate topic. We cover it fully in our guide to customs fees for imported cars in Jordan. That guide explains what “customs-cleared” means, and why it changes a car’s price.

Only once customs clearance is done can a car get first registration and Jordanian plates. You cannot register before that stage. If you’re buying a recently imported car from someone else, ask directly whether this first registration is fully finished. Don’t settle for “in progress.”

One detail worth flagging honestly: sources disagree on the age limit for personal-use imported vehicles. Some say five years. Others say ten. Since even industry sources don’t agree, this guide won’t state a specific number as fact. If you’re importing a car yourself, or buying one that arrived recently, confirm the current age limit directly with DVLD or a licensed customs broker. Don’t assume your car qualifies.

This Is Different From Buying an Already-Registered Car

Say you’re buying a used car that’s already registered in Jordan. It has already gone through this whole process. What you need instead is ownership transfer: moving the registration from the seller’s name to yours. That’s a faster, more routine visit to DVLD. It’s the subject of its own guide on this site.

The confusion usually shows up with recently imported cars sold soon after they arrive. A buyer assumes it works like any other used car purchase. Then they find out the seller never finished first registration at all. Always ask when the car arrived in Jordan. Ask whether it already carries a registration book in the seller’s name. If it doesn’t, you’re not buying a registered car. You’re buying one that still needs the process this section describes.

Renewing a Car You Already Own

Once a car is registered, keeping that registration valid means renewing it. That usually happens once a year. This is the process most Jordanian car owners deal with regularly. It looks fairly consistent across most accounts of how it works.

What Happens at the Center

You can handle renewal in person, at a DVLD center. In some cases, you can also use the government’s online e-services portal instead. Either way, the process generally follows a similar order.

First, the car goes through a technical and safety inspection lane. This isn’t a full mechanical overhaul. It’s a check that basic safety equipment works, and that the car meets minimum mechanical standards. Then staff verify your documents: the registration book, your ID, and anything else tied to the vehicle. At some point, the system checks for outstanding traffic violations. If there are any, they usually need to be settled first.

Insurance comes next. It’s worth understanding this clearly: insurance in Jordan is sold by private insurance companies. It is not issued by the government itself. Several of these companies often run small offices in or right next to the licensing building. That way, drivers can arrange or renew a policy on the spot. If your current policy has expired, or is about to, you’ll need a valid one before renewal can finish. We go into this in more detail in our guide to car insurance in Jordan. It covers what coverage typically involves, and how to compare options.

Once the inspection is done, your documents check out, and insurance is in place, the last step is simple. You pay the renewal fee. Then you get your renewed registration document. That’s the short version. In practice, the order of these steps, and how long each one takes, can shift a bit by center and by how busy it is that day.

How Often Does a Car Need a Technical Inspection?

This is one spot where the honest answer is “it depends.” We can’t state a specific number with confidence. Some sources say new vehicles are exempt from mandatory inspection for an initial period. After that, periodic inspection kicks in. But the exact interval, whether it’s one year, two years, or something else, isn’t something we could confirm from a primary source. If this matters for your car, ask directly at your DVLD center. Check its current published rules, rather than relying on a number from an article like this one.

What the 2025 Fee Change Might Mean for You

Jordan changed how it calculates the annual vehicle licensing fee starting January 1, 2025. Before that date, the fee was based mainly on a car’s engine size. Under the new system, at least for newly registered vehicles, the fee is based on the car’s pre-customs value instead. Hybrid and electric vehicles get lower rates.

Here’s roughly how it broke down as of early 2025, according to reporting at the time:

Hybrids get a 25 percent discount off the gasoline rate. Electric vehicles get 50 percent off. A car that has reached five years old, counted from its manufacture date, gets a further 20 percent cut under this newer system. If you’re weighing a hybrid or a fully electric car partly for the running costs, this fee gap is worth factoring in.

One important catch: cars already licensed before December 31, 2024 stay on the older, engine-size-based fee system. They don’t switch over automatically. So the table above may not apply to every car you’re looking at.

