[NAGDU] Urgent question, traveling abroad with guide dog

Sat Jun 18 12:55:13 UTC 2016

A few weeks ago I have asked for your help regarding traveling to Hungary
with my dog.
We made it, just got back last weekend.

The process was rather complicated, so I thought I would share it with you,
in case it helps anybody in the future.
It is a slightly longer piece, probably those could benefit from it who are
planning to travel abroad with a 10 day requirement and do not have a quick
access to a USDA office to have the documents certified.
For others, probably the whole process and experience will be different.

So, 10 day requirement: I believe it applies to most EU countries. Your vet
has to sign the necessary paperwork within 10 days of your arrival to the
target country. This means that due to travel length and time change,
flying to Europe it is really 9 days before your departure time. If this
day falls on a Saturday, this can potentially shave off a couple of days
from the other end as well, so now we are down to 7. I wonder what happens
if anything gets delayed unexpectedly, as it did on the way back. In my
case, this date was a Sunday, so I scheduled an appointment with the vet
first thing on Monday morning.

There are three ways to get the documents certified by the USDA, before
your departure at the airport at the USDA desk if your airport has one. You
can visit your nearest USDA office within ten days of your arrival to your
destination, or you can mail it to your USDA office.
Since I was told that Cleveland doesn't have a USDA desk, and the nearest
office is about a 3 hour drive from us, I decided to mail the documents. If
I couldn't find anybody to drive me, this trip from our house would take
twice as long using public transportation.
The USDA recommended that I overnight the letter, and if I enclose an
overnight return label they will send it back to me the same way, otherwise
it is regular mail. Chances are I would have received it in one aday by
regular mail, but I didn't want to risk it.
On Monday I mailed out the forms, which the USDA received on Tuesday
morning. On Wednesday I got a call to clarify my destination, then I
received a call from my Vet on Thursday that the USDA needed her to have
one page signed, apparently the signature was at the wrong place. If this
page was ok, there is a good chance they would have mailed the document
back on Thursday for me to receive it on Friday. Instead, I overnighted the
newly signed page, which got to the USDA on early Friday morning. I called
them to doublecheck if everything was ok, when they informed me that
currently they didn't have a vet there to certify my documents, but they
will do it on Monday. My trip started on Tuesday afternoon. For lack of
better, I agreed. On Monday morning I called again, everything was fine, my
document was going to be signed that day. Since my UPS online tracking
didn't show it was mailed, I called on Monday afternoon, when I was assured
that the document is read and they put it on the mail after the office
closes. At this point, we were less then 24 hours before my scheduled
departure. Five minutes before the office closed, I got a call from the
USDA vet asking me to clarify if I'm attending any event in Hungary. Now,
why does this matter, and why they couldn't ask me six days earlier is
beyond my understanding. I found it more frustrating that my papers weren't
certified after I was told that they were ready to be mailed.
It was Monday at 10 PM when UPS scanned my letter, which I received on
Tuesday morning. I'm a chill guy, but I was getting nervous.
So, four hours before I had to leave the house it became certain that
Baldwin can come with me.

In an optimal case, if all papers are filled out properly, and they have a
vet at the USDA on a given day, the whole process could have been completed
between Monday morning and Wednesday morning.
At least, now I know what went wrong, what do I need to doublecheck, and
the other advantage is that my vet now has the experience of filling out
the form, and probably this mistake won't slip in again.
I'm not sure how I'm going to approach it next time, I will probably feel
more confident taking my forms in personally, though this time it would
have taken me two full days of travel.

Interestingly, nobody ever asked me for the paperwork. I even took Baldwin
out in Switzerland when we had a short layover, people were helpful, but
never asked on what basis I'm planning to take my dog out on Swiss grounds.
Then came Hungary, it is a unique case, because I am a dual citizen, so it
is possible that they thought I'm coming home one way or another, but
nobody wanted to know where my dog is from, even though in Hungary it is
mandatory to have a red cross on the harness for guide dogs, at least for
those which were trained there, for identification. On the way back, our
last flight got cancelled, so we had to spend a night in Toronto. Again,
nobody wanted to know on what basis I'm bringing a dog from Europe. Though
it is tempting not to worry about papers next time, it is worth noting that
all government agencies cliam that without the proper paperwork, they may
end up putting the dog down, so it is not worth risking.

