blargins

Ok, things are looking promising on the romance front.

Perhaps next year we will get married, but we have been talking about bringing my car and dog over when I do finally get married to my girl in NJ.

The car looks a no go, but does anyone know how easy it is to bring a dog from France into the US?

He has his shots bang up to date and he is in perfect health and also has a valid doggy passport in Europe.

He's already been exported from Australia to France, so this will be the next step in his little life.

It cost about $1400AUD to fly him to France from Oz, so I'm expecting this to cost a lot less to the US which is just a hop across the pond.

Any advice gratefully appreciated.

Flabound oneday

we have been looking at costs for transporting our dog and cat when/if we do move.

some airlines will deal direct with you fortunatley for us Virgin is one and they are quoting us around £1500-2000 for our dog (he is rather on the large side at 170lbs !!)

might be worth trying them, BA and Air france for quotes, its much cheaper than going via an 'agent'

blargins

Thanks for that. Think I'll put my dog on a diet actually. When he flew from Australia, he weighed less than 10kg. Slightly over that now. I used an agent too, but will never do that again as it was a disaster when he arrived at Paris. The stupid idiots sent him to a cargo bay somewhere around Paris but didn't tell us which one. That's the French for you!

Am hoping US Airways take dogs, that's the airline I normally fly direct from Paris to Philly.

Am I right in thinking that the horrible quarantine laws are now done away with? He has his anti rabies jabs and I've not heard of any problems with rabies in France in years. In fact heard of more cases in Britain than here.

Am assuming he gets on the plane in his box, flies over and I pick him up the other end. Am planning on bringing him over a couple of months after I arrive.

Flabound oneday

not sure about france but form the Uk its as you describe. as long as he has a pet passport and a 'fit to travel' check about a week before , he gets hauled off and we see him in a cargo bay a few hours later !

dont think a diet will work with our boy...last count he was 83 kgs !!

have to say Virgin are being VERY helpful (being a FF with them helps) cant say what USairs policies are like

Flabound oneday

looks like you are out of luck...

http://www2.usairways.com/en-US/trav...eeds/pets.html

domnestic flights in the cabin yes, transatlantic as cargo -no

blargins

Thanks again Flabound, very helpful. Just have to search for another airline that goes direct from Paris to Philly that will accept dogs.

Have plenty of time for this anyway, haven't popped the question yet to her, but we've been touching on the subject for marriage, but I like to know what my options are on everything well before.

At least I won't be shipping much stuff out, just a few sentimental things, so it'll just be the fiancee visa to sort, my dog and a few bits and pieces.

Simple....

meauxna

You will of course need the correct visa... The old joke goes that if you get the K-1 Fiance visa (you need to get a visa in advance of moving here; might be different from your Australia experience) the dog will get a K-9 visa...

I know you are planning on coming out for the summer; just wanted you to know that bringing the dog then is probably not a good idea.

Bob

Pet, plenty of threads to read over that are recent.

The car, sell it unless it's a classic it just won't be worth bringing over.

blargins

This summer is just to see if we are right for each other before going any further. I would hope the US government would see that as a smart idea, but I've been told not to say anything about a girlfriend.

I'd read up on the fiance visa, it looks pretty straight forward and I'm keeping every single skype & facebook chat, as well as phone records and everything like that. I remember from getting into Australia a similar way, the proof they wanted that the relationship was real was unbelievable. So I'll bombard them as and when.

My dog won't be coming over on this trip, he'll come over probably after we've got married whenever that happens.

I've actually met someone here in France who regularly flies to the US on business and often takes his dogs out with him. Says it's very easy and costs around $200 to ship eqch one over which I thought was very cheap.

By the way, if I got a fiancee visa, would I need to buy a return ticket still?

meauxna

Re: the dogs, just be careful to not project someone else's unrelated situation on to your own. You don't want to be in the position of a CPB officer deciding your are an 'intending immigrant' when you are trying to stay here as a visitor.
Taking your pet on a short holiday may not be consistent with your story.

When you do have a K-1 visa, you may travel on either a return or one-way ticket, whichever suits your needs & wallet best (returns are often less expensive anyway, and the outbound leg may be re-used for another trip).

blargins

Oh no, like I say, I will only be bringing the dog out once I have my finacee visa and am in the country, married.

I'll not be bringing him out for a visit.

The person I met is a psychologist with offices in France and America and he moves between the two a lot, taking his dogs.

He just gave me advice on what I need to do once I do bring my dog out.

Flabound oneday

we just got an updated quote from Virgin £2600 !!!!!

the animals are more expensive than 2 upper class tickets

Aaarrrggg

I tried a few pet transport agents and the best quote by far was with www.passportforpets.com

We're off on the 10th so I can't comment fully on the service, but so far, so good.

Few of things I've learned recently;
a) Pets can't travel the weekend (some customs thing)
b) The airline needs the contact details and full address of someone in the USA, just in case you can't pick them up
c) They need payment a mth in advance of the flights (so they can get the crates made up and whatnot)

Hellopaul

We will be flying ourselves and our dog from Heathrow to Washington DC on United soon (on the same plane). Cost for the 20kg dog and 15kg kennel = $400 (in the cargo hold). Exactly the same thing on Virgin would have been over £760. That's organising "everything" ourselves...not that there's really much to organise; the UK having about the strictest animal quarantine laws in the world means that going OUT of UK is (apparently) pretty easy. The course of events seems to be:

1. Make sure the dog has up-to-date vaccinations.
2. A phone call to United's UK reservations line to book her onto the plane.
3. Take the dog to the vet a couple of days before to get a note saying she's fit to fly (for £20 or so).
4. Check the exact type & size of kennel that the airline want - they DO vary from airline to airline and some airlines won't take kennels at all over a certain size. Many connecting flights in US won't take any animals in the hold because the planes are too small. Buy the kennel (we already had one from a previous flight our dog had taken).
5. Add nut & bolt fasteners to the crate/kennel because United aren't keen on plastic snap fasteners (you can buy the nuts & bolts online specifically for some types of kennels - not my dog's kennel - I just bought some in Homebase, drilled some holes where screws used to go and put them in. Maybe the screws would have satisfied the airline, but I'm not taking that risk for the sake of a quid's worth of bolts and 10 minutes with a drill!)
6. Take the dog + crate along when you check in (and pay the $400 at check-in time).
7. Meet dog again in USA.

...and voila...supposedly, that's all there is to it, according to London Heathrow, United UK and United USA and the US equivalent of DEFRA. I dropped by Heathrow recently and spoke to the United staff just to check what the routine is..."bring your dog in the crate, plus your luggage to the check-in desk, check in, then take your dog over there (points to a desk a few metres away) to drop off your dog. That's it."

Supposedly the only possible additional charges would be if the dog somehow developed some nasty-looking, human-communicable disease whilst in the plane. If this happens, then the US authorities would have to call in a vet to check the dog.

Details of United's pet flying: http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6867,51255,00.html

I'd be interested to find out what additional service these 'specialist' pet flying companies offer.

Whether it all goes horribly wrong or fantastically smoothly, I'll try to remember to rerport back on this forum when the journey's over!

Hellopaul

The pets not travelling on the weekend might also be because of the possibility they'll have to call out a vet if the pet is unwell when he/she lands in US.