Our story is that we are trying to leave Miami late next week for Kolkata with 2 dogs and a cat. We have traveled with to 7 countries so far with our animals, so we aren’t new to this. And so far have had no bad experiences with the effects of traveling on our animals …even with the odd disaster along the way with screwed up arrangements…and dogs not loaded onto planes even!
We will be taking our dogs as excess baggage, so far the prices we have received for shipping them as freight have been:
$6000ish from one company here in the USA, and $7000ish from other. One company wanted $505 just to complete the paperwork for export (I have attached the paperwork as you can do it yourself!)
So we are taking them as excess baggage on Lufthansa, we have found from our previous experience and recommendations of others if you cant get a direct flight to the USA, travel only via Frankfurt, Amsterdam, or Heathrow as they have pet care facilities at the airports that will look after and water , clean and check up on your pets between flights.
So far we have found you need the following docs completed:
- IATA veterinary certificate for international pet travel form
- Airline acclimation certificate
- Annexure I Animal Health Certificate for Importation of Dogs into India , and stamped by the USDA Government Veterinarian
- Annexure II Animal Health Certificate for Importation of Cats into India , and stamped by the USDA Government Veterinarian
- Rabies vaccination certificates
- Pictures of animals
- Microchip numbers and certificates (but not required for India)
Pet Relocation to India
Here is some more info that I found, some is already mentioned above:
Following are the requirements for Prior Approval for Pet Cats/Dogs entering INDIA:
- Rabies Vaccination & Certificate: All pets must have an original Rabies Certificate and this certificate must state the microchip number, the date of inoculation and the validity of the particular vaccination you obtain – some are good for three years, others are only good for one.
- Vet Health Certificate (Form 7001): This is the standard Health Certificate to be filled out by your USDA accredited Veterinarian. Must be issued within 10 days of the flight. Health Certificate must state that the pet has no clinical signs of Aujossky’s disease, Distemper, Rabies, Leishmaoiasis, Leptospirosis and Tuberculosis.
- USDA Endorsement:
The above referenced forms:
* Microchip Implantation Record.
* Rabies Certificate.
* Vet Health Certificate.
Must be sent to your local USDA for their stamp of approval. Please contact your local representative on the best way of handling this.
This USDA certification we are simply doing ourselves, and will travel to the office to get the Annex I and II forms stamped.
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/area_offices/
We are traveling Lufthansa, and have found only some airlines are willing to take pets.
We are going to Kolkata and have found this agency that can handle the import paperwork.. the NOC certificates… we will report back on how it goes and costs as I am awaiting on this information. http://www.jetex-oceanair.com
Now shipping containers, we have found the cheapest here to be at Petsmart, and to get the right size this link helps:
http://www.baworldcargo.com/biztools/pcst.shtml
http://www.baworldcargo.com/products/liveanimals.shtml
We will be freezing the water for the animals, and putting in some mats that petsmart sells that absorb liquids and are dry for the animal to sit on (they are expensive though)
As far as travelling the animals into India they need this on their containers:
- No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Quarantine Officer at the Animal Quarantine Station in India.
- A duplicate copy of the NOC has to be fixed on the crate of the pet during the air travel.
- Original copy of the NOC has to be produced in India to get the pet released from the customs at the Airport in India.
- On arrival in India, an appointment to be fixed with the Quarantine Officer for issue of a temporary Health Certificate on examination of the pet.
- 30 days thereafter a certificate of health to be obtained from a local veterinarian to be produced at the Animal Quarantine Station. Then, the pet will be issued a permanent certificate of health for his/her stay in India.
People intending on arriving with their pets as accompanied luggage will need to have an agent apply for this certificate before they enter the country. It is required to be obtained in person and cannot be applied for online.
Here are some docs I have attained and want to share:
- Lufthansa Info Doc
- Lufthansa Veterinary Certification (same as ICAO doc below)
- ICAO veterinary certificate for pet travel form
- Info on bringing pets to India
- Annex I Dogs import certificate form for India
- Annex II Cats import certificate form for India
- Acclimatization certificate
Documents attached to the top of the dog crates
Name on front with some info on the dog and a picture and fact sheet on top with flight details, name, details of animal, shipper and consignee details, and special instructions.