We’re flagging this table with a clear warning. Treat it as a snapshot of the rules as they stood in early 2025, not a permanent fact. Jordan has changed this fee method before. By the time you’re reading this, months or years may have passed since that change. Confirm the actual current fee with DVLD before you budget around any number here, ours included.

How Jordanian Number Plates Work

The Format, and That Oval on the Plate

If you’ve spent any time around Jordanian traffic, you’ve seen the plates. It’s a rectangular plate with a string of numbers. Next to it sits an oval badge with the letters HKJ, short for Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. That code marks the car’s country of origin. Similar oval codes work the same way across Europe and elsewhere.

The current plate style dates back to a reform in 2007. It was built along lines broadly similar to European-format plates. That’s the baseline version most private cars carry today.

The 2025 Change: Letter Codes for Government Plates

In July 2025, Jordan’s Cabinet approved a real, dated change to part of the plate system. It added letter-code prefixes for specific official and government categories of vehicles. According to reporting from Roya News, dated July 27, 2025, the new letter codes include:

• PM for the Prime Minister and Ministers
• SN for the Senate
• PR for the House of Representatives
• JC for the Judicial Council
• GV for government entities generally
• AQ for vehicles registered under the Aqaba Special Economic Zone
• CD for diplomatic missions
• TM for temporary entry vehicles

It’s worth being precise about what this reform does and doesn’t touch. It applies only to official and government-category plates. It does not apply to ordinary private cars. It does not apply to public or commercial vehicles, or cargo vehicles, either. Those all keep the older numeric-prefix system they always used. If you’re registering or renewing a normal private car, this reform isn’t something you need to plan around. It’s useful background, not a change to your own plate. For more general background on plate formats, see the Wikipedia entry on vehicle registration plates of Jordan.

Plate Colors: A Common Claim We Won’t State as Fact

You’ll often hear that Jordan uses a color scheme for plates. The common version says white backgrounds for private cars, and green for taxis or public transport. This description shows up often enough to be worth mentioning here. But we couldn’t confirm it as a fixed, official rule from a reliable primary source. Conventions like this can vary, or shift over time. Treat it as a general impression, not something to rely on. Check current practice locally if it matters for your situation.

Do Plates Stay With the Car, or Get Reissued at Sale?

This is a genuinely unclear point, and we’d rather say that plainly than guess. When a car changes hands through ownership transfer, the available sources don’t say clearly whether the existing plates stay on the car or get reissued. If this detail matters to you, say you’re attached to a specific plate number, ask directly at DVLD during the transfer. Don’t assume either way.

If a Plate Is Lost, Damaged, or Stolen

Plates do occasionally get lost, damaged in a collision, or stolen off a parked car. The general shape of what to do isn’t complicated. If a plate is stolen, report it to the police first. Then apply for a replacement through DVLD. Beyond that broad outline, we don’t have reliable sourcing on the exact steps, the required documents, or what a replacement plate costs. We’d rather leave that gap open than invent a number or a process. If this happens to you, DVLD staff at your local center can walk you through the current procedure.

Choosing a Car That Makes Registration Simple

None of this process changes based on which marketplace you used to find the car. But how the car got to you can make registration smoother, or messier.

A car bought through a platform that verifies sellers, like Ordonauto, is more likely to come with clean, complete paperwork from the start. Larger, more open marketplaces such as OpenSooq and AutoBeeb carry a wider mix of sellers. Some are more careful about documentation than others. The same goes for sites like Hatla2ee, Dubizzle Jordan, and Dooz. None of these platforms handle registration for you. What they can affect is how much digging you need to do first, to confirm a car’s registration and customs status are in order.

Before you commit to any car, especially one that arrived in Jordan recently, ask directly: is this car already registered, or does it still need first registration? Whichever answer you get, you’ll know exactly which process from this guide applies to you. For a wider look at comparing marketplaces and vetting sellers, see our homepage guide to Jordan’s car marketplaces.