Getting an appointment at the German registration office
In many cities the appointment, not the fee, is the real obstacle. The routes available, when you can do without an appointment, and how not to waste the one you get.
Most registration offices (Zulassungsstellen) in Germany hand out appointments through a booking portal on the district or city website; some also see walk-in customers with a queue ticket, often only for simple procedures such as deregistration. The Federal Motor Transport Authority’s directory, October 2026, lists 416 main offices and 697 service points in all for 415 registration districts; the office responsible is always the one for the keeper’s home address. To be quick, you have three routes: look for freed-up slots early in the morning, choose a branch office in the same district, or avoid the appointment entirely, because most procedures work online through i-Kfz, for a new car at €13.10 instead of €30.00. A registration agency (Zulassungsdienst) goes without an appointment through its own counters, for its own fee. The office’s fee is the same on every route.
What does registering cost?
GebOSt fee
€30.00
| With seals and KBA share | €31.90 – €37.30 |
| Online would be lower by | €16.90 |
Plates from a shop, insurance and vehicle tax come on top.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method and sources
Four routes to registration compared
The counter appointment is not the only route. The table shows what each option costs in fees and what it asks of your time. It uses a new registration; for other procedures the amount changes, not the comparison.
| Route | Office fee | Extra cost | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Appointment at the counter | €30.00 | none | wait for the slot, then a short visit |
| Walk-in with a queue ticket | €30.00 | none | only where offered, wait unknown |
| Online (i-Kfz) | €13.10 | none | no trip, decision often after one working day |
| Registration agency with power of attorney | €30.00 | agency fee, set freely | agency handles it, often the same day |
In many offices registration agencies have their own dealer counters with fixed quotas, which is why they are often served faster than private customers. Their fee is a market price; ask beforehand what it includes, whether plates are part of it and whether they bring the papers back.
How busy are the registration offices?
There is no official statistic on waiting times. A rough indicator is how many cars each service point looks after: the more vehicles an office serves, the more procedures it handles. The figures below combine the Federal Motor Transport Authority’s vehicle stock with its office directory. They say nothing about staff or opening hours, but they show why it is often tighter in the city states than in rural areas.
| State | Cars | Registration offices | Cars per office |
|---|---|---|---|
| BE | 1,222,641 | 2 | 611,300 |
| Hamburg | 807,162 | 5 | 161,400 |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | 10,664,594 | 88 | 121,200 |
| Bremen | 301,648 | 3 | 100,500 |
| Schleswig-Holstein | 1,759,157 | 21 | 83,800 |
| Saxony | 2,188,519 | 28 | 78,200 |
| Baden-Württemberg | 6,988,847 | 93 | 75,100 |
| Lower Saxony | 5,002,902 | 68 | 73,600 |
| Brandenburg | 1,501,091 | 22 | 68,200 |
| Hesse | 3,917,833 | 63 | 62,200 |
| Saxony-Anhalt | 1,222,830 | 20 | 61,100 |
| Bavaria | 8,442,910 | 153 | 55,200 |
| Saarland | 654,016 | 12 | 54,500 |
| Thuringia | 1,190,050 | 27 | 44,100 |
| Rhineland-Palatinate | 2,655,433 | 68 | 39,100 |
| Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania | 891,039 | 24 | 37,100 |
Where an office serves a great many cars, registering online pays off most. The figure per office is rounded to the nearest hundred; police and federal offices are not counted.
Finding a free slot
Many booking portals release new slots at a fixed time, often early in the morning, while cancellations come in at random through the day. Three habits help. First, check several times a day, not only in the evening. Second, try every office in your district, not just the nearest; the search by town or postcode shows main and branch offices with addresses. Third, pick the right procedure, because many portals keep separate quotas for deregistering, registering and re-registering, and a slot booked for the wrong one is turned away at the counter.
Without an appointment: when it works
Some offices serve customers without an appointment, usually at set times or for simple procedures only. Whether yours does is stated on its website, not in a nationwide rule. If you walk in, come early with complete documents, because nobody waits while you fetch something. Deregistration is the procedure most likely to be open to walk-ins; it is even easier online.
How much do I save online?
Online saving
€16.90
| Fee in person | €30.00 |
| Fee online | €13.10 |
| Saving in per cent | 56 % |
Power of attorney: someone else goes
If you have no time, send someone with a written power of attorney. That person brings their own ID, your ID or a copy of it, the original power of attorney and all the vehicle documents. You must sign the SEPA mandate for vehicle tax yourself as the account holder. The fee does not change. Many offices provide a form; an informal letter with name, address, procedure and signature is usually enough as well.
Do not waste the one appointment
Slots are scarce, so preparation pays. The day before, check the documents: ID, registration certificates, eVB number, bank details, inspection report. Reserve a personalised number in advance and have the plates made already; then the trip to the plate maker disappears. Payment is at the counter, in many places by card only. Bring the booking confirmation, because some offices only call booked numbers. The fee calculator works out what your procedure costs.
What you can expect from the office
The registration office must serve you if it is responsible for your address and your documents are complete. It may refuse the application if the insurance confirmation is missing, taxes are in arrears or the roadworthiness test has expired. There is no nationwide duty to book online; each office organises its public service itself. If you must re-register after a move, section 15 of the vehicle registration ordinance (FZV) requires you to act without delay; a missing appointment is no excuse, but the online route meets the duty.