Guide
Moving car registration across the border
Last reviewed
A Victorian car always needs a NSW blue slip; a NSW car moving to Victoria usually needs no roadworthy at all. What the border actually costs.
Nobody moves house and thinks about the car. It sits in the driveway at the new place in Wodonga with New South Wales plates still on it, and a fortnight later somebody at work mentions you were meant to do something about that. It happens the other way too. You buy a ute from a yard on Melbourne Road, drive it home to Lavington, and find the registration you assumed came with it stopped being any use the moment you crossed the bridge.
What follows is what each state actually requires when a vehicle crosses the Murray for good. Every rule here was checked against Service NSW, Transport for NSW, VicRoads, Revenue NSW, the State Revenue Office Victoria, SIRA and the Transport Accident Commission in August 2026. Fees, duty thresholds and TAC charges in both states are indexed and most moved on 1 July 2026, so treat every figure as current at that date and no further.
The asymmetry that explains almost everything
The two states do not treat an incoming vehicle the same way, and once that lands the rest makes sense.
Victoria takes a New South Wales car largely on trust. VicRoads does not require a Certificate of Roadworthiness if the interstate registration is current, or expired less than three months before the day of your appointment, and the vehicle is going into the same name it was already registered in. The vehicle must not have been modified, and it must now be garaged in Victoria.
New South Wales inspects every time. Transport for NSW lists "has been brought into NSW from another state or territory" as a circumstance that requires an Authorised Unregistered Vehicle Inspection Scheme report, better known as a blue slip. Current Victorian registration does not change that.
So the Albury household moving to Wodonga books an appointment and hands over the plates. The Wodonga household moving to Albury books an inspection first, then queues at Service NSW with a folder of paper. Same river, very different afternoon.
Taking your own car from Albury to Wodonga
You cannot do this online. VicRoads requires an appointment in person at a Customer Service Centre.
Bring the New South Wales plates, which are surrendered on the spot, a completed vehicle registration form, and evidence of identity including your Victorian garage address if it differs from your residential address. At the counter VicRoads checks the documents, takes the plates and gives you a receipt, takes payment for registration and TAC charges, and issues Victorian plates. Bring a screwdriver. The new plates must be on before you drive away, and the car park is where most people learn this.
You do not pay motor vehicle duty. VicRoads says so plainly on its own page, and the State Revenue Office confirms the exemption applies when a person registers a vehicle in Victoria in the same name as its previous interstate registration.
The three month figure is the one to diarise. If your New South Wales registration lapsed more than three months before your appointment date, the waiver is gone and you need a Victorian roadworthy from a licensed vehicle tester. Book the VicRoads appointment while the New South Wales rego is still alive, not after it dies.
Taking your own car from Wodonga to Albury
Start with the blue slip. An Authorised Unregistered Vehicle Inspection Scheme report is required and there is no talking your way out of it. The maximum fee for a light vehicle is $82 including GST, and $51 for a motorcycle, effective 1 July 2026. The report is valid for 42 days, so there is no advantage in getting it early. Find an accredited station on the New South Wales side through vehicle inspection providers in Albury.
Then buy a compulsory third party green slip. You cannot register without one, and you buy it yourself from a licensed insurer before you go near Service NSW.
Then lodge the lot: the Application for Registration form, proof of identity, proof of registration entitlement, the original hard copy of the blue slip, your CTP, and the original Victorian number plates. Claim the stamp duty exemption by producing your current Victorian certificate of registration in your name. Revenue NSW exempts a vehicle registered in your name in another state or territory on which you have already paid duty.
If the car is unregistered when you need to drive it to the inspection, apply for an unregistered vehicle permit. It covers one journey by the most direct route and, in Service NSW's words, "cannot be used as a substitute for full registration".
Where the rules differ
| Registering in New South Wales | Registering in Victoria | |
|---|---|---|
| Your own car, rego current | Blue slip required regardless | No roadworthy required |
| Your own car, rego lapsed | Blue slip required regardless | No roadworthy if lapsed under 3 months |
| Car bought across the border | Blue slip required | Victorian roadworthy from a licensed tester |
| Inspection fee | Capped at $82 for a light vehicle | Not price regulated |
| Injury insurance | CTP green slip, bought separately before registering | TAC charge, billed inside the registration |
| What sets that premium | Insurer's own rating, including your demerit points | Vehicle class and postcode risk zone only |
| Duty on moving your own car | Exempt, produce the interstate certificate | Exempt, same name as the previous registration |
| New plates | $58 | $44.20 for a pair |
| Booking | Walk in to a Service NSW centre | Appointment only, in person |
The green slip and the TAC charge are not the same thing
This is the difference that costs people the most and is understood the least.
In New South Wales, compulsory third party cover is a separate product. You shop for it. SIRA regulates the scheme but insurers set their own prices, adjusting the premium on rating factors that include your age, driving history, demerit points, claims history, the age of the vehicle, whether you hold comprehensive cover and where the car is parked. Demerit points from the past three years and four months can lift the price even if the points themselves have since been removed. The total always includes GST and the Fund Levy, which averaged $190.60 across all policyholders from 15 January 2026, up from $164.80 the year before.
