Do your own pet relocation from US

[pel]

Our two cats are currently in quarantine (and almost done!). We did all of the vet visiting, moving, etc. ourselves after reading pieces of this site.

Looking back, we'd do it ourselves again. We worked with a vet who was not overly familiar with sending animals abroad. The guidelines from Sing are pretty clear, though. Be sure to get the shots/ external and internal parasites meds done on time. And, we got a state health certificate for export (what the vet required before he'd certify them as healthy to go to Sing). Finally, be sure to reserve your quarantine space. I'd say all said-and-done we'll end up with about 1,300 per cat. The cost of their 30-day quarantine stay is the largest expense.

Flights from original destination to Seattle on Alaska airlines and then on Northwest. The cats were cargo on each flight (they had flown before, but always underneath the seat in front of us). We paid, I think, around $150 per cat. Alaska had slips that we were given once the cats were boarded on each leg (even given these on the Northwest legs) that said "relax, I'm on board too." This also let us know that the pilot knew there were live animals on board. This helped a lot.

We did not see the cats at any stop (Seattle or Tokyo or Singapore) as they were kept in secured areas. We were, however, able to check in with Northwest staff and learned they were fine. We arrived too late on a Saturday, so the animals were held in the holding area until quarantine opened Monday (they tell you not to do this, but my husband didn't know when he booked tickets). The holding guys were just fantastic (we got to meet them later). They even emailed later to ask about the cats. We also have been happy with the quarantine (especially as friends had real horror stories from other countries). They are friendly and efficient.

I have gone often for visiting hours. From the City Hall stop, if you take the MRT red line towards Woodlands you'll get off at Yishun. Follow the signs for a taxi or bus (#171, after several turns you'll see the quarantine sign on your left; can take #171 or #169 back to the MRT - just walk past where you originally got off and cross the street for the return stop). I find that it takes about 45 minutes to an hour from City Hall.

I've seen multiple people bring extras for their pets during visiting hours (e.g., cat bedding, treats). We always bring cat treats (not super easy to find here, try Jason's in the basement of the mall attached to City Hall), wet cat food, and our furminator (an amazing dog/cat brush). The food is helpful, as our cats took a bit to adjust to quarantine food and environment, so we encouraged them to eat more via treats.

Hopefully this helps some. I will check back here for specific questions as I too am new enough to Sing that I can't PM.

[cavalier]

Capex --

I have a couple of questions for you since I was considering Northwest too.

Did Northwest guarantee that there would be room in cargo for you pets when you reserved your tickets? Also, is your flight getting in after hours? Don't your pets have to spend the night at Chiangi?

Thanks.

[Capex101]

Cavalier,

Yes, they did "guarantee" the space - but i was making my reservations 3 months in advance.

Yes, the flight did arrive at 0100, but seems most flights do arrive late. I have read all the posts - and it seems the animals are very well cared for on arrival at Changi. Fait to say I am less worried about that than the US folks, sorry to say....

However, we have made a change of plans. Although we believe the Northwest option a good one (the best we found) we have decided to have a private animal relocation company do the whole thing. We have such a long list of things that have to be done - from renting our current house, selling cars and boats, etc that I just wanted to start crossing things off the list. So, done - we are just going to spend the money. And it is not cheap. But, the animals will get a rest stop in Frankfurt, vet checked, bathed and walked, etc. I have two quotes - both within 2% of each other.

But if we held out and did it ourselves - we would have done the Northwest option.

[cavalier]

Thanks for the info, Capex. Good luck with your move.

I requested a spot on a KLM flight that arrives in Singapore at 4:30 in the afternoon. (That includes a long layover in Amseterdam, though KLM lets the dog out for a walk and cleans her kennel.) Just waiting to hear back from them with fingers crossed...

Has anyone from the US filled out the vet health certificate? Even though it seems like a USDA form, I can't find it on their webpage. Does anyone know if has to be stamped by the USDA in addition to being completed out by my vet?

Thanks.

[eramie]

It is a USDA type form but you have to get it from your vet. They will fill it out, send it off ( or they may let you do it) and then the state vet signs it. Not sure what state you are from, but in Texas there was a $24 fee to have the state vet sign it. There is also a fee for the form but I found that most vets include this in the cost of the getting your animal ready for export. If you google the form there are two scanned copies of a form that has been filled out so you can see what it looks like. My vet tried to make it seem like it was a big deal to fill out, but really it's just a simple form with "fill in the blanks".

[cavalier]

eramie,

thanks that's helpful. i also had pet hotel send me a USDA form from a previous move. i didn't see anything on the form about parasites treatment. did you have your vet prepare a separate letter for that?

thanks!

[eramie]

No, they just hand wrote it in on a line after the vaccinations and flea treatment. If it's not on the health certificate they will make you do it again before they are transfered to the quarantine station (while they are at Changi, I think they said it's like 10 SGD). Good luck! Let me know if I can answer any other questions, I'm happy to help.

[cavalier]

thanks, eramie. it's reassuring to hear the experience of someone who has gone though the process.

[offall]

Hi,

I am in the process of moving my cat over to Singapore (from Canada). As we are already over here, we are using a pet transport company to ship him and do all the pre-departure health checks/requirements. (CAD 1850)

But if we had been in Canada, we would definitely have brought him over as excess baggage. (CAD 650!)

I really want to know how someone has move their pets to Singapore from Canada

I plan to bring my cat to Singapore from Canada on early December, but so far it becomes a total nightmare

AVA in Singapore and Canadian inspection service is ok, but because there is no direct flight from Toronto or New york to Singapore, everything seems to become impossible

I checked several options, transit in Hong kong first, Hong kong government have almost same requirement for animal in transit in HK as animal import to HK. A lot of paperwork, but still doable, but then they said they don' allow ANY animal travel with the same flight as passenger, all animal need to travel to HK through "manifest" cargo. God know what is manifest cargo but quote for Cargo is already expensive enough. And I don't know anyone in HK, how will they handle my cat when I am not present?

