had to be used to indicate the vehicle's origin (the middle administrative level of powiat was not introduced until 1999). Since the change, the first letter has always denoted the new voivodeship. One additional letter is used in cities with rights of powiat (this applies to 47 of 49 capitals of the old voivodeships, the exceptions being Ciechanów and Sieradz, and numerous major cities). Two additional letters are used in any other powiat. It is not necessary for EU citizens to immediately re-register the vehicles they have brought with them if they are duly registered and taxed elsewhere in the EU, when living in Poland. This emerges from European law, although local regulations have to date not been changed to reflect the law, leading to officials locally sometimes giving incorrect advice on this point. If in doubt, refer to your Embassy. Format Stickers and security measures The licence plates are invalid without the two adhesive stickers with a hologram placed on the license plates, and an adhesive plaque bearing the same number as the plates on the inside of windshield. If the vehicle uses only one licence plate the second sticker must be attached to the registration papers. Licence plate types and combinations Each powiat uses a unique two or three letter code, with the first letter denoting the powiat's voivodeship. The number pools listed below are not used in any particular order, although one pool is usually depleted before the next one is used. A visible gap exists between the area code and series, but there is no possibility of confusion if the number is written down without it. The following characters are used in licence plate examples: X – voivodeship code XY, XYZ – powiat code J, K, L – any allowed letter digits The letters used in licence plates include all standard Latin alphabet letters outside of Q (not used at all in the Polish language). The letters B, D, I, O, and Z cannot be used in series area (on the right, after the gap), because they can be confused with digits. Only custom plates can include these letters, including letter Q, not existing in the Polish alphabet. The leading 0 in numbers is never omitted. Cars, trucks, and buses Format: XY 12345 XY 1234J XY 123JK XY 1J345 XY 1JK45 XYZ J234 XYZ 12JK XYZ 1J34 (first digit cannot be 0) XYZ 12J4 (last digit