The crate has to be big enough for the dog to turn around, and for our personal likes we want the dog to be able to fully stand and lie down as demonstrated by pumpkin. We also under the mats and absorbant materials taped a copy of all the dogs records in a ziplock to the base.
Stickers of live animals came from Petsmart, it also comes in a pack with special paper to absorb pee pee and 2 food/water containers to put on the crate door.
Moes fact sheet and documents, we included the full vet history and test results on his due to his health problems.
Moes needs are special so we posted it here
We placed a water bottle on the side in a sport holster which you can get from Kmart, Target or Walmart, the crate also has a nipple type water bottle on the door which will contain frozen water to make it last
yes its too small, but pumpkin appears to really like crates, so much after she did this and we took apart the crate to get here out!, we put together her crate and she loves to sleep in it!
Thanks for info on dog&cat import to India. I’m contemplating a move to Mumbai & you’ve just convinced me to leave them behind, for their own good!
Why would you say that?
The dogs and cat travelled well and were handled well by lufthansa and the airport here.. I feel sorry for your pets getting left behind with strangers, or given up for adoption if thats the case.
Goodluck with your travels.
hi
Thanks for the information.Its really great
I am travelling from Chicago to New delhi with my cat soon.
Can you please suggest a suitable travel agent in Delhi who can help me get the NOC certificate?
please reply me asap.
I would be highly thankful to you.
I just fixed the links to the docs on this post, so you can see the info there now.
Also have a look here, http://www.indiamike.com/india/dogs-cats-and-langurs-f109/ there is some info there….also there is a lot of BS there too.
If all else fails as I have never seen anyone post about a agent in Delhi, give Jetex Oceanair a email I think they can help you , they will respond almost instantly and are very helpful. info@jetex-oceanair.com
Hi,
Thank you for sharing your experience. I will be traveling with my dog to another country in Asia and will be using Lufthansa. Can you share with how they handled both of your dogs? And did they take the dogs out at Frankfurt for potty and give them food and water? And if I may ask, is necessary to have acclimatization certificate if traveling in the summer? Thank you so much.
I found a link to the Lufthansa pet hotel in Franfurt airport, was also told about it as being the best in the business for travelling to far off places. We didnt go and see the dogs at Frankfurt.. which apparently you can… butI dont know how this can be done as you have to exit the terminal… but they said it was possible. They had cleaned the cages and replaced the bedding with nice soft stuff, the water was refilled and they had been given food it seems also . In Miami they took extremely good care of them, and MIA airport like others is setup for dogs complete with dog parks that have poo bags (but there was no water there so remember to take a cheap container you can throw away and a bottle of water for them)
We had all the certificates signed by the vet including the acclimitazation one, but no one wanted it, actually Lufthansa wanted no documents at all, but they could see them taped to the cages.
Hello Chris and Cin,
My wife and I are planning to take our Golden Retreiver to India.
We are planning to drive around the whole country for the next 18 months or so.
Here is the link to our blog
http://10yearitch.com
Have you guys travelled with your dogs in India?
We have a friend who has offered to take care of her while we are away.
Ideally we’d want to take her with us.
Hence wanted to get your opinion.
Please advice accordingly.
Regards,
Madhu
Hard isnt it, you cant leave a dog for 18mths with someone else and at the same time you have a trip that might be hard to have it with you… ie where you going to leave it while you go visit a temple or monument on a hot summer day??
No we havent travelled with our dogs within India, and realise that here its just too hard. As you know doubt know its not like the USA where any Days Inn will let you have a dog in the room, and there are roadside rest areas with dog walks along the roads, and outdoor restaurants let you eat with your dog beside you. It wouldnt even cross our mind to travel with our dogs here due to these problems. Instead when we a travel we have a person I work with comes and stays at our place and takes them for their walks and feeds and waters them.
We bought our dogs here with us as we couldnt leave them with someone else, and we couldnt imagine not having them with us, and I think they think same way…judging by the hugs pumpkin gives when when I come home from a 2 day trip away!
Personally I couldnt leave the dog, and I couldnt bring it to India if I was planning to be travelling for 18mths, unless I had a base house and had someone to mind him/her when I was out travelling.
