Anyone got an AHC for their pet yet?

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From the Telegraph

Make your dog French to avoid EU red tape, vets urge owners
Vets are advising owners to secure EU citizenship for their pets in France or Ireland to make future visits easier.

owners have been urged to make their dogs and cats French by giving them an EU pet passport, after backlogs and bureaucracy caused delays for vets in the UK.

Since Brexit, owners who want to take their pets to the EU must pay a vet to fill out a complex nine-page form.

Vets have reported that the document takes up to an hour to complete, and are charging owners as much as £200 for the service.

The passport must be renewed every time dogs, cats or ferrets go to the EU, and filled out within ten days of travel.

But a loophole in the system means animals that are assessed by a vet inside the EU can receive a passport from the bloc, allowing them to travel repeatedly without extra cost.

Vets have been advising owners they should secure EU citizenship for their pets on holiday in France or the Republic of Ireland this year, making the process easier on future visits.

There is no requirement for the pets to live in the EU permanently, making the UK version of the system redundant.

“You don’t even have to have an address or anything, in that country,” said one industry source.

“It kind of makes a bit of a mockery of the whole thing.”

The British Veterinary Association has warned that the bureaucracy in the UK, which is mandated by the EU, has caused chaos in surgeries that have already been put under strain by the 'pingdemic' and a surge of pet ownership during the Covid lockdown.

Many have turned owners away when asked to fill out the passport form, and some who completed it in haste and forgot to sign every page have caused owners to be turned away at the border when travelling.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@Weathercam, many vets are refusing to do them, and many more are no longer registered as 'Official Vets' due to the costs and training involved.
I'm hoping they don't close loopholes by the time we are able to visit again.

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@Weathercam, @Hells Bells, Our Vet in Cluses has refused to do it, (stating we need to be resident for over 3 months) we were also having the rabies vax done, as my daughter's assistance greyhound needs that doing in December anyway.

So anyone know a vet near Les Carroz (so Cluses / Sallanches etc area) who would do an EU passport?

Local vet at home is charging £117 for the form

By the way just fitted a new dog guard and divider to our new Superb estate from Guardsman, and well impressed with it, even better than the Travall one we had in the old car.

https://www.guardsmandogguards.co.uk/

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@Zorrac, we have Guardsmans dog guard with divider for our two. Shame about the vet though Sad

You'll need to Register first of course.

Yay! Went to the French Vet on Wednesday 21st July and kicked off the process to transfer the microchip to a French registration. Tonight - 13 working days later - got an email saying that it had been completed. Can now get a French Pet Passport.

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@Matt1959,
Not bad going when everyone is on holiday!
Are you still Uk resident or do you have a Carte de Sejour?
Also does the chip remain registered in the UK system as well as French?

After all it is free

@Matt1959, with that time frame, due to work commitments, I'm not sure we're going to be there long enough on any of our next few visits to do that whole process. If the vet in Briancon is insisting on this being done (and I've been told others are issuing the passport at the same time as sending off the chip documentation), I may have to use a different vet.

@Snowbikers, I’m a UK resident with a 2nd home in France and no Carte de Sejour. The chip still appears to be registered in the UK as the ‘last transfer date’ hasn’t changed. Maybe they’ve just updated the address….

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@Matt1959, thanks for the info. Good to hear your experience as we hope to be able to do the same as you when we go out to our second home next week. Eh oh!

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Has anyone got a French pet passport from any of the vets in Bourg St Maurice or Aime?

I asked at the Aime vet (behind Decathlon) last October but they weren't sure at the time but said they would probably need to give a new rabies vaccination to issue one. I don't think she understood fully why I would want one and I guess didn't realise the cost of getting AHC's. Also, at that stage no one knew how things were going to turn out and what the rules would be.

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@Hells Bells, Three possibilities….

1. Do it over two trips, so you apply for the chip registration on trip 1 and complete on trip 2.

2. Can you kick the process off over the phone/email with a friendly French vet?

3. Can a local friend collect the passport? Not sure if that can be done…..

@Matt1959, I'm going to email our usual vet and take it from there I think. Two trips is a good (but expensive) option though.

