European Customs Information

Visit this website to get the latest in regulations for traveling with your pet into France which will be very similar if not identical to the rest of the European community.

These EU regulations have been changing annually. The French Embassy web site, we are assured in March 2005 by the French Consulate Customs office in Washington DC 20007 tel: (202) 944-6375, has the latest information as well as the PDF down loadable form and instructions necessary to have filled in by your vet which will then need to be certified by your local USDA Area Offices of Veterinary Services in order to be accepted by the EU countries.

We have been around in circles with many people telling us that we must have our dog revaccinated with the live one year European rabies vaccination or we will not be allowed into Europe. The French Consulate Customs office listed above, assures us that is not the case. The the French customs accepts the valid US rabies vaccination certificate. Still it is probably a good idea to print the web site page that spells out these regulations from their web site:

Veterinary certificate to print and/or download from the French Consolate web page.

This is basically what it says about small family dogs and cats:

Dogs and cats (visit the page for other animals)

IThe European Union adopted new measures for the importation of pets (dogs, cats and ferrets) into the EU member states.

In order to bring their dogs, cats and ferrets from the United States into France, travelers must abide by the following conditions:

- each family is limited to 5 animals.

- every animal must be identified by a microchip (standard ISO 11784 or annex A ISO standard 11785) or a tatoo. If the microchip’s standard is different, you must bring your own scanner in order to read the microchip. In the United States, you may acquire the microchip standard ISO 11784 on the web at : http://pettravelstore.com. It should be implanted only by a veterinarian.

- every animal must have a valid rabies vaccination, even if less than 3 months old. If it is the first rabies vaccination for the pet, you must wait 21 days between the last shot of the vaccination protocol and departure.

- the health certificate will be valid for 4 months after signature by an official veterinarian (certified by the USDA) or endorsement by the competent authority (USDA). The list of USDA Area Offices of Veterinary Services may be consulted at the following URL address: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/area_offices/

- the blood test is not required for animals coming from Canada and the United States.

Veterinary certificate to print and/or download from the French Consolate web page.

Notice:

Pets travelling to France/Europe from Porto Rico must be subjected to the rabies serological test mentioned in paragraph V. of the veterinary certificate. This comes in addition of the identification and rabies vaccination requirements. The blood sample for the test must not be taken sooner than 30 days after the vaccination. The test must be performed by the laboratory at least 3 months before the pets travel to France/Europe.

The list of laboratories approved for this test by the European Union is at http://ec.europa.eu/food/animal/liveanimals/pets/approval_en.htm

We hope this helps, but we want to emphasize that these regulations can change overnight so please do not base your actions on this information and we cannot be held liable for any problems you may encounter in your travels based on this or any other information. This is only a guide so that you can find the sources for your own research. We have found that the web desigers for these sites keep changing the page URL names, so you may find the page not available and no forwarding. If you find this, copy the URL to the end of the .com or .eu or .fr and then do a search that you get to. Usually they do not change the domain name. YOU MUST VERIFY ALL INFORMATION YOURSELVES BEFORE TRAVELING AND YOUR EXPERIENCES MAY DIFFER FROM THAT SHOWN HERE.