KayCee

Help!

We have filled in and submitted all our paperwork for the import permit. Our animals are vaccinated and healthy and compliant with all the requirements. But, we have just hit a snag.

We are flying from BKK to Chiang Mai a few hours after we arrive. The animals will clear with the Quarantine Officer all the legalities there in BkK first of course. But now, Thai Airways is demanding the "Health Certificate Number" before agreeing to reserve place on the BKK-CMX flight for them.

I am baffled. Usually the health certificate is issued by the vet in the country where you are departing only 3-7 days (depending on the country's requirements) before you leave. The Thai Airways person has said it can be 30 days in the case of Thailand, which surprises me. Is that really true? And, I'm puzzled by the "Number" since the certificate will be issued by my East. African country's vet, and surely every country where people would leave from to come to Thailand will have its own system of numbers and so on. To add to my complications, of course to get ON the plane to leave this place, the health certificate must be only 5 days old.

The last thing I want is to arrive in BKK and have a huge crisis in the heat with no ongoing flight for the dogs. So I don't mind having the health certificate done twice here - now to save the space, later to suit the African govt's requirements when leaving. But I really wonder why this is required for a domestic flight, when they understand you will have just a couple hours before, have had all your papers stamped and made valid at the BKK airport.

Is this a misunderstanding, or has anyone else heard of this requirement? And do they really want a health certificate from anywhere, or is this something they want for domestic flights that is issued by the Thai government, and is not possible, obviously, for me to get before I arrive?

I got one last week where all the dog shops are close to walai rd. 500b.

I very much doubt that its possible to get a airline approved XL!!! kennel for 500 baht!

Maybe the door for the kennel?? ;-)

There is a topic about a poster arriving with two large dogs by air to cm. It may be worth contacting him and seing if he wants to sell his box.

I was thinking the same,but as read from the topic,they work in different countries,so i am pretty sure they will keep their boxes.

But i will send them a mail.

Hi Barakla,

I'd sure like to help someone as sweet about their animals as you seem to be. And I always appreciate people who try to take their animals with them. We will have three boxes with us, and I posted the size on the other forum thread asking for advice on the airport run. We aren't planning to leave Chiang Mai anytime soon - hopefully never, but one never knows I suppose, what life has in store! - but we usually keep the boxes on hand in case.

But - when we moved to this posting in East Africa, something went wrong in transit, we think, because one of our big dogs showed up in a wooden crate instead of the big US-sold for $150 type plastic airline crate. The wooden crate is great - it's sturdy as anything, mesh on all for sides for good airflow, and stamped with Made in Heathrow, though apparently his cage was swapped in Abu Dhabi. We'd be willing to sell you that one if you want it, but you'd probably want to see it first. The biggest plastic one my oldest dog loves as his personal bed to curl up in (without the gate), so we'll keep that one.

Check the sizes on my thread and let me know if you think it will be suitable, and if so, and if you can wait until after June 24, you can come and see it and see what you think! I'm honestly so frantic with the move I may forget, so drop me a PM around the time I'm arriving if so, ok?

Sorry - I've been without internet in my current country of residence for a full day and couldn't respond. If you guys can believe it, the internet is far worse here, than there!

Bakala you're very sweet, but I wasn't fishing for an offer of a ride, just for advice on how to get it done. This move is costing us many thousands of dollars, so a van or taxi rental cost is not my biggest concern.

I really don't know what to say about the crate vs. no crate. Two of my dogs love their crate, one detests it. They would behave well in an air conditioned van out of their crates, I'm sure, but one tends to get carsick, and while he probably would have an empty tummy, it still could be rather unpleasant with foaming dog drool and all that, and I would hate that to be some kind soul's first impression of our family!

As for the collars and leads -- these guys haven't been walked much, and their collars are nice ones good leather ones from a visit to S. Africa (all they have where I live now is nasty barbed metal ones). Will they stay on if the 80 pound dog is having a hissy fit of panic? Probably. Have I tried it to be sure? No.

So... If I understand what people are telling me - my two best choices are probably either to have them IN their kennel in the Song Thaew (but this would not be suitable if they're out of their kennel). The downside is - even at 7 pm or so it may be warm, and it's a long painful ride to Mae Rim this way

Or, to try to take them out of their kennels and be safely inside a rented van type vehicle that has A/C (not a truck where the back is hot).

I think I would feel better to arrange the latter. If we take the kennels right up to the van, and stay with the critters inside it, they would feel secure and fine. And I can wipe doggie drool on the ride so we don't make a mess for the poor driver.