Remember too get a full supply of any special meds your dog needs, we also found that here the Tick and Flea sprays are very very behind the times, and products that are no longer sold in the US are still the norm here, same for the worming meds, what we have in the USA cant be got here, and again the USA one is far superior to what is locally available.
Thanks a lot for the info and the detailed posts on IndiaMike.com
Appreciate it …
We have family in Bombay (my wife’s folks) … though they have never kept pets … so we’d have to leave the dog in a kennel close to where they live … I have been checking with folks for pet friendly ‘hotels’ …
Check out ww.mahindrahomestays.com/
Some of the home stays allow dogs … just in case you guys are looking for a break …
http://www.mygreatstay.com has a search option for “Pets Allowed” …
http://www.petvacation.in has a section for pet friendly hotels …
I have been exchanging emails with the guy who runs mygreatstay.com … some of the states seem to be more dog friendly for e.g. Kerala, Maharastra and Rajasthan
Anyways … good luck … I enjoyed reading your posts … went through all of them last night …
Hopefully you guys will settle down fast and enjoy your stay …
I’d like to say that I think Mahindra Homestays is a great outfit. I rented an apartment from a family in Jaipur who has hosted UK families through Mahindra. They also hosted a senior executive from Mahindra while I was renting from them. We all had dinner together – I was very impressed by the commitment and enthusiasm of the executive. I think you could trust them to help you arrange something pet-friendly.
Thanks so much for the information! We are moving to Delhi in mid-Jan for a year and are seriously thinking of bringing our dog (no one we know here can/wants to take him for that amount of time). We would fly direct from NYC on Continental. I read a few posts on IndiaMike (including yours!) and just want to make sure I am understanding the paperwork process. It seems as if most of it I can do myself, but is there any way around getting an agent to do the NOC? Do you know of any in Delhi? I will also try Jetex. Nitin, did you find one?
While I’m figuring out the move budget, roughly how much does obtaining all the necessary paperwork cost?
Perhaps, I’m just totally overlooking it, but where on an official India government site can I find pet import requirements?
Thank you!
I would take you dog, Delhi is ok for having a dog. Just make sure you have lots of medications if he/she needs them, as most dog meds are not available here. You will have to find a human equivalent sometimes, which is painful.
Yes you can do all the export papers here in the USA yourself, its easy. The NOC no you need a person on the ground to wade thru the bureacracy for you, plus even if you did try they will most likely not talk to you!
Website…. this is India, where carbon paper and typewriters are the the means of office automation, there are no official website with any information on them. You can find some Dept Agriculture website but all they have is numbers that dont work. Try using http://www.google.in instead of google.com you might have more luck.
Well now I am also looking in to Lufthansa because on Continental, even though your dog travels on the same plane as you (in the hold), he is still considered cargo in their PetSafe program. At Newark you drop them off in a separate area not checkin (although they are both in Terminal C) and I was told upon arrival in Delhi, my dog would be transported to the cargo terminal, where I’d have to clear him in customs. A broker told me that could take up to 5 hours and the NOC price also near tripled because of the “cargo” aspect.
So I called Lufthansa to check about their policy and it’s excess baggage. So once we land in Delhi, I could pick him up in the baggage claim area. They also told me today that at the Frankfurt pet facility you CANNOT visit your dog and the dog ISN’T taken out for a walk due to safety reasons. If that’s the case, I don’t understand why you can’t just take them out yourself. So two reps today told me that essentially my dog will stay in the crate the whole duration of the layover.
Now to decide, risk leaving my dog in Delhi cargo for a few hours while trying to clear him (Continental, but direct flight) or have him sit in the crate for like 20+hours straight (Lufthansa with layover).
Oh broker wise, I have been speaking with Mithals and Jetex. Jetex said that even though they are based in Kolkata, they have “proper channels in Delhi” and the NOC is from the Indian government so being in Kolkata doesn’t matter. They are also super responsive. Mithals seems to work with big time clients (e.g., Embassies, Unicef, Accenture) so I’m sure they are great, but maybe little, individual me is lower on the priority list re: response time.
I would go hands down with Lufthansa… the problem is you cant leave the customs area to go visit them even if you wanted too.