Also, as a side note, I found it more difficult to have a guide dog in
Hungary. Baldwin was a great help for me, but people didn't seem to find it
too natural that a blind person is getting around with the dog. When I went
anywhere with friends and family, it was a regular question if we can go to
certain places with a dog, and I found that many more people wanted to play
with Baldwin when he was working. Maybe it was the lack of the identifying
red cross on his harness, but I just still don't get it, why would you want
to play with a stranger's dog you don't know, but I guess it is a
different, already well-documented topic.

I know it was a long rambling, please understand, I'm not trying to
complain, I did my venting with my family and friends, but since I haven't
seen much conversation about traveling abroad, I hope this will help
someone in the future.

Again, thank you for all your help you offered when I was getting the
preparation started.

Tom and Baldwin

On Sun, May 1, 2016 at 12:47 PM, Tom Babinszki <tbabinszki at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thank you for your help. Yes, it is a bit complicated to say the least.
> I'm trying to avoid a personal trip and rather send the docs overnight,
> because the nearest USDA location is a half day drive even more with public
> transportation.
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> > On Apr 30, 2016, at 8:20 PM, terrie arnold via NAGDU <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> wrote:
> >
> > Yes you have to get a health certification through the US department of
> agriculture for your dog, going to a foreign country first question I have
> for you where did your dog graduate from if you want the pilot dogs you may
> have to pay a fee of $550 to get your dog in the country we may have to
> send that before hand so went to England last year and had to pay the fee
> five days beforehand didn't know about it so that yes you may need to get
> your dog wormed you may need to get him rebeck sedated for rabies as well
> so it might be a pricey proposition taking your dog to hungry sorry to say
> so check very very very carefullyx
> >
> > My thoughts for today
> >
> >> On Apr 30, 2016, at 3:56 PM, Tom Babinszki via NAGDU <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi,
> >> Sorry for the cross post, just would like to make sure I get answers
> due to
> >> the short time I'm working with.
> >> The situation is that I'm scheduled to travel to Hungary on May 10 with
> my
> >> guide dog.
> >> I received some information on what paperwork I need to have filled out,
> >> but it is pretty confusing.
> >> I have an appointment with my vet on Monday morning to fill out the
> forms.
> >> I would like to make sure I have everything covered and I don't need to
> >> part with my dog along the way.
> >> I called each airline I'm traveling with, and had them add a note that
> I'll
> >> be traveling with my dog. As I understand, it is not necessary, but I
> heard
> >> too many horror stories recently.
> >> I called the USDA, and I was advised that since they don't have a desk
> at
> >> the Cleveland airport, I need to send them the forms to be certified.
> >> I need to give these forms to a certified vet, within ten days of my
> >> arrival to Hungary.
> >> One form is an English-Hungarian bilingual form about non-commercial
> animal
> >> movement:
> >>
> https://www.aphis.usda.gov/regulations/vs/iregs/animals/downloads/hu_pet_non_comm_fil_hc_ab.pdf
> >> The other is the dog's health certificate.
> >> Is this the APHIS7001 form? Is this different from the English-Hungarian
> >> form?
> >> Is there any other forms I will need?
> >> I also read that I will have to enclose a check, but when I called the
> USDA
> >> they never told me about this, I only found this info online today.
> >> Is this correct? Who do I make this check to?
> >> Is this the correct address I need to send the forms to?
> >> 12927 Stonecreek Drive
> >> Pickerington, OH
> >> The forms and instructions do not contain an address.
> >> Thank you for all your help!
> >> Tom
> >> _______________________________________________
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