French Passported dog but Uk residence owner - travel advice please

[ihsimmy]

Hi

As the title suggest I have an EU passport for my dog using our holiday homes address following a recommendation from our French vet.

He said it will remove the requirement to have an expensive travel health certificate each time we travel to our holiday home in France from the UK.

Has anyone on the forum done a similar thing, and if so what are the requirements to take the dog from the UK to France and then return ?

Any replies greatly appreciated, as I would hate to turn up at the port and be refused entry/exit

Kindest regards Ian 

[anotherbanana]

You have my sympathy but this was declared illegal a little while ago; the animal has to be passported in your country of permanent residence. However, I honestly doubt if anyone on the French side cares. As to the Brits, I guess it depends on who deals with you. Some can be reasonable, too many can be bureaucratic little t**ds.

[Hectorsdad]

Unless there is some hidden information you have not revealed, it is true that your existing EU (France) passport will work in exactly the same way as before the post Brexit regulations were brought in. We had to get a new EU pet passport for our dog and used our secondaire address. Before the vet could issue the passport the microchip had to be registered on the French system. The old, partly filled EU (GB) pp became invalid after Brexit.

 There is a possible snag if any entry in the pp has been made by a UK (or non EU) vet. I don’t know if a pre Brexit entries would be a problem. The best condition would be all entries by a EU vet. If a UK vet enters anything in our new pp, the pp would become invalid. Our French vet must give our dog our anti-rabies jabs every three years so we need to time our visits to coincide with renewal dates.

 Another possible problem has been reported in the last year. Apparently EU vets have been directed not to issue a EU pp to anyone who can’t prove that they will be spending more than 90 days continuously in their property. I believe that vets have been rather more flexible with long standing clients. Maybe a one time walk in Su tower would be refused.

  I hope you have no problems and can carry on using your existing pp without any trouble. From your description it would seem that your pp will continue to work. No other documents are required.

[Hectorsdad]

Just a little more information:

we have made about ten successful return trips from UK to France on Brittany Ferries over the last 20 months with our dog on his new  pp. 

Check that the entries have been made by your French vet. At worst you may be able to get a new, clean pp during your next visit but will need to acquire the new UK issued document to get you out first and maybe on the return if the passport problem is present. I hope not! Good luck.

[ihsimmy]

Thanks to all for your replies, there is no hidden details. we live in the UK and travel to our holiday home in France with our dog. I have just paid £212 for a health travel certificate (it was £120 last year) As I will be going back in July our French Vet suggested getting him a EU passport, which we have now done with Rabies vaccines upto date.

My question is, can I simply turn up at the UK port (Eurotunnel) to travel to France with this new EU PP, then get him checked out at our vets in France before returning ?

Thank you Ian 

[Hectorsdad]

The simple answer you are looking for is YES just turn up at the Tunnel or ferry and use the new pet passport. The microchip will be read in both directions. On the return to UK you must have the worming treatment and general health check entered by a French vet in the usual one to five days before embarking the Shuttle or ferry. 

 

 

You are fortunate to have an understanding French vet and the passport will be new and valid. Although our dog had an up to date rabies jab given by our French vet recorded in his pp, we decided to give him a new, early rabies treatment jab in his first EU (France) pp. The earlier jab was entered first with data copied from the old pp followed by the new jab which will last for three years. Without the old rabies jab record, we would have had to wait 21 days after the new jab before returning

In my previous post, I mentioned that the microchip had to be registered on the French system before the pp could be issued. The registration took about three weeks to arrive by post in France though the vet said she could see that it was registered after only two weeks on the system and she could have issued the pp then without our registration paperwork. If you are in contact with the vet maybe he/she could check the microchip registration before you arrive.

Whatever happens, do not let any UK vet enter anything in the passport. It will invalidate the pp.

On that first post Brexit trip only,  we paid about £100 for an AHC , used it on the way out but on the return, a month later, we used the new pp keeping the AHC in reserve.

 

[ihsimmy]

Latest update

I have just returned from France, only a short trip without the dog, whilst there I visited our French vet who kindly handed over Henry's newly issued EU passport.

The VET explained that as Henry already had a now invalid UK passport that was issued before Jan 21, and a French address, I-CAD accepted our application.

The EU passport has all the relevant information completed along with his UK adminsitered rabies vaccination, valied until March 25, this includes the Vaccine brand, batch number, date of issue and where administered inc Royaume uni.

I will be driving back to France in just over 6 weeks with Henry and want to ensure that I wont have any issues either at the Tunnel going out or DFDS from Dieppe coming back. I have just read online that his EU passport must have proof of vaccination done in the EU, not UK, as a UK one will not be accepted.

Is this correct ?

(To be on the safe side I will get his rabies jab done as soon as I get to france, this will mean that 5 weeks later when I return, that one will be valid) 

On a side note, his identification card from I-CAD has him down as a girl, I queried this with the Vet who checked on the I-CAD site which correctly states male, he said, its not a problem as his paspport matches the details on line, he gave me a copy of it.

Many thanks Ian & Henry

[Hectorsdad]

I think you are quite right to get new rabies jab as soon as you arrive in France so there will be no problem when you return assuming you stick to your intended length of stay. Your plan seems foolproof. We chose to have a new anti-rabies jab done in France before the new PP was issued so I don’t have experience of the exact conditions.

we travel on Brittany Ferries and they ask for a pre-travel, online form to be completed before we arrive at the port. It is supposed to speed up their processing when you arrive. There are a few questions about what type of documentation is being used and in the case of a EU PP, asks when the rabies jab was done and its expiry date. It does not ask about who gave it so the Euroshuttle system will probably not notice any discrepancy.