Barrie

As I have mentioned in a previous thread, I am looking to move out to Dubai to live and work. Now my wife and I are getting down to talking about the finer details, the issue of pets has arisen.

Can anyone tell me if we can bring our 2 dogs and 2 cats with us and if so, what is the process?

Also, do rented appartments and villas normally allow pets?

Barrie.
(As you maybe able to guess, we are a house of animal lovers.)

beebee

You can bring pets.. my neighbour brought their dog, but it was not an easy or cheap process so they told me. Don't know of many apts that will accept dogs, but you are ok in a villa as long as the owner agrees

Barrie

Cheers beebee.
I am looking for a villa rather than an apartment anyway. Need to find a job first, but if I figure out how things work, it should hopefully make it all easier when we go for it.

Cheers again.

Heart of gold

We left our cat behind, as we didnt feel it was fair to take him all the way to Dubai and suffer - I think its more a personal choice.
That said, we ended up rescuing 3 cats, they came back to the uk cost us a fortune and have settled well with the changes in the weather but they are worth it.

JohnG

Don't know about Dubai but I work in Bahrain as a dog trainer and it costs my company almost £1000 a dog to fly them here and we are flying approx 30 a year so it's gonna be expensive mate.!!!

justin riseborough

Barrie,

Check with Defra or your local vet in the UK. They should be able to advise on you what the minimal requirements are. I can say from shipping my four cats to Oman (initially looked at UAE) they will as a minimal need to be Microchipped and have a rabies shot not more than four weeks prior to shipping them. I also believe that they will have to have influenza jabs too. It is not cheap either, for our four cats with all jabs and cattery costs and flights, was 2500

A company that you may like to look at are ParAir. I know they have a branch in Colchester as that is where we come from before Oman.

Hope this helps, but honestly get the vets to do the work for you, as I found when contacting DEFRA direct a Chocolate Ashtray sprung to mind. You could also contact the Embassy of UAE in England as they will be able to provide you with the necessary documents that you will require to fill out. What will help with this is if you could start the ball rolling early and when an employer offers you a position, ask if their PRO can assist and that you will pay them back when you are here.

Hope this helps, and if you need any further info, just drop a PM

Justin

JohnG

All ours are done through AirPets at Heathrow mate, they are really good as well so get quotes from them both and get them fighting for your business.!!!

Barrie

Cheers everyone for all your assistance.
Barrie.

Eeyore

You need to get the processes underway well before you plan to move - you can't do it as a last-minute thing. One of the main reasons is that after the animals have had their rabies shots, you need to wait for a number of weeks (possibly as much as six, I can't remember now), and then they have to have blood tests to confirm that the vaccinations have been successful. They can't travel until they've got the certificates proving that they've had the blood tests.

As has been said, villas are typically no problem for pets, and usually you don't even mention them to the landlord. Plenty of people keep cats in their apartments, even though it's probably against the rules of their tenancy; since cats are usually quiet, nobody would ever need to know. Dogs, of course, are far more likely to make noises loud enough to annoy neighbours and draw unwanted attention, but we do also know a few people who keep (small) dogs in their apartments.

Eeyore

It's Zannie here nor GarethR!

It's a very straight forward process, but as GarethR mentions, get the ball rolling now even if your just thinking about coming here. Firstly make sure your pets regular injections/boosters are all upto date, get them all microchipped and have their rabies vaccination jab done (this will include the blood test 4-6 weeks afterwards to check the vaccination has worked). Once you've completed all this, your vet can issue you with a pet passport (and this is the first stage done).

The second stage is to contact your local DEFRA office and they will send you a form (EXA1 and a 3926 EHC export form), you'll need to complete this form for each animal and return to DEFRA and they'll send you a certificate (which the airline will need), also on the reverse of this certificate is a section the vet will need to complete no less than 48 hours before the flight to confirm the animal is fit to travel (V. important).

I sorted all the paperwork etc UK end as above, but there is paperwork needed from the UAE end and the easiest way was to contact Dubai Kennel and Cattery (DKC) and they offer a service to help you get all the paperwork you need (and it's not too expensive and so much easier). They can also meet your pets from the airport and escort them through immigration (again, this is what we did with our two cats and was fantastic).

http://www.dkc.ae/

As re the journey, all pets have to fly as cargo, although they'll on a normal passenger plane and you can also be on the same plane (we weren't, our cats came out on there own as Gareth was already here in Dubai!!).

We chose to fly Emirates and the lady I spoke to who deals with pet relocation is Lynn, her office number is: 020 8897 9188. Also Emirates at the time worked out cheaper as they charge for the volume, not weight.

Good luck.

Miss Eck

Great post Zannie ... but sadly Gareth gets the karma for it!!

Barrie - I did all the legwork myself in the UK; it is pretty easy.

I would suggest you take Zannie's advice on using someone here to help escort the pets through immigration. When I brought my pet in to DXB the designated vet at the airport decided to go home to bed and but for a senior Emirates official dragged him out of bed, my cat would have had to have stayed in a cage all night.

However, if you want to save some money and arrange the import cert yourself, you could use the British Vetinerary Clinic who arranged everything in DXB. They sent the cert to someone in DXB - that needs to be presented at the airport for clearance. I can't recall the cost for this cert but it was pretty cheap and is an alternative to paying someone else to do it for you.

British Veterinary Center
General Enquiries: [email protected]
Pet Transport: [email protected]
Website : www.britvet.com

I few Emirates and also used Lynn who was fantasic for the UK side of things. When you are departing from the UK you need to check-in your pets 4 hours before the flight.

Also ensure that the pet carriers are large enough to allow the pets to move around and that they have a supply of water. Unfortunately it is a distresssing period for them, but they soon settle in to life here.

Barrie

Guys, Thank you very much for the guidance. We will get started on the first stage straight away.
The info you have both offered is invaluble.

Cheers.
Barrie.