In Victoria there is nothing to shop for. The Transport Accident Commission charge arrives inside the registration bill, and it is set by two things only: the class of vehicle and the postcode where it is garaged. Your driving record is irrelevant to it.
Postcodes matter, and Wodonga does well out of them. The 2026 schedule lists the high risk and medium risk postcodes and states that Victorian postcodes not listed are deemed low risk. No postcode in the 3600s appears on either list. For a sedan, station wagon or 4WD passenger vehicle in the low risk zone, the annual TAC charge is $429.00, plus $39.00 GST and $42.90 duty, for a total of $471.90. The same car garaged in metropolitan Melbourne pays $606.10. Pensioners get 50 per cent off the TAC charge, eligible apprentices pay none of it, and the charge is indexed to CPI every 1 July.
A driver carrying demerit points who moves from Albury to Wodonga can watch their injury premium fall for reasons that have nothing to do with them. Moving the other way, the same record starts costing money again.
What a year costs on each side
The two states measure vehicles differently, New South Wales by tare weight and Victoria by body type and carrying capacity, so what follows compares bills rather than like for like categories.
| Annual cost, ordinary family car | Albury | Wodonga |
|---|---|---|
| Registration fee | $84 | included |
| Vehicle tax or registration charge | $391 (private, 1,151 to 1,500 kg tare) | included |
| Injury insurance | green slip, priced by your insurer | included |
| Knowable before you start | $475 plus a green slip | $824.60 |
For the two to land in the same place, that Albury green slip would need to come in at roughly $350. Whether it does depends entirely on who is driving.
The gap widens for work vehicles. A private ute or van in the 1,501 to 2,500 kg tare band pays $596 in New South Wales motor vehicle tax, and $924 if it is used for business, before the green slip. In Victoria, a ute, tray or van up to two tonnes in the rural low risk zone is $676.70 for the year, TAC included. Tradespeople working both sides of the river out of Wodonga and Albury tend to find this out when the first renewal lands.
Registration follows where the vehicle is garaged, not where you collect your post. Victoria's duty exemption is conditional on the Commissioner being satisfied the interstate registration was not made to avoid Victorian duty. A border postcode of convenience is not a plan.
Duty only bites when you buy
Nobody pays stamp duty twice for moving. Both states exempt a vehicle coming across in the same name. Duty applies when ownership changes, which is where buying across the river gets interesting.
New South Wales charges $3 for every $100 of value up to $44,999. From $45,000 it is published as $1,350 plus $5 for every $100. The $1,350 is exactly the duty on the first $45,000 at the lower rate, so the $5 applies to the value above it. Use the Revenue NSW calculator rather than working it out in your head.
Victoria charges by the $200. From 1 July 2026, an ordinary passenger car up to $80,809 is $8.40 per $200 or part thereof, rising to $10.40 to $100,000, $14.00 to $150,000 and $18.00 above that. A green passenger car, meaning combined tailpipe emissions of 120 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre or less, stays at $8.40 at any value. New non-passenger vehicles, a category that includes utes, dual cabs and motorcycles, are $5.40 per $200, but a used one being transferred goes back to $8.40.
On a $30,000 used sedan that is $900 of duty in New South Wales against $1,260 in Victoria. On a $50,000 one it is $1,600 against $2,100. Duty is only part of the sum, and a better car at a Wodonga dealer can still beat a worse one in Albury, but the difference is real money and belongs in the sums.
Buying a car interstate and bringing it into Victoria is a different transaction from moving your own. VicRoads requires a roadworthy from a Victorian licensed vehicle tester in that case, because the vehicle is not yet registered in your name.
What happens to the rego you are leaving behind
Registering in the new state does not necessarily cancel the old one. VicRoads warns of exactly this. You have to go and end it yourself.
Leaving New South Wales, you lodge a refund request with Service NSW using form 1565, with the interstate surrendered plate receipt or the New South Wales plates, proof of identity and your new interstate certificate of registration. Only the motor vehicle tax comes back. The registration fee and the plate fee do not. Allow six to eight weeks.
Leaving Victoria, you cancel through myVicRoads and request the refund on the same form. The refund covers the time left on your registration, less a $22.10 processing fee and 10 per cent of the TAC charge. If the remainder is smaller than those deductions you get nothing. Payment lands within ten business days.
The green slip is the one that catches people. SIRA's published eligibility for a partial CTP refund covers vehicles that have been written off, taken to an auto wrecker, or stolen. A move interstate is not on that list, and a sold vehicle is expressly excluded because the policy attaches to the car rather than the owner. Ring your insurer before assuming anything, and if you have any choice about timing, moving to Victoria near the end of your green slip year is worth real money.
