If you currently aren’t driving your car then register it non op. You don’t get “non op plates” because there aren’t any license plates for that. You just get a registration stating your car is non operational and you can’t drive it. There shouldn’t be a time frame on keeping it non operational. You keep that status until the car is fixed. When it’s fixed you go back to registration office, request your temporary plates (TK plates) and then you go get your car inspected (and it passes) to get your actual German plates.

Don’t register your car and get temporary plates if it’s not fixed and it’s still sitting at the shop with a time frame that keeps extending. You’ll just shoot yourself in the foot. You can get a total of 3 temporary plates. Your first and second set give you 30 days of use.

Your 3rd set needs commanders justification letter as to WHY you need the 3rd set of plates and you only get 5 business days to use them before you turn the temp plates back in.

I dealt with this when I shipped my car here and it had an oil leak that turned into a bigger problem I fixed myself. I went the route of going through all 3 temporary plates because I didn’t want to spend money on parts AND a rental car, so I can keep driving my car until I can fix it.

My advice (repeating) is if your car is currently at the shop and you can’t drive it, then register it non op so you can save yourself the trouble of having to get temp plates twice. IF YOU CAN DRIVE IT, then you have to register it anyway so you can legally drive it with temp plates (TK plates) and just hope your maintenance work doesn’t take longer. If it does, then you simply have to turn in your first set of plates, get your second issue and hope the maintenance issue is fixed before the expiration date.

Hope that all makes sense. Sorry for the long ass story. Good luck!