The registration plate is linked to the owner of the vehicle and depends on where that person is registered as living, or 'zameldowany", in the case of a physical owner, or if it is owned by a company, the place of registration is determined by the seat of the company. Vehicles leased under operating leases and many de facto finance leases will be registered at the seat of the lessor. When a vehicle changes hands, it is usual for the new owner to obtain a new licence plate and a new vehicle registration document corresponding to his or her registered address.
The change in system shown below in 2001 is related to the reduction in the previous year of the number of voivodeships in Poland from 49 to 16, in order to reduce the proportion of the national budget on administration, and this was modelled on the German model of "Länder".
In the pre-2000 model, there were not sufficient letters in the Polish alphabet (incidentally, specific Polish symbols such as Ł, Ś, Ó, Ą, Ę, Ż,Ź,Ń and Ć are not used in order to make the plates fully internationally readable) for each old voivodeship to have a single letter, and so in that section you will note that the first two letters needed to be memorised in order to know the region that the car you might note on the road was registered in. Since the change, a single letter denotes the new voivodeship, and the second and possibly third letters the region within the voivodeship, which may correspond to a powiat or gmina boundary, or several such conjoining boundaries within the voivodeship.
It is not necessary for EU citizens to re-register the vehicles they have brought with them, which are duly registered and taxed elsewhere in the EU, when living in Poland. This emerges from European law, although local regulations have to date not been changed to reflect the law, leading to officials locally sometimes giving incorrect advice on this point. If in doubt, refer to your Embassy.
Polish car number plates since May 1, 2000
Polish 2000 series car plates have black letters on a white background. Each town/district has its two or three letter code. There are lots of possibilities in creating a car's number.
Two letters town/district (#-letter, *-digit) has five possible configuration: ## *****, ## ****#, ## ***## and ## *#***, ## *##** possible since November 14, 2006.
Three letters town/district might have nine following combinations: ### #***, ### **##, ### *#**, ### **#*, ### *##*, ### ##** and ### *****, ### ****#, ### ***## possible since May 2, 2006.
Motors/mopeds/agricultural vehicles have ## **** or ## ***# in towns/districts with a 2-letter code or the same as first 6 combinations on cars in districts with a 3-letter code - black text on white background.
Oldtimers have ## **# (a 2-letter code) or ### *# (3-letter code) - black text on yellow background.
Temporary and export vehicle #* ****, #* ***# (first letter indicates region) red text on white background. #* *** B - for testing vehicle
Personalized plates: #* ###, #* ##*, #* #**, #* ####, #* ###*, #* ##**, #* #####, #* ####*, #* ###** (3-5 signs and no more than two last signs might be a digit). First letter indicates region (voivodeship) and next is serial digit. Black on white background.
Diplomatic plates # ******. White symbols on blue background (Most of them have W at the beginning. First three digits indicate country.
There shouldn't be letters B, D, I, O, Z in car's number (part of number after the hyphen) It doesn't consider town/district indicator and personalized tables. However, in some districts, such plates were issued. Q is not used at all.
Note: Plates issued after May 2 2006 have the 12 EU stars instead of the national flag.
Polish license plate from RadomskoPolish oldtimer's license plate from Zabrze
HM# - Military Counterintelligence Agency, Military Intelligence Agency
1976 - 2000 series
Polish license plate 1976-2000 series from (KA) - Katowice
Plates 1976 - 2000 series are still valid. It has white letters on black background. There was coding too: ### **** or ### ***# (at the beginning configuration with letter in the end was used for public cars only)
There was following coding (49 regions):
First letters on series 1975 - 2000 indicates area...
