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Pet Passports


Frenchdreaming
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My husband and I are planning to come over to France in a few weeks ( for a few weeks ) to look for a house. We want to bring our dog with us and have looked at the Defra site for information. We are pretty clear on what's required to bring him back in, however I have one last query.

I understand if your dog is in France for more than three months it becomes French resident. When you get to the ferry port to go back to the UK and check your pet in, how do you prove how long you've been in France?

Do you need hotel receipts etc or do you just have to sign a declaration to say how long your pet has been in France, or is this something that is not even asked?

I want to make sure I am fully prepared for anything they might ask me so anyone who knows the exact procedure at check-in would be a great help.

Many thanks

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Forgive me if this is a silly question, but does your dog already have a pet passport?

Otherwise it won't be possible in time:

a) rabies shot

b) 1 month wait for blood test

c) blood test clear (hopefully)

d) 6 months wait after clear test result before you can bring him back into the UK.
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Yes, our pet has a pet passport. We have actually never used it but the rabies injection was valid for 2 years until the end of this year so that is ok.

It's really the question about what forms or declarations we need to fill in that we cannot get an answer on. I phoned DEFRA today but remain confused as to the procedure at Eurotunnel Calais in addition to the passport and treatments within the 24/48 hour timeslot, what else do we need / are we asked to do?

Many thanks

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As long as your dog has a valid passport and the flea and worming treatments are given within the correct time-slot, you should be fine.  If you are using Eurotunnel in both directions, they will know when you travelled out from your tickets (you'll be on record!)  I have never heard of anybody being asked to prove how long their animal has been here - otherwise none of the many people on here who take their pets back and forth to the UK would have managed it.  Is that what you needed to know?
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We regularly stay more than 3 months and always travel through Eurotunnel with our dogs and have never had a problem with length of stay. We have never been asked about length of stay or advised that our dogs were resident. As long as you have the correct paperwork that is all that is needed. Have a good holiday!

0Helen

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First, make sure that your blue EU Passport has the details of a successful blood test included in it (it is possible to have a passport without having had the blood test and, although this will get your dog into France, it won't allow him/her back into the UK)

Assuming you are returning to the UK before the end of the validity of your dog's existing  rabies jab, then you will only need to visit a French vet between not less than 24 and not more than 48 hours from the scheduled departure time of your ferry or train home. The vet will give your dog flea and tick traetment (usually Frontline) and worming treament. The details of this will be entered into the passport by the French vet - make sure the details are entered correctly with the correct date and time.

When you move to France on a permanant basis you can continue to use the same EU Passport but you will discover that, in France, new rabies jabs are only valid for one year. It is very important not to miss the date for the rabies booster jab as one day over and you will need to start the blood test and six month wait etc. all over again.

Once you travelled once with your dog you'll realise that it is all much simpler than it sounds !

Enjoy your tip.

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This just gets harder!!

I now understand about the passport so thanks all for that. I've just noticed from the passport that the address on it is our old address. We are now 300 miles from where we used to live!

I called DEFRA and was told I would need the Pet Passport changing by the vet who issued them......not possible as he needs to see our pet and check the microchip etc.

As we've only recently moved my driving licence, bank cards etc are all at the old address. I'm thinking of just booking the Eurotunnel with all our old details. Can anyone see a loophole in this?  The last thing I need is to get there and find out that their computer somehow says something different to our details?

I know I've now moved into panic mode but if my little darling ended up in quarantine they'd have to put a bed in there for me too.

I have a passport, in date, can book with same address as poassport, will get treatments done in timescale, don't need hotel receipts!!  Can anyone see anywhere that I could slip up from their experiences with going through the tunnel???

For all amateur psychologists out there.....no, I don't have children......yes, the pet is my baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I wouldn't worry. Unlike the human passport, the pet passport is more a record of the required treatments and vaccinations than a legal document.