But I went thru Frankfurt from Kolkata last week with the dogs and with a 1hr 20min layover the dog cages were cleaned and bedding changed and looked like the water bottles were topped up . ON the way to Kolkata they were definitely removed from the cages as they whole bedding was changed…so maybe they werent telling you everything, I would find at Lufthansa I get told different stories depending on who I talked to. There is a website that shows pics of the pet handling area at frankfurt, its impressive.
After dealing with Delhi customs, DO NOT take your dog the freight way, also customs there is closed after business hours, if there is a paperwork problem your dog will be stuck in its crate in the customs shed…its a shed literally. I would do the Lufthansa way, have you tried looking at other days of the week to travel to look for a shorter layover? Our dogs took 24hrs from Kolkata to Miami and they are sitting there happy needing to pee in the baggage claim area when you arrive.
Customs will cost a shit load of money too, if your dog is taken that way, they will tax it and the crate its in!!
thanks for all your insight! i am going Lufthansa now.
first, thanks to chris and cin for this great blog! very interesting and useful.
second, i wanted to say hi to jocelyn, as my husband and i are moving to india in january also. we’ll be in hyderabad.
we are struggling with the “do we take them or not” decision – we have a dog (boxer/beagle mix) and a cat. i’m checking out all the options.
the fact that you have to get the NOC before departing is the tricky part of all this. and no one seems to really know how to get this NOC – it’s amazing that your actually arrived, chris and cin!
what did you mean about “customs will cost a shit load of money” if your dog is taken that way – did you mean as freight versus as excess baggage?
Hi
If your dog and cat are in good health and dont look like they will pass away due to age during your time in India, take them. The only reason I say this is that in most cities there is no way to dispose of your animal, cremation or burial ground (in Kolkata there is a place to bury your animal but they use your plot a year later for another animal!)…also in most cities the vet care is far from what you will be used to in the western world.
Getting the NOC before you depart isnt that hard, I would recommend Jetex, and they say the NOC is valid for all airports, which is probably true as its the central government you are dealing with, and they will have a person in the airport waiting for you, and make sure that animal quarantine is there to greet you and browse your paperwork. They will give you after hours numbers too in case of trouble.
Freight, I deal with a lot of aircraft parts that are imported into India, and customs is a nightmare to deal with. You can have the best agent in the world, and you will still get screwed over by customs. If you go the freight route they will take a look at your pet and give them a value, this is totally arbitrary and you have no control over the value given, it may be $10 it may be $10000 , then you pay the duty at I think 23% plus plus plus plus the rest of the taxes and charges. And like I said before these guys work normal business hours, so if you cant get a pre clearance and you arrive after hours your poor pet is stuck in a airport shed with no water, food or love. Indians (sorry 90% or Indians) are scared of dogs and wont go near them, event he cat they are shit scared of cats! On the net you cant find nightmare stories of people importing pets to India using freight method….not one I read would recommend this method (although some people have to do this as the country they leave from doesnt allow the excess baggage method).
I wont even go into detail yet on the hassle I had just taking the dogs for a pee pee walk before boarding when I left a couple of weeks ago…its just lucky I am a pilot and have a all areas airport pass, otherwise it was going to be a real hassle to get them relieved before the flight to Miami out of Kolkata..I wasnt too worried as I had regulated their food and water and new that in transit at Frankfurt they would be looked after.
Also in the regards of customs, some agents will take a gift and make it easy for you, but most wont, and they have rules and the rules must be followed with no regard for common sense.
So I say bring them over, bring them excess baggage, get the NOC thru Jetex, and bring extra meds for them, oh bring tick and flea stuff, and bring worming tablets for the duration of your stay (you will find the stuff here is crap and it costs a lot). Be aware that if your animal is on a different diet there is little choice in pet food here, and no such thing as a petsmart. We would sometimes have to drive to 3 stores to get a bag of Pedigree crap (there is no ingredients on the India pedigree, I dont think it has any nutrition in it as our dogs got fat real quick on it). Personally I couldnt leave the pets behind, unless like now one of their parents is in the USA. Although in our case due to the onset of some bad health of Moe the cocker we really had to return him to the USA for his care in his old age, it wasnt fair to him for him to be in India ( we think he has stomach cancer or a tumor….we will get the results next week)
I go back to India on sunday, going to be hard with no pets there and cindy in the nice house in civilisation… not looking forward to it, but heck its a job and good money so cant complain!
