After months of negotiation between Baghdad and Erbil on the issue of finally unifying the design of license plates across the entire country, finally in Spring of 2022, the two sides reached an agreement.[1] The new license plates are going to be fully in Latin Alphabet, and Governorates of Iraq will be represented by a code, instead of their fully name written out. The switch to Latin and to codes resolves two issues. Firstly, it allows for foreign travel of Iraqi cars without a need to install a special plate, and secondly, it would allow Baghdad and Erbil to fully bypass the question of whether the new plates would be in Arabic or Kurdish.
Starting from April 26, the four governorates of Kurdistan Region started issuing the new format of license plate. The rest of Iraq is expected to follow suit in the coming months. The licence plates will be in Standard European size, for the first time in the entirety of Iraq and its license plate history (520mm x 110 mm). There will be a bar on the left hand side, where the code IRQ, representing Iraq will be shown in a vertical manner, and it will also feature a smaller sized code KR, representing Kurdistan Region.
License plates follow the following format: GG X ####, where GG is a two digit code indicating the Governorate. This format is the first time that Halabja Governorate gets its own representation. Another thing to note is that the distribution of the codes between governorates of Iraq outside of Kurdistan Region are not known yet. An interesting fact is that, despite Iraq 19 Governorates, the proposed codes go up to 24 at this stage. It is yet to be clarified why this is the case.
The color format will be identical to the current design that the rest of Iraq use, as shown in the table below.[2] However, the type will not be indicated in text on the license plates.
| Colour | Image | Type |
|---|---|---|
| White | 
|
Private vehicle |
| Red | 
|
Vehicle for hire, bus, taxi |
| Blue | 
|
Governmental |
| Yellow | 
|
Trade, e.g. trucks, tractors, cranes |
| Green | 
|
Agricultural |
There are plans to replace all existing license plates with this new format. However, since the letter-digit configuration is about to change, certain rules will apply.
- If the existing plate consists of 5 or less digits, the letter A will be placed before the number, and zeros will be added so that the new number would end up being 5 digits.
- If it consists of the following 6 digit numbers: 100000, 200000, .... 900000, one of the zeros will be removed, and the letter M will be placed before the number
- If it consists of any other 6 digit number, and if the first digit is 0 the letter B, if 1 the letter C, if 2 the letter D, ..., and if 9 the letter L will be placed before the number.
- ^ Hassan, Soran. “تغيير لوحات أرقام سيارات إقليم كوردستان لتوحيدها مع المحافظات العراقية / Changing the Number Plates of the Cars of the Kurdistan Region to Unify It with the Iraqi Provinces.” Rudawarabia.net, April 25, 2022. Link.
- ^ “تابلۆی ئۆتۆمبێل لە هەرێم و عیراق دهگۆڕێت.” westganews.net, 2022. Link.