08-11-2015, 07:46 AM
Darn, Rotor, I was looking forward to finding out how so many people seem to do this successfully. I did some more looking last night, which I hadn't had a chance to write up for you, and that lead to the same conclusion: to be the 'registered operator' of the vehicle, you have to be able to prove that you have a permanent residence in the state in which you're registering.
I don't know if it helps, but being the 'registered operator' is not the same thing as being the owner. Punters are routinely cautioned when buying vehicles that registration is not proof of ownership. So, if you could find an acceptable way to buy a bike, have a local be the registered operator, and then insure yourself when riding it, you'd almost certainly be within the law.
Pterodactyl, what you say about an address is kinda right. The difficulty in the case of the MVR is that you have to prove that you live somewhere which requires rental receipts, bank statements, utility statements or some form of statutory declaration. Where you can't prove your address by any other means, you have to get someone to sign a form saying "I declare that I have known the applicant for at least 12 months and, that to the best of my knowledge, the personal details given in Question 1 are correct.. The details in Question 1 include a residential address which, in this example, must be in NSW. See [url=http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/documents/about/forms/45070018-licence-application.pdf]here. I know that's a license application but, if you don't have an NSW license, you have to jump through a similar hoop to become the registered operator. Indeed, I suspect that, after a while, MVR would start asking questions about why an individual was a registered operator but did not hold a NSW license.
If anyone ever stumbles across information about how foreign visitors can legally buy and register a car in their own name in an Australian State, I'd be very interested to read it.
I don't know if it helps, but being the 'registered operator' is not the same thing as being the owner. Punters are routinely cautioned when buying vehicles that registration is not proof of ownership. So, if you could find an acceptable way to buy a bike, have a local be the registered operator, and then insure yourself when riding it, you'd almost certainly be within the law.
Pterodactyl, what you say about an address is kinda right. The difficulty in the case of the MVR is that you have to prove that you live somewhere which requires rental receipts, bank statements, utility statements or some form of statutory declaration. Where you can't prove your address by any other means, you have to get someone to sign a form saying "I declare that I have known the applicant for at least 12 months and, that to the best of my knowledge, the personal details given in Question 1 are correct.. The details in Question 1 include a residential address which, in this example, must be in NSW. See [url=http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/documents/about/forms/45070018-licence-application.pdf]here. I know that's a license application but, if you don't have an NSW license, you have to jump through a similar hoop to become the registered operator. Indeed, I suspect that, after a while, MVR would start asking questions about why an individual was a registered operator but did not hold a NSW license.
If anyone ever stumbles across information about how foreign visitors can legally buy and register a car in their own name in an Australian State, I'd be very interested to read it.