Chris
Hi Chris,
First of all, I must this is a great blog. Tons of really useful info about moving pets to India. Loved your posts.
We are going to India for 3 months+ with our 15 lbs (chiwawa + corgi mix) senior dog. we will be traveling from JFK/NY to Bombay. I called a number of airlines for rules about taking him with us in the cabin (in a carry on doggie bag). Lufthansa and Delta seem to be most friendly (at least over the phone). Jet Airlines completely refused to allow a pet in the cabin and Air India folks were just confused.
Since, we are taking him in the cabin, I was wondering if we will need all the certificates that you mentioned for moving pets (such as the acclimation cert?).
Can we obtain NOC once we arrive at the Mumbai airport?
Also, it looks like our flight will arrive at 1am – should we try to reschedule to arrive at an earlier time, so that the office of the Quarantine officer is open?
I have some friends (I will buy them a fancy dinner later!) in Mumbai and was wondering if I should have them run around and try and get the NOC rather than pay $200+ to these agents?
Also, Ill contact fuzzywuzzy and yashbans to see if they provide a NOC.
Any other tips for bringing the dog in the cabin.
Thanks again
-Abhi
I would do either of these airlines, maybe delta as its more direct. But what about continental as they have direct Newark to Mumbai ?
Onboard make sure the pet and carrier are under 8kg…at the USA end you have no problems and they wont even weigh it, but leaving India they get anal about the weight! We used the collapsible pet carrier, I cant remember the brand but it was on one of the posts I think, it was by far the best way to take the cabin bound pet as you could get the pet to lie down and push it under the seat in front for take off and landing and then pull them out after wheels up, plus it had flaps in the roof you can open to let your pet stick its head up and stretch.
Also on the flight , of course you know about http://www.seatguru.com and you can read about the seats and the pesky little computer boxes under some seats, so make sure you dont get one of those seats! Also the seats in the middle of the rows have more clearance under them than the seats on the windows, so choose the seats in the middle of the plane.(it doesnt tell you this on seat guru)
NOC, need to have this in hand before you leave. And yes get your friends to go and get it for you, its easy. Just get them to call the Animal Quarantine Officer at the airport to make sure when they have their office open, and then go out there. There is some information they need to get this NOC for you, but the NOC is free and easy to get, and these officers are not into the bribery thing it seems and anyone can walk in and get it. You will probably have to give them a letter authorising your friend to do this on your behalf though, but thats no big deal. Personally I wouldnt pay an agency to get this as you can simply get someone to walk in and get it.
Dont worry about the late hour flight, as there is always a animal quarantine officer at the airport, and I think they actually enjoy coming to meet you check your paperwork as it gives them something to do! Plus most all the flights arrive in the middle of the night from abroad anyway!
And yes you need those other certificates, the acclimatisation etc just in case. At the USA end they wont really care, but if you have it all in a nice pretty file for the officer at this end, he will be really happy. The ones on this site will work with any airline, as they are the standard ICAO forms.
Hope this helps
Chris
This is great. Thanks Chris.
Will post my experience with traveling with our pet later in Feb.
We are slated to travel in the first week of Feb.
Thanks again
-Abhi
I arrived in Delhi early this morning (1:30a). Dylan the dog made it over just fine via Lufthansa. I wanted to say thanks for the Jetex info. We worked with Moumita (she said she talked with you guys too) who was just great. Super responsive and friendly. But of course, we didn’t need to show the NOC when leaving! I think they were about to ask for it, but Dylan started wailing and they waved me on! Well, I suppose if I didn’t have it, they would’ve stopped me. Oh, also, I liked how Lufthansa came up to me mid-flight to tell me that the dog had made it onto the plane. Wish I had more to post, but frankly I’m pretty brain dead now! Thanks again!
jocelyn
Welcome to the other side! great to hear you Dylan got her in one piece… at least leaving will be easier than coming, I can promise that.
And India is a paradise for photographers, I will give it that! You will have to visit the bigger special temples in Madurai , Tirupati etc, you will be amazed as a photographer.