Brexit : UK dog with EU passport - how to enter EU?
Discussion
I thought this would be the section most likely to know the answer. We have a cockerpoo called Millie. She's lucky enough to have been to europe before brexit, with her UK pet passport. When we went to the portuguese vet to get the tapeworm treatment before coming back into the UK he noticed our UK pet passport was incorrect and didn't match the microchip number as one digit was wrong, so he re-issued an EU passport, in portuguese, with the correct microchip number.
So we have an english dog with a portuguese passport. Registered owner address in the passport is us, in the UK.
We want to take her into the EU again, by ferry into Spain then on to Portugal.
Do we :
a) get all the new paperwork issued by our UK vet before travel, which includes "An animal health certificate, which must be signed by an official veterinarian of the third country, and presented at least in Spanish and a declaration, both in accordance with EU models, and certified copy of the identification and vaccination data of the animal/animals.". We've been told this can be £200 and take a couple of weeks to prepare as it's so new.
or b) teach her to sit in portuguese and hope they'll assume she's an EU citizen?
Any info or advice would be greatly appreciated!
So we have an english dog with a portuguese passport. Registered owner address in the passport is us, in the UK.
We want to take her into the EU again, by ferry into Spain then on to Portugal.
Do we :
a) get all the new paperwork issued by our UK vet before travel, which includes "An animal health certificate, which must be signed by an official veterinarian of the third country, and presented at least in Spanish and a declaration, both in accordance with EU models, and certified copy of the identification and vaccination data of the animal/animals.". We've been told this can be £200 and take a couple of weeks to prepare as it's so new.
or b) teach her to sit in portuguese and hope they'll assume she's an EU citizen?
Any info or advice would be greatly appreciated!
....and it appears we have a result.
Portuguese vet and a convoluted search through EU websites and spanish border control both confirm it.
EU issued passport = EU dog.
So she can come and go as she pleases as long as her rabies jabs are up to date
(I'm still going to teach her to sit in portuguese).
Portuguese vet and a convoluted search through EU websites and spanish border control both confirm it.
EU issued passport = EU dog.
So she can come and go as she pleases as long as her rabies jabs are up to date
(I'm still going to teach her to sit in portuguese).
To clarify :
Puppy was chipped by breeder, four years later dogs first UK passport had the number handwritten in, same as the Portuguese passport that replaced it. No stickers or bar codes.
I seem to remember the UK vet scanning the chip on the dog when issuing the passport, not just relying on doggies computer records when he issued it. They got one number one digit out I think - handwritten.
The Portuguese vet checked the chip and reported to me he’d found a single digit error on the passport. The rest of the number was correct. We were then in the vets waiting room for a loooong time. From memory a good hour or so. I think he did contact the UK to clarify - I honestly can’t remember exactly what went on but it certainly wasn’t a quick “kerching I can flog you a new passport” scenario. Don’t remember if he asked me for the UK vet contact details but it certainly wasn’t a quick process to get the passport replaced.
When you’ve got the dogs description and supposed ID, the owners Passport as ID with the owners address and contact details and so on and they match up to what the UK vet has on their records, down to previous UK history for foreign travel advice, passport issue etc even down to the sale of the tick collar she’s wearing it’s reasonable to assume we’re not trying to fake anything and that somewhere a genuine mistake has been made.
Simple honest mistake by the UK vet that, had the Portuguese vet had the attitude of “computer says no” would have left us somewhere I really really wouldn’t want to be.
I have the utmost respect for vets, beyond that even of doctors - how on earth you fix somebody when they can’t talk I really have no idea, and on that basis I will not be naming either the UK vet or the Portuguese vet. Common sense prevailed fortunately. We have a dogs chip, records in two countries and a passport that all have the same number, as it should be.
It’s only after brexit that this has turned out to be an advantage, at least as long as the biannual rabies jabs can be maintained within the EU - if we cannot get over to Europe to get her next rabies jab then we’re into the whole expensive paperwork thing same as any other UK dog.
Puppy was chipped by breeder, four years later dogs first UK passport had the number handwritten in, same as the Portuguese passport that replaced it. No stickers or bar codes.
I seem to remember the UK vet scanning the chip on the dog when issuing the passport, not just relying on doggies computer records when he issued it. They got one number one digit out I think - handwritten.
The Portuguese vet checked the chip and reported to me he’d found a single digit error on the passport. The rest of the number was correct. We were then in the vets waiting room for a loooong time. From memory a good hour or so. I think he did contact the UK to clarify - I honestly can’t remember exactly what went on but it certainly wasn’t a quick “kerching I can flog you a new passport” scenario. Don’t remember if he asked me for the UK vet contact details but it certainly wasn’t a quick process to get the passport replaced.
When you’ve got the dogs description and supposed ID, the owners Passport as ID with the owners address and contact details and so on and they match up to what the UK vet has on their records, down to previous UK history for foreign travel advice, passport issue etc even down to the sale of the tick collar she’s wearing it’s reasonable to assume we’re not trying to fake anything and that somewhere a genuine mistake has been made.
Simple honest mistake by the UK vet that, had the Portuguese vet had the attitude of “computer says no” would have left us somewhere I really really wouldn’t want to be.
I have the utmost respect for vets, beyond that even of doctors - how on earth you fix somebody when they can’t talk I really have no idea, and on that basis I will not be naming either the UK vet or the Portuguese vet. Common sense prevailed fortunately. We have a dogs chip, records in two countries and a passport that all have the same number, as it should be.
It’s only after brexit that this has turned out to be an advantage, at least as long as the biannual rabies jabs can be maintained within the EU - if we cannot get over to Europe to get her next rabies jab then we’re into the whole expensive paperwork thing same as any other UK dog.
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