Moving cats back to the US

[actionwoman]

Can anyone let me know if they have done this themselves? We went with a pet moving company to get out here (US$3200 for both cats) and now they're quoting us US$4800 to go back, which seems like a lot of money. From what I understand, the requirements for cats returning to the US aren't as stringent as they were to bring them out here. Thanks in advance, Amy

[hello_there]

Did you ask them to break down the fees (especially to show the cost of the flight)? We found that the most expensive part of moving our dogs (a huge amount) was the flight and the couple hundred extra dollars paid to the agent to do the paperwork was worth it. Its not complicated and we could have done it ourselves, but with everything else going on for the move were just too busy.

The USDA web site is a good place to start for import requirements, basically just paperwork and accompanying fees and the animals must be current on vaccinations. Contact the cargo departments of airlines for estimates of shipping costs for live animals.

[nassaugirl]

Thats expensive!

We typically do all of our pet moves ourselves now as its a lot cheaper that way. I used a pet moving company once to move our cat from Canada to Singapore. Not only was it expensive but they seemed fairly clueless about the procedure and I had to help do the work. When the cat arrived, I was really unhappy about how they had set up his cage for travel as it didn't look at all comfortable. Then when I saw the fee breakdown, the actual cargo cost was about 1/3 of what they ended up charging me.

It does involve a bit of running around/paperwork but nothing outrageous. Then you can book the animals onto your flight as cargo and collect them at the other end.

It should actually be a lot easier bring your pets back to the US than it would be taking them here. I have taken a cat into Canada from the US and from the Bahamas to the US and it was reasonably painless.