Then the option is transit in Tokoy or Seoul, I found in Japanese government website that cat needs to have a blood sample mailed to them and wait 180 days! after vaccinations (my cat got last rabbis on Sep, and the one she gets before the microchip doesn't count according to Japanese government) . And they didn't mention anything about pets in transit whether need to obey same regulation or not. Seoul seems even worse, they quarantine any animal landed on their soil, and I didn't find any english website for their related government website, and i cannot read korean.

The last option I can see is connecting at frankfurt using Singapore airline, Germany seems to require less paper work comparing to HK or Japan, however, I searched through Sin air website and there is no single word mentioned how they would handle pet or how it could be done.

I am almost desperate at this time point, any comments is welcome

[nassaugirl]

Hi,

Yes I recently moved my cat from Toronto to Singapore. I used a company called Pet Flight based out of Toronto.

It definitely was not the cheapest option but we had no choice as we were already in Asia and he followed us out afterwards.

They flew him from Toronto to Amsterdam via KLM, where the pets are taken off the plane and fed and watered. Then after 4 hours, they fly on to Singapore. They consider this the most pet friendly routing.

Once they arrive in Singapore, you have the option of using a customs broker type service, which entails them applying for all the import permits, booking the space in quarantine, collecting the cat from the cargo section of the airport and delivering them to quarantine center. This costs another say 400 SGD. I actually chose to handle this aspect myself and if you decide to do that too, I can advise you how it works.

The quarantine station was ok actually. I could bring in any special foods, toys etc for the cat and was able to visit him during visiting hours (Mon-Sat).

[offall]

Thanks a lot Nassaugirl
I will contact this company now to get their quota, I live in Hamilton and it's not far from Toronto.
What document did you give to the company?

I know after cat arrives, I need to apply AVA permission, is there anything else I need to do?


This is so far the first proven way to get my cat here, Thanks again

Hi,

Yes I recently moved my cat from Toronto to Singapore. I used a company called Pet Flight based out of Toronto.

It definitely was not the cheapest option but we had no choice as we were already in Asia and he followed us out afterwards.

They flew him from Toronto to Amsterdam via KLM, where the pets are taken off the plane and fed and watered. Then after 4 hours, they fly on to Singapore. They consider this the most pet friendly routing.

Once they arrive in Singapore, you have the option of using a customs broker type service, which entails them applying for all the import permits, booking the space in quarantine, collecting the cat from the cargo section of the airport and delivering them to quarantine center. This costs another say 400 SGD. I actually chose to handle this aspect myself and if you decide to do that too, I can advise you how it works.

The quarantine station was ok actually. I could bring in any special foods, toys etc for the cat and was able to visit him during visiting hours (Mon-Sat).

[Capex101]

Offall,

Relax. It is less difficult than you are thinking. As I said in a previous post, I have decided to bring my pets over using a pet relocation company for the export and transit and The Pet Hotel in Singapore to handle all the inport stuff, including the quarantine reservation (have you made this yet?). I just got lazy and decided to spend the money.

In the end, two ways to do it.

1. Use a service - cost a lot more but it is all taken care of for you.
2. Take your cat as excess baggage - pretty easy to arrange - see my previous post on how I would have done it.

If you go with option 2 - I still suggest you hire an importer on the Singapore side. The actual cost is not that much - and you know for sure everything will be taken care of. The Pet Hotel is one of many - and they seem fine.

And stay away from Korean and Japanese websites - you are not clearing customs with the cat - only in transit - if you have booked yourself (and the cat) to Singapore.

[offall]

Thanks Capex101 for your information.

The reason I was panic is that the Canadian Animal Inspection Office told me whenever the animal is landed somewhere, even in transit or wait connecting flight for a few hours, by law I need to follow all the regulation they have for importing animal into that country (because animal is not like person, who can be considered not having entered the country as long as you stay inside airport, animal may have potential infectious diseases thus may contaminate the country once it is landed, according to certain unknown common law rules), So Canadian animal inspection won't issue me the export certificate if I don't have permit for in-transit country.

They also told me even they gave me export certificate , if I attempt to do it without permission of in-transit-country's permit, you will enter a "gray area". The transit country can let you through if they are nice, but they are also entitled the right to destroy you animal or request it return to originated place because you don't have permit, and very likely these inspection people at airport cannot find better things to do to kill their time.

That is why I am looking all over for the regulations in Japan, Korea, HongKong and Germany as I don't want run into trouble of that kind.
Hong Kong actually said same requirement for animal in transit so HK is the place to AVOID FOR SURE, but other places didn't mention in the transit regulations as far as I can tell.

These things made I feel that getting a ticket without permission of in transit country is kind of risky unless someone has done it in the same route/airline successfully. I haven't see such a example yet except nausigirl's example of using an agency. Right now I am contacting the same agency and may be they are more familiar about this kind of "gray area".

[Capex101]

Offall,

Wow! No wonder you are concerned. And I am no expert in this - so my advice should not be considered if anyone has mentioned killing your pet and sending it back. Sounds a bit over the top - but who knows. Sounds like using a qualified service is your best bet - at least for peace of mind. If you want to get a second quote, the most responsive service I found is Air Animal Pet Movers - www.airanimal.com. Not sure if they operate from Canada or not. For moving my herd I got two quotes - and both were within 5% of each other.

[offall]

You are right Capex101, I just want to play safe at this point.
I just get quota from the company nausigirl suggested,
1800CAD, expensive but still doable, I will keep searching and if there is better/cheaper ones I found, I will report back here.