You know it makes sense.

This morning I checked the postbox en-route to the vets for their checkups etc as we travel back to the UK tomorrow, and there was an official letter from the Hautes Alpes Prefecture admonishing us for travelling with two dogs called Beanie under the same micro-chip and Kiki under another as they'd be informed by ICAD as such, and that we had brought the third dog on to French territory without an AHC!

Now this was the mistake that had me running backwards and forwards to the vets a couple of weeks ago!

So down at the vets, as we've only been officially notified by ICAD of Beanies, I asked them to check Kiki on the ICAD system, and it's in the process of being updated now, and what with August and the holidays that will take till September!

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@Weathercam, sounds like a shambles. Does that mean you can't travel back?

A snowHead

The AHC Facebook group are reporting a really good service obtaining new pet passports from a vet practice in Neufchatel-en-Bray in Northern France. No need for re-registering microchips and waiting 2 weeks,and they've used a UK address even though they had a French one to use too. The people concerned were told it is only necessary register with the chips if you are planning to be in France for more than 3 months. Several others have done this too. Open Saturdays and not too far from tunnel.

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@Hells Bells, we'll find out tomorrow !

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

The AHC group are also reporting another service in Folkestone close to Eurotunnel for obtaining AHCs prior to travel. £98 for one dog and I've emailed to ask for details. I am guessing my own vet will be expensive, they are for everything else.

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You'll need to Register first of course.

@Hells Bells, Thanks for the facebook group info

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@BoardieK, it's a really useful group. Some idiots of course, but lots of useful info too.
Having found both the Uk and French vets very helpful so far, I'm now starting to think a September trip might just be doable. We can pick up the AHC in Folkestone in the morning, over on Eurotunnel, get French passports sorted in the afternoon and then stay overnight there before heading to Monetier.

After all it is free

@Hells Bells, That's interesting, I was just thinking this afternoon a vet near any ports/Eurotunnel could do a lot of business issuing AHC's. I suppose if you are a vet doing lots of these then it gets easier, plus any problems and they are just down the road.

My vet will charge £120 for the AHC as it is a lengthy document that takes about an hour to complete. You don't want to make a mistake and then not be able to use it to get into France! My vet is seeing the dog at an appointment tomorrow and then you collect the paperwork the next day. They are therefore limiting the number of AHC appointments per week so they have time to do them.
I had planned to get an EU passport so we can come and go without having to pay £120 and visit the vet everytime we cross the channel.
I have booked an appointment with a vet in France for a pet passport next week and wil get a rabies booster jab as the current one runs out next spring. I have just read on a mobile vet facebook page says that in France the dog needs to be registered in France on their I-CAD database before they issue a pet passport so maybe it depends on whether the vet knows that. Some friends had to get a French dog passport a couple of years ago in Meribel when they left the UK one at home by mistake, but they didn't have to register on the I-CAD database, so I wonder if they are getting hotter on that? French vets should now be using the 3 year rabies jab and future boosters must be done by an EU approved Vet, ie not a UK vet.

Unforunately we don't have time to drive to Portugal or Spain this trip where I hear from other forums they are happy to issue an EU passport. My thought was if we have to go the I-CAD route we ask the vet to do everything needed for the passport and then post it to a French address as my parents will be there next month and can bring it back with them, or collect they passport in person, as our trip is only a short one this time so not enough time for the microchip to be registered. We pass Neufchatel-en Bray so I will try and send you a PM for their details.

I also read that in Italy you have to be a resident to get a pet passport.

has anyone managed to get a french vet to do the first part remotely ie the reg of the chip om he french system ?

cheers

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We now have a French dog! Entire process took just over 3 weeks.

One final twist in the tale. The vet said that some previous clients had problems at the border as the rabies vaccination date in the passport was earlier than the passport start date, so he recommended that we have a new rabies jab, which we did.

