Another Dog Post
Can we make them French citizens in time to go home?
We have posted before about traveling with our two small dogs, Woody and Rudy. To quickly bring new readers up to speed, we’ve been bringing our two dogs back and forth with us between France and the US. They are both small enough to travel in the cabin, so we don’t have to put them in the cargo hold.
As we have mentioned, traveling with the dogs is stressful (mostly for us, but also for them) and expensive (entirely for us). One of the biggest costs is the mandatory vet visit to get paperwork in order for each trip to France. For both dogs, the cost of the exam and required updates to their vaccinations, the paperwork fee, and the overnight mail required to get the US Government to sign off on the paperwork has run us around $800. In the past there has been an additional cost of around €200 to visit the vet after we arrive in France. That’s not even counting the extra fees the airlines charge. The vet visit in the US adds stress because the visit and paperwork all have to be done within 10 days of travel, hence the overnight delivery expense.
On our last visit to our vet in Austin we had a new doctor who told us we could get a European Passport for our dogs which would allow them to travel any time without the vet visit. What?!
Why are we only hearing about this $4,000 later? We’ll take two European doggie passports, please!
We got the paperwork we needed for travel from the US and had clear instructions to see the French veterinarian ASAP upon arrival. We did that. We got the paperwork in order and promptly mailed it off to ICAD (Fichier national d’Indentifaction des Carnivores Domestiques), the French agency which oversees dog citizenship. The papers had stamps and signatures from our vet in the US, a vet from Missouri who is part of the US Government, and finally a stamp and signature from our vet in Montpellier, France. We filled out our part and mailed the papers back with two checks for €9.23 (one for each dog) as directed at the top of the ICAD form. I sent the papers via La Poste with a return receipt so we’d have documentation that the papers arrived. (Side note, the people who work at the French post office are lovely - so kind and helpful!)
Several weeks later we received our return receipts in the mail, hooray, it’s working! Then the next day we received two letters saying the fee had changed to €11, they had destroyed the checks we sent previously, so could we please send new checks for the revised amount. The letter warned that ICAD HAD TO RECEIVE OUR REPLY WITHIN 48 HOURS, DELIVERY BY COURIER STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!
There was additional confusion with filling out the returned paperwork, they sent us an extra form that we didn’t recognize! After what must have been 20 minutes of staring at the form we realized it was for someone else’s dog. THE FRENCH ARE SUPPOSED TO BE GOOD AT THIS! RED TAPE AND GOVERNMENT PAPERWORK IS WHAT KEEPS THE FRENCH ECONOMY AFLOAT! In the end, we returned this form too with a polite note explaining “we don’t own a beagle and we don’t know this person, this form must have been sent to us in error”. We would have found the mistake sooner, but the French format their letters differently: the position of addresser and addressee are reversed at the top of the page (compated to what we are accustomed to).
We wrote new checks and returned to La Poste to overnight the checks to ICAD; it cost us just under €40, to send ICAD an additonal €3.54! The staff at La Poste were again very helpful and courteous.
About ten days later we received another letter from ICAD saying we neglected to sign one of the forms. The document we originally sent to ICAD was printed on a single side and we had signed it (we have photocopies to prove it) - but the copy they returned was two-sided, both sides were identical except that the signature line was blank on the newly printed side(?). We couldn’t really figure out what was going on but it didn’t matter: they want a signature, they get a signature. Carolyn went to the La Poste to spend another €40 on overnight mail when she realized there was an email address we could use! That wouldn’t have worked the first time because we can’t email a check, but we can email a signed document! She returned home and scanned the document and emailed it back to ICAD.
Side note: Carolyn also tried to buy copies of the new “scratch-n-sniff” baguette postage stamps at La Poste, but they were sold out! We’ve had requests from several people to send them a letter with one of these stamps.
Now we wait. We have three weeks before we return to the US, will we get the papers in time?! Will our dogs become French citizens and save us thousands of dollars in travel expenses? Will ICAD update it’s forms to reflect the new cost of the paperwork? Tune in soon to learn the answers to these and other exciting question!
Jusqù’a la prochaine fois! (Until next time)
Carolyn & Roberto
Fingers crossed for you all!
I am now considering getting a dog as soon as we move to France, just for the passport.