When we came to Vienna from the United States, our dog James had to get a LOT of paperwork done. He needed a full health certificate filled out from our veterinarian in DC. And then we had to get that paperwork co-signed by the USDA in Richmond, Virginia. It wasn’t a problem – but it was expensive (the vet bill) and time consuming (driving to Richmond, Virginia for the USDA).
And the US paperwork is only valid for 30 days. Since we are staying in Europe longer than 30 days, we had to find out HOW to get James back into the United States since his paperwork would no longer be valid.
Many of our neighbors in Georgetown were from Europe and they said they didn’t need to do any of the USDA health stuff or see their vet for paperwork. They just had an EU pet passport. So I looked it up. Apparently it is much easier to get and then it is valid for your pet’s lifetime. Every time you get new shots or anything health related, the vet puts this information into the EU Pet Passport.
I looked for a vet in our area – here in Vienna it is called a Tierarzt (animal doctor). I found Markus Haidacher. I walked over there one day to check the place out and see if he could even do the EU Pet Passport. In the US, there are so many specialties and regulations so I wasn’t sure if that was the case here in Vienna and we needed a certain vet to help us. Nope. It turns out he could help us. I also asked how much it would cost – the paperwork in DC was over $500 and I wanted to be prepared if this was going to be another $500 bill. Herr Haidacher said it would be around €50. Noch Einmal? Ja. €50. Ich liebe Österreich!
OH and the other interesting thing – you don’t make an appointment to see Herr Haidacher. You just walk in and wait your turn. This is the case with people doctors, too. You usually don’t make an appointment unless it is a specialist.
We went in one day and Herr Haidacher needed to look at our US paperwork and make sure James was up to date on all of his vaccinations and such. He saw the bill from the vet and said, “Is this US Dollars? $500 US Dollars??!!!” and we said “Yes.” Then he said “No wonder the vets in the United States are doing so well!” Then he jokingly said our total was actually €590 not €59 like he initially quoted us. Ha.
James getting his check up:
Now that James has the EU Pet Passport he can travel within the EU and he just has to show his pet passport. He can also go back to the US and then back to the EU again.