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@Nell,
What you had read about Italy is correct. Also, Italian pasports only have seven spaces for echinococcus and APHA in Carlisle say that the treatment must be recorded in the correct space.

@Matt1959,
Our cocker is now on her third passport, but the UK vet issuing the 2nd got it wrong so we always had to take both with us.
People complain about bureaucracy in Italy - day 1 was declaring her as "resident", day 2 was driving three hours round trip to pay €40, have her chip read and new passport issued.

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@Matt1959, shouldn't be a problem though, as you can travel back to the UK with a UK issued one , it is just the outbound one that is an issue. You do need to carry the original record with you though, but that has always been recommended in the past anyway.

@Hells Bells, Trouble is…..when a Pet Reception person at Calais of Folkestone says it is a problem, it IS a problem! Anyway, we just renewed the rabies jab a year early.

You know it makes sense.

@Matt1959, that's not too bad then.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@Hells Bells, Particularly as the Consultation Fee covered the rabies jab and the worming tablet, so it only cost about €20 on top of what we were expecting. And we are going to save thousands (quite literally) over the life of the Pet Passport compared to AHCs.

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So here’s my experience. Our dog is now Swiss! Got an ANC in the UK ( cost £135!!) - a couple of forms and presumably a lot more for the vet. Went to our local vet we use three times a year near our place in Switzerland today. Took old EU pet passport. Half an hour later details copied into new Swiss one - cost 30 Swiss francs. Easy peasy probably helped because we were registered with them. She asked me why I wanted one - just said Brexit and old one was coincidentally full. Thought it was going to be a lot more bureaucratic. Copied details of rabies jab. No issues about that and read chip and that was it !

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@Matt1959, exactly. Now to try and see if we can make arrangements for a September trip.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@Hells Bells, Heading back this weekend. I’ll wave at you from the A1 as we pass Durham.

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Travelled back yesterday and 40mins out from Calais said to the OH that I thought I'd only booked the two dogs and not the new pup, as on my account I have the two existing dogs but not the new one, and that was indeed the case.

Very quiet there though a good few travelling with pets, as ever there was one very fraught person who did not have all the correct documentation.

I asked did many people have Euro passports and the answer was Yes, though she did reiterate that UK vets are not allowed to enter any detail on them.

Think it's going to be leaving UK at Folkstone where the log jams might be?

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@Weathercam, we got to Folkestone once and only had one dog on our booking in similar circumstances.

You'll need to Register first of course.

As we've just booked our Eurotunnel Very Happy

for September and I can't even speak to the OV at our practice for at least another week never mind find out a likely price, I've just sorted it with Abbeywell in Folkestone instead. £123 for both dogs (£98 + £25 for each extra up to a total of 5). Sent copies of the relevant pages of the pet passports, and we'll collect on the morning of our departure.
I've also just spoken to a friend who has waited 8 days for the ICAD to be sorted, and has only just got the pet passport sorted in time from Briancon vet before they come home tomorrow. We're going to go with the vet near Calais to issue the pet passports I think, as by the time we meander down to Monetier via a wine region or two, we may not have time to do it there. They're open all day on a Saturday and appointments can be booked online.

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@Hells Bells, that was my worry about the ICAD but it shouldn't/needn't negate you being able to travel (I did ask the vet for confirmation), for when leaving as you know, you scan the dog, and they just check the number on the scanner against the passport, it's not clever, in that it's linked to the ICAD database for confirmation etc unless it was a different situation to ours?

After all it is free

@Weathercam, I think they had thought the French passport wouldn't be issued unti the registration has been completed?

My vet wouldn’t do the passport until the ICAD registration email had come through, which took nearly 3 weeks. Paper copy 4 days later.

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@Matt1959, my friend reported 8 days, but that was just to get the registration email. I think she's probably left France without the paper one. We would probably be OK and I suppose we would still have the AHC to travel back with.

Help!!

Anyone got an AHC for their pet yet?

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