German vehicle registration plates (Kraftfahrzeug-Kennzeichen or, more colloquially, Nummernschilder) indicate the place where the vehicle bearing them was once registered. Whenever German owners of a motor vehicle change their main place of residence within Germany or buy a car from a person living in a different city or county they have to have the vehicle documentation changed accordingly. In the process owners may opt for new license plates that reflect their place of residence or simply retain the old identifier and plates. The states of Hesse, Schleswig-Holstein, Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and North Rhine-Westphalia were the first ones to create laws so that owners were not obliged anymore to change license plates if they were changing residence within the respective state. A nationwide law has since been passed by the federal government and it comes into effect on January 1, 2015. From this time on, it is generally not possible anymore to tell the owner's place of residence just from looking at the plates.