Iowa: titling an imported car

Iowa's title statute has a 'foreign vehicle' provision with a $30 fee, but no import-specific DOT page was found.

Sources checked 2026-10-17. Not legal advice; rules change.

At a glance

Import ease (where verified): Not enough official information retrieved. Only a statute using the term 'foreign vehicle' was read; its reach to overseas imports was not confirmed.
Kei / mini-truck: No kei or mini-truck rule found in the sources read. No kei or mini-truck rule found in the official pages read.

Iowa Code §321.23(1): if the vehicle to be registered is a specially constructed, reconstructed, street rod, replica or foreign vehicle, that fact must be stated in the application, and a $30 fee is paid on issuance of the title by a county treasurer.
Source: Iowa Code §321.23
Iowa Code §321.23(1)(c): for a foreign vehicle registered outside the state, the owner must surrender all registration plates, registration cards and certificates of title, or, for a nontitle state, the evidence of foreign registration and ownership the department prescribes. §321.23(3) lets the treasurer issue a registration receipt and plates without a title if the owner cannot yet surrender the foreign title, and issue the title once it is surrendered.
Source: Iowa Code §321.23

This statute uses 'foreign vehicle' and Iowa's definition was not read; it may cover vehicles registered in other states as well as other countries, so it is NOT verified to be Iowa's rule for overseas imports.
No Iowa DOT page on customs forms, HS-7, EPA 3520-1, the 25-year exemption or kei vehicles was read.
The Cornell LII copy of Iowa Admin. Code 761-400.4 loaded only a fragment and was not relied on.