Does anyone else have the special license plates given to L-permit holders? They're the regular plates, but they have a red sticker on them indicating the month during which the permit expires. I've been looking around, but mine is the only car I've seen with the stickers.

We got pulled out of line crossing back in from Italy the other day, and I'm wondering if our big red stickers mean this is going to happen to us every time we cross.

I think under normal circumstances we might have gotten searched, but the fact that we drive a Cinquecento kind of limits the immigrant- or grocery-smuggling options, so they just checked our documents and sent us on our way.

you are importing the car, I assume?
You have until the month shown in the red block to effectively import the car.

Nope, I bought the car here. The dealer said the special stickers were because I had an L permit; they won't issue you plates that are valid for longer than your residence permit is.

Maybe it's just a Ticino thing?

hmm interesting - I'm sure those plates are for import/export. So they assume they're getting rid of you soon?

Ask at the licence and registration centre down there.

I got my first car on a B but have not heard of those plates being given for L permit holders. Did you buy the car outright?

Yup, paid a whole CHF3500 cash for it. It had apparently been registered in Switzerland before - it has a smog disk that expires this summer, so it must have been around 2 years. It also came inspected (or "collaudato" as we say down here), which presumably means it's already a swiss-legal car...

--tg

so you bought it outside Switzerland?

Nope, bought it from an established dealer in Ticino.