Now that pet passport is no more, and travel is stepping up again, what are your experiences with the animal health certificate?

My vet quoted me £250, which looks like the high end, except that they said they wanted this per animal. We have 2 dogs, so it would be £500. I saw a few places online that do it cheaper, especially for the 2nd animal. When I said to the vet I wanted copies of the documentation so I could go elsewhere, they dropped the total price to £300. It’s come to something when you need to haggle with a vet!

Has anyone got any experience with the cheap places eg https://www.passpets.co.uk/ ?

They are valid for 4 months for re-entry. Can you to more than 1 trip abroad in that time?

(obviously this is what we voted for etc)

I’ll be watching this as we’re hoping to take the hound to France & Switzerland in the summer 🙂

Watching this as we need the same (but for one dog).

Just chatted with my friend who arrived here in Germany with his dog… and had to pay this as pet passports are no longer valid.

Just checked the link above for length of validity and this:
Animal Health Certificates are valid for entry into the EU for 10 days from the date of issue (date of issue counts as day 0).

It is valid for one trip only – if you exit the EU boundary, you will need a new Animal Health Certificate in order to enter again.

Once inside the EU, the Animal Health Certificate can be used for ongoing travel within the EU for up to four months from the date of issue of the Animal Health Certificate OR until the date of expiry of the rabies vaccination (whichever is earlier).

Switzerland is not in the EU….

Switzerland is not in the EU….

Yeah this is the bit I need to find out about.

I might just be giving Lenzerheide a miss 😞

Yes I suspected it was per trip. Nice.

The silly thing is that the vet told me that the pet passport is still valid for the rest of Europe to visit the UK. Everyone a winner then.

would it be cheaper to go to southern Ireland and get a proper EU one?

Our vet did ours last summer for 109.99 each.

would it be cheaper to go to southern Ireland and get a proper EU one?

From where we live not to Ireland no, but France maybe. Not quite sure how you manage it without a permanent address or an ‘understanding’ vet though.

Would it not be cheaper just to hire a dog while you are there?

Would it not be cheaper just to hire a dog while you are there?

Only if it speaks English, and they are hard to find and more expensive than the regular ones

We used an AHC last year for our new pup to go to our place in France. Cost about £180 i think, do check them very carefully, read lots of stories of them being invalid with wrong entries made etc. Guess vets are probably more used to filling them in now. Luckily we have an ‘understanding’ vet in France and have been on their books for previous dogs for 15 years. So our new dog is officially French. Cost about 30 euros. Haven’t actually used its new passport yet but hopefully all will be ok, just have to get all rabies boosters administered by the French vet. Any entry by UK vet will render the passport invalid.

You’re all making it sound like a bad thing. At least we have blue passports again…

We’re in Denmark at the moment. Our vet charged 160ish for the AHC, then we had to pay for the rabies vaccine on top.

On our way home tomorrow and have been to the vet for tapeworm treatment this morning, it’s the first time the vet had seen an AHC.

There’s a cheap place near folkestone that do a roaring trade for the tunnel i believe. Think it’s mostly done online then the final bit on your way out. Sorry can’t remember the name. Defo look into getting an eu pet passport if you go to Europe a lot. Spain and Portugal are easier than France now. We got one in Portugal for 30 euros. You do need to get the rabies done by an eu vet though for any future jabs.

The vet in Folkestone is Abbeywell.

We were quoted between £125 and £250.
Contacting the vets who gave the lowest quotes they would not do the AHC unless we were registered with them. So the rip off £250 was what we had to pay at our regular vets.
Out in Spain we got an EU pet passport. The vet had to give a rabies jab which was entered in the new passport,plus the worm tablet and filling in the AHC for the return. 53 euros in total.Supposedly the rabies details cannot be transferred over into an EU passport and a UK vet cannot enter any details into the EU passport.
So rabies boosters have to be done in the EU which is no problem for us as we go to Spain yearly.
French vets have supposedly been told not to issue an EU pet passport unless the owner has French residence.

French vets have supposedly been told not to issue an EU pet passport unless the owner has French residence.

Yep that was a loophole they seem to closed dunno about Spain , I haven’t heard anything.

My Spanish vet actually raised the whole issue of U.K. pet passports not being valid and put my English dog on a spanish one.

Phil, there are loads of small Swiss border crossings and a lot are unmanned… our one in Bad Sackingen almost never has anyone on it. Its a VAT collection point and almost nothing else.

I’m not really sure why they didn’t stay within the scheme other than anything connected to the EU having to go in the bin.

I’ve heard it was not wanting to agree to the standards, but this could be hearsay.

I wonder What happens if you live on the NIborder and want to pop to the shops with the hound.

Nothing. There is no border

So Cairnryan to Belfast to Cork then return 10 days later. What do I need? Every second website contradicts the previous one.

I’ll admit it’s a funny edge case.

Pets travelling from the Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland or vice versa should be microchipped, vaccinated against rabies and meet any additional requirements. They must also be accompanied by a either a valid Animal Health Certificate (Great Britain residents) or an EU pet passport.

Interestingly NI is in the pet scheme and the Vet can put a sticker on your old pet passport to make it an EU compatible one.

I suppose the point I’m making is that part of the Country is in the scheme whilst the rest of it is not and oh yeah having to pay £125-250 a pop seems bonkers.

Then you’ve got

On 15 September 2021, DAERA Minister Edwin Poots MLA announced that checks on all pet dogs, cats and ferrets travelling from GB to NI would be suspended indefinitely while negotiations between the UK government and EU continue.

Yep 100 I feel your pain.

Burger they don’t have passports. We’re taking mum back for a trip to see her brothers while most of them are still breathing.

AHCs all round then.

Be nice for you to get a definitive answer TBH, the regs an the reality may be different.