International vehicle registration codes
Under the 1968 Vienna Convention, cars abroad display an oval sticker with a 1–3 letter country code. EU cars may show the code on their blue Euroband instead of a separate sticker.
| Code | Country / region | Code | Country / region |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Austria | J | Japan |
| B | Belgium | K | Cambodia |
| CH | Switzerland | L | Luxembourg |
| CY | Cyprus | M | Malta |
| CZ | Czechia | NL | Netherlands |
| D | Germany | P | Portugal |
| DK | Denmark | PL | Poland |
| E | Spain | RO | Romania |
| EST | Estonia | S | Sweden |
| F | France | SK | Slovakia |
| FIN | Finland | SLO | Slovenia |
| GB | United Kingdom | GR | Greece |
| I | Italy | IRL | Ireland |
| LV | Latvia | LT | Lithuania |
| J | Japan | KOR | South Korea |
| USA | United States | RUS | Russia |
| CN | China | IND | India |
| BR | Brazil | ZA | South Africa |
| NZ | New Zealand | TH | Thailand |
Notes
- GB changed to UK on Eurobands since 2022; both appear on older plates.
- Codes are assigned by the UN and differ from domain suffixes (.de matches, but Switzerland is CH yet .ch — same here; Greece GR vs .gr).
- Remove ambiguity: use the oval code list on the back of your vehicle registration documents.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the D on German cars mean?
- D stands for Deutschland — Germany's UN vehicle country code.
- Why do some cars not need the oval sticker?
- Vehicles registered in the EU/EEA with the blue Euroband on their plate embed the country code, so a separate sticker is unnecessary within Europe.
- What is the code for the United States?
- USA — one of the few three-letter codes, used on vehicles abroad instead of the domain-style US.