The pink slip rule that catches border towns
Once you are registered in New South Wales and living in Albury, your annual safety inspection has to happen in New South Wales. Transport for NSW will accept an interstate inspection report only if you are more than 50 kilometres from the New South Wales border.
Read that again if you live in Albury, Corowa, Mulwala, Tocumwal or Moama. The concession exists for people genuinely distant from the state, which means it is precisely the border towns that cannot use it. The workshop three minutes away in Wodonga may have serviced the car for a decade. Its roadworthy certificate will not renew your pink slip. A Wagga Wagga driver stranded in Victoria has options here. An Albury one does not.
Victoria is simpler in reverse: it requires a roadworthy on sale and on certain registrations, not annually.
The order to do things in
Going to Victoria: book the VicRoads appointment first, while the New South Wales registration is still current. Attend with plates, form, identity documents and a screwdriver. Pay registration, TAC and plates. Then lodge form 1565 with Service NSW for the motor vehicle tax refund, and ring your green slip insurer.
Coming to New South Wales: blue slip first, because it expires in 42 days and everything else hangs off it. Green slip second. Service NSW third, with the Victorian plates and your Victorian certificate of registration for the duty exemption. Cancel the Victorian registration through myVicRoads last, using the receipt Service NSW gives you.
Two dates decide most of the cost: the day your current registration expires, and the day the blue slip or the VicRoads appointment lands. Get those in the right order and the rest is queueing. Get them wrong and you are paying for an inspection twice, or driving something a highway patrol car can defect on the Lincoln Causeway. If you need a workshop on either side before you start, the directory lists mechanics in Albury, mechanics in Wodonga and inspection stations across the border region.
Sources
Checked on 2026-08-25. Government fees and rules are indexed and revised, so open the source before you rely on a figure.
Questions this guide gets asked
How long do I have to register my car after moving across the NSW and Victorian border?
Neither regulator publishes the grace period people expect. Service NSW states that a vehicle kept or garaged in NSW without NSW registration is considered unregistered, which makes the effective deadline immediate. Victoria sets no day count either, but ties a real consequence to a date: if your interstate registration expired more than three months before your VicRoads appointment, you lose the roadworthy waiver and must buy a Victorian certificate of roadworthiness.
Do I need a NSW blue slip if my Victorian registration is still current?
Yes. Transport for NSW lists a vehicle brought into NSW from another state or territory as one of the circumstances that requires an Authorised Unregistered Vehicle Inspection Scheme report. Current Victorian registration makes no difference to that. The maximum fee for a light vehicle is $82 including GST as at 1 July 2026, and the report is valid for 42 days, so book it close to your Service NSW visit rather than months ahead.
Will I pay stamp duty twice if I move my own car across the border?
No. Both states exempt a vehicle that keeps the same owner. Revenue NSW exempts a vehicle registered in your name in another state or territory on which duty has already been paid, and you prove it with the current interstate certificate of registration. Victoria exempts a vehicle registered in the same name as its previous interstate registration, provided the Commissioner is satisfied the interstate registration was not made to avoid Victorian duty.
Is the Victorian TAC charge the same thing as a NSW green slip?
They do the same job and are priced in opposite ways. A NSW green slip is a separate policy you buy from a licensed insurer before registering, and insurers rate it on factors including your age, driving history, demerit points, claims history and where the car is parked. Victoria's TAC charge sits inside the registration bill and is set only by vehicle class and the garaging postcode. Your driving record does not affect it.
Can I use a Wodonga roadworthy certificate for my Albury pink slip?
No. Transport for NSW accepts an interstate inspection report only if you are more than 50 kilometres from the NSW border. Albury, Corowa, Mulwala, Tocumwal and Moama all sit inside that radius, so the concession that exists for distant motorists is unavailable to the towns closest to Victoria. Your annual safety inspection has to be done at an authorised inspection station on the NSW side of the river.
What registration refund do I get when I leave the state?
Leaving NSW, only the motor vehicle tax is refundable. The registration fee and the number plate fee are not, and Service NSW allows six to eight weeks to process form 1565. Leaving Victoria, the refund covers the time left on the registration, less a $22.10 processing fee and 10 per cent of the TAC charge, paid within ten business days. If the balance is smaller than those deductions, nothing is paid.
Do I get my green slip money back if I move to Victoria?
Probably not. SIRA lists partial CTP refund eligibility for vehicles that have been written off, taken to an auto wrecker, or stolen. A move interstate is not on that list, and a sold vehicle is expressly excluded because the policy attaches to the car rather than the owner. Ask your insurer directly, since an administration fee may also be deducted, and where possible time the move near your green slip expiry.
Do I have to hand in my old interstate number plates?
Yes, in both directions. Service NSW asks for the original interstate plates when you lodge the registration application, and VicRoads takes the interstate plates at your appointment and issues a receipt for them. Service NSW notes that a small number of interstate plate types can be retained, depending on the issuing state. Budget $58 for NSW plates or $44.20 for a Victorian pair, and take a screwdriver to VicRoads.