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Can a non-US citizen, own & register a Tesla with the DMV on a tourist visa?

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Hi guys,

Can a non-US citizen, own & register a Tesla with the DMV on a tourist visa?

I had been researching online, it does say that one has to have a valid US driver’s license to register the car, is that true?

Any advice or other solutions as to how to own a Tesla for someone under a tourist visa?
Will it be an issue with getting insurance and financing as well for a non-US citizen?

Thank you in advance!
 
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Any advice or other solutions as to how to own a Tesla for someone under a tourist visa?
Will it be an issue with getting insurance and financing as well for a non-US citizen?
Good luck with financing on a tourist visa.

I can't speak to Tesla directly but some Canadians at my work when they first arrived in the US w/valid visas to work here had trouble getting financing. One of them wanted a Toyota but they (Toyota Financial, I think) were unwilling to give them a loan since their Canadian credit history didn't mean jack. Sounded like this was true of at least several other automakers. They ended up being "forced" to buy an Audi that they didn't really want only because Audi/VW was willing to provide them financing.

Unless your credit history of your origin country actually means something to US lenders, you're probably SOL. If you can pay cash, then you won't have to worry about the financing part.

As for your other CA DMV vehicle registration questions, I'd call them.
 
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Good luck with financing on a tourist visa.

I can't speak to Tesla directly but some Canadians at my work when they first arrived in the US w/valid visas to work here had trouble getting financing. One of them wanted a Toyota but they (Toyota Financial, I think) were unwilling to give them a loan since their Canadian credit history didn't mean jack. Sounded like this was true of at least several other automakers. They ended up being "forced" to buy an Audi that they didn't really want only because Audi/VW was willing to provide them financing.

Unless your credit history of your origin country actually means something to US lenders, you're probably SOL. If you can pay cash, then you won't have to worry about the financing part.

As for your other CA DMV vehicle registration questions, I'd call them.


Oh, I have a US social security and have a bank account there, will this work? My credit score is Good.
 
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Oh, I have a US social security and have a bank account there, will this work? My credit score is Good.
I'm sure the aforementioned folks had bank accounts in the US + SSNs since they were legally able to work in the US. Credit score of "good" helps.

Sorry, I don't work in the financial industry and I was born in and have only lived in the US. Hope someone else here can be more helpful, esp. if they work in the banking/loan industry.
 
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Hi guys,

Can a non-US citizen, own & register a Tesla with the DMV on a tourist visa?

I had been researching online, it does say that one has to have a valid US driver’s license to register the car, is that true?

Any advice or other solutions as to how to own a Tesla for someone under a tourist visa?
Will it be an issue with getting insurance and financing as well for a non-US citizen?

Thank you in advance!
It depends on the state. DMV rules are made by each state independently.

The place to ask is the DMV of interest, and can probably be found on a web page somewhere (handy if you are not currently in that state).

Don't be afraid to ask - you wouldn't be doing anything wrong.
 
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Hi guys,

Can a non-US citizen, own & register a Tesla with the DMV on a tourist visa?

I had been researching online, it does say that one has to have a valid US driver’s license to register the car, is that true?

Any advice or other solutions as to how to own a Tesla for someone under a tourist visa?
Will it be an issue with getting insurance and financing as well for a non-US citizen?

Thank you in advance!
Ask DMV or any car insurrance, but I believe that:

To buy a Car you need a Car Insurrance.

To get a Car Insurrance you need to have a State Driver License.

To get a State Driver License you need a Social Security card.

To get a Social Security card you need to have a working or student visa.
 
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Reactions: Trevortine
OP lists "California" as his location.

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/ is the official CA DMV page. While I don't have the bandwidth to exhaustively find and list all the pages that might relate to his situation on the DMV portion, these may help:
Driver License Application Requirement Links
Information For Persons New To California
Vehicle Registration and Title Information Home Page - normally all the 1st year's registration stuff when buying from a dealer is taken care of by the dealer. I've bought enough new cars + leased 1 + bought 1 used one in CA to know that...

The other challenge will be financing. Again, if he has enough cash to cover the whole car, then that should be basically a non-issue.
 
OP lists "California" as his location.

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/ is the official CA DMV page. While I don't have the bandwidth to exhaustively find and list all the pages that might relate to his situation on the DMV portion, these may help:
Driver License Application Requirement Links
Information For Persons New To California
Vehicle Registration and Title Information Home Page - normally all the 1st year's registration stuff when buying from a dealer is taken care of by the dealer. I've bought enough new cars + leased 1 + bought 1 used one in CA to know that...

The other challenge will be financing. Again, if he has enough cash to cover the whole car, then that should be basically a non-issue.

Thanks so much for the links!
Financing would make more financial sense because Model X needs a lot of cash o_O lol
I wish tho
 
Ask DMV or any car insurrance, but I believe that:

To buy a Car you need a Car Insurrance.

To get a Car Insurrance you need to have a State Driver License.

To get a State Driver License you need a Social Security card.

To get a Social Security card you need to have a working or student visa.


These are so helpful, thank you!

I used to have a Cali driver license when I was still a student there. Expired now.
Hopefully the DMV can extend my license. I still have my SSN, I just don’t know where the actual card is.
 
I don't see why you wouldn't!

Multiple States (e.g. CA and NV) don't even require you to be a US citizen in order to drive - you obtain what is called a "Drivers Authorization Card" which merely states that you're a resident of the State, but not necessarily of the nation.

Car insurance isn't required either, just proof of fiscal responsibility - so you could put up a $35,000 bond.

But depending on who you get, and where you go - you can get different answers. I walked in with someone and they actually did pull down the USCIS information from DHS and used their visa expiration date as the date for which the identification card (and learners permit) expired.

My information on SSN is a bit fuzzy, but an EIN should work just as well.

Here's the information for someone who is not here legally in the US, to obtain a CA drivers license.

AB 60 Driver License

Once you have satisfactory ID, you can then simply transfer the vehicle title to yourself and register it down at the DMV. But doing that at a AAA office may be not only faster, but easier.
 
Ask DMV or any car insurrance, but I believe that:

-snip-

To get a Social Security card you need to have a working or student visa.

Not sure if this is true. I know you can get a SSN without a work permit. The card will state "Not valid for employment", but you can still get a number since that's needed for bank accounts and other non-employment related stuff.
 
Hi guys,

Can a non-US citizen, own & register a Tesla with the DMV on a tourist visa?

I had been researching online, it does say that one has to have a valid US driver’s license to register the car, is that true?

Any advice or other solutions as to how to own a Tesla for someone under a tourist visa?
Will it be an issue with getting insurance and financing as well for a non-US citizen?

Thank you in advance!
As a non US citizen you most likelly won't be able to get financing but if you can pay for a car, insurance, etc you can get car, insurance and registration with an overseas driver license. I have owned several cars in the US since 2005 and I'm not resident, nor citizen.
 
To buy a Car you need a Car Insurrance.
Not from the legislation point of view. For exporting you don't need an US insurrance.
The question is how you bring Tesla to selling you the car in the US.
Of course you could specify a fake US address to be able to pick up a car in the US. But it might be that Tesla refuses to sell w/o license. As car supplires usully make the pricing for different locations politically and don't want to get this watered by people just importing/exporting between countries.
However, with CT I don't see another option as they have not even started designing an export version.

Chilli
 
To get a Car Insurrance you need to have a State Driver License.

An International Driver’s license will do.