The good people at Eurotunnel really don't give a stuff where you live in the UK, and the procedure will only focus on making sure, as you return to the UK, that your animal has been given the required flea/tick/worm treatments during the period of time EXACTLY  24-48 hours before your return travel. This is the only aspect you should need to worry about. If you arrive 48.5 hours after the treatments have been administered, you can be turned away, and will have to find another vet, get it all done again, and wait till at least 24 hours have elapsed before you can travel. If you are taking your dog for the first time, and thus using a vet you've perhaps not used or met before, make sure they know what they're doing and that they stamp, sign and date the passport correctly with the time and date they did the treatments. Most people who run into bother at Calais do so because their vet has missed something off, or the passport isn't correctly filled in by the vet

When you arrive at Eurotunnel Calais, you report to the pet control centre (on your right before the entrance booths). They will need to see the animal's passport, the microchip will be read, and you'll be given a sticker to put on your car windscreen. After that, it's unlikely that anyone will bother you further on the subject of your pet, except if DEFRA are doing random checks, in which case they'll stop you at customs and do the same checks just done by Eurotunnel.When you get to passport control, no-one will be in the slightest bit interested in your pet's passport, only the human ones. It really is painless for you and your animal, as long as you get the timing right, and make sure your vet has filled in the passport.

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I've just had a look at my pets' passports.  My vet in the UK stamped the "clinical examination" bit before they left the UK, but I don't remember if this was an actual requirement!

The "Legalisation" bit has never been used.

The passport has not been stamped with comings and goings.

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I tried to post this earlier and got an error message!

1) The clinical examination isn't compulsory. I keep telling my vet this because they insist on doing it and they've filled up the entire section of my passport (I mean the dog's!). I e-mailed Defra about it, actually, because I was surprised that, if it was mandatory, there are fewer spaces for it than the other treatments, and they confirmed that it's not necessary. I understand it's only there for if your dog's been ill or whatever, and serves as a confirmation from your vet that it's fit to travel.

2) The "Legalisation" thing: a friend who is a permanent French resident got a new passport for her dog and was told by her vet that she needed to take the passport to La Rochelle (45 mins from us) to have it "legalised". She asked me what this was for, and aas our dog's passport isn't legalised I was surprised that her vet had told her it was necessary. I rang La Rochelle and had one of those "fonctionnaire" conversations where the lady said she had no idea if it was necessary or not but that people kept coming to have it done, and they always obliged (at a charge, of course!). I checked with my own French vet who seems a bit more clued up, and his explanation (which seems logical) is that, whilst the legalisation isn't necessary for pets travelling between France and the UK, it IS a requirement for pet travel between some other countries. Anyway, having gone back and forth dozens and dozens of times with our dog over the last 5 years, it's never been an issue.

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I may have got this wrong but I didn't know that rabies vacinations lasted two years without the necessity for a booster.

We had our two dogs vaccinated for their passports, in the UK, in October 2004 and their booster date was exactly 12 months later.  We moved to France in August 2005 but because of all the other things going on in our lives like house buying/moving from rented accommodation etc, we completely forgot about the booster.  This only came to light a couple of months ago when we talked about going back to the UK for a few days over Christmas.  Oops!  We have subsequently had to start completely from scratch again and now have to wait six months before the dogs can go back to the UK.  Not really a problem for us (apart from the cost!) as we're not now planning to back until next Christmas but worth  bearing in mind for others perhaps!

Lynda

 

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There is a difference of opinion here - in France I have been told one year, in the UK,by some vets,  two.  What is important in so far as travelling is concerned is the expiry date of the vaccine as shown on the passport.  That is what the authorities at the borders will go by.  So, if you have had your pet vaccinated in France and the vet' has written the expiry date as being one year hence only,  then you must get a booster on or before that date (ie after one year, not two), to be allowed back to the UK with your pet.  Same applies if the UK vet' has done the same.  If the vet' has stamped the booster date as two years hence, then 2 will work.  I think (although am not certain) that this has something to do with the different vaccines.  There is also a requirement, if your pet is resident in France, to have an annual booster whether he or she travels abroad or not, and this will certainly be necessary should they lodge in kennels in France.

This is my understanding, at any rate, from various discussions on this topic before.

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I believe you are correct - I have just checked this out with Defra and our vet, as the expiry date of the latest rabies vaccine for our much travelled and France-preferring spaniel is 3 years. There is no UK passport driven maximum life for rabies vaccine, just the maufacturers 're-do by' date.

 

Pouyade

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You do need to change the address on your pets micro chip the first thing that happens to an animal found is it is scanned and having the right address make's returning you dog to you much easier i have lived here for three years and charm are dog comes back with us each year we have never been asked to prove how long we have been staying here and also you should be able to take the passport to any vets to get the address changed if you have changed the address on the chip we did ok hope this helps it can be very confusing i nearly got lost in it all before we moved over. hope you find a nice place and enjoy your time

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