That seems the best, right? Now I need to find out how to arrange that, lol.

I so much appreciate the good advice and kind thoughts from everyone!

A few years ago we brought over our rescued dogs from a Mediterranean location to Chiang Mai via Bangkok. Whilst it is possible that things have changed since the move to the new airport, some things may not have been improved. You may already have considered the points I raise below and have the answers.

We found that time spent ensuring that the pre-flight vaccination & certification requirements are satisfied paid off handsomely. However, after landing and whilst the paperwork was being handled and the duty assessed the dogs were keep in their sky kennels in an unairconditioned warehouse and no arrangements were in place to water them. At the time the customs section handling the import and paperwork was located in a different building and handled paperwork in rotation, rather than giving priority to livestock. When they assess duty if they find there is duty to pay you or your representative had to pay before the dogs were released.

There was also no system in place to get our dogs from the arrivals warehouse to the domestic cargo area. As customs clearance and transfer times at this point could have lead to delays it was difficult to prebook space on a domestic flight. I can recall that one of the 2 waves of dogs we sent over (7 of them I think) landed at mid day and were shipped on a 4 - 4.30 pm flight. They eventually reached their newly built accommodation at this end just before 7, because having landed I had to get from the passenger terminal to the cargo building to sign for their release.

If you would like to know more, please PM me.

Thank you so much Saraphee. It's this sort of information that is so helpful. We've read the pet section of this forum and gotten some very useful hints - like being sure they ship from here as excess baggage on the same plane as us, and not as cargo. (Our kitty is traveling with us in the cabin) We've also got our agent here working to confirm their booking onward from BKK to CM to be sure there aren't any last minute snags. That flight leaves from the same terminal/airport so we were told that it wouldn't be far to move them once they're cleared, but I hope that's true. If there is a last minute disaster and we can't make a flight to CM that day without a ridiculous long (and hot) delay, we have a plan B which is to bag it and spend the night in BKK at the house of friends who are happy to have the dogs there with us. We have to have a truck on standby that's air conditioned, if we need to do that, but we're lining that up.

I swear I'm about a thousand times more stressed about moving them safely than I am about any of the other hassles with sea/air shipment allowances from our employer, or the packing, or anything else! Having such kind advice and tips is really helpful!

We'll definitely see if it works. Sadly, since they're coming from Nepal, then Africa, they've lived their lives in walled compounds (though we always tried to find ones with lots of space for them to run around), because it wasn't really safe to walk them with all the unvaccinated and aggressive street dogs around. Plus, there was occasional poisoned meat put out by the government. And, the folks just walking around the streets were terrified of big dogs, and tended to throw things at them and scream. One soldier guarding a minister's house even pointed his gun at our dog once. It's left our dogs more unsocialized than I would like, even if it did keep them safe. They're utter sweethearts, but might be totally overwhelmed by all the noise and bustle and people. At least it will be evening by then and hopefully a bit cooler, and thei cages are a good bit larger than they really needed, so they have a good bit of extra room in there. Two of my dogs love to sleep in theirs already so they just feel less stressed staying put for the last half hour or so of the ordeal. On the other hand, they may want to get out and get loved on by the kids and see all the stuff going on. We'll see whether being out will stress them or make them happier once we're there and can judge their reaction.

We'll be living in Mae Rim, so hopefully once they get there and home, we can get them a bit more used to walks and so on, and their lives will be as much richer as ours will be!

I've read through this whole thread a couple of times, because I'm nervous about everything that could go wrong about bringing our animals into Thailand with us. I think I understand all the requirements and procedures.

But then I came to the post asking if importation of animals was allowed under an ED visa. And even though the person asked was told it should be fine, it made me realize I hadn't seen any discussion of any sort of visa requirement to bring in animals. Can you import animals on a tourist visa? A retirement visa? If you come in as an American without a visa, since you're going to get a non-resident visa once you arrive? Or do they not really care about any of this and so long as your other paperwork is in order it's ok?

Hi NancyL,

Thank you so much for your help and encouragement! The special treats on the Hindi religious holiday of Tihar (or Diwali in India) was the only reason they tolerated the once a year decoration with the silly flowers! Their dignity was very much offended and the marigold garlands and red vermillion powder was disposed of minutes after the picture was snapped!

We're looking forward to settling into Chiang Mai. It will be so nice to be in a country with a dog rescue place. Perhaps after we settle we'll meet up with other animal lovers while going to help out there.

sorry - double post, thanks to my lovely internet.

:

We will be flying in from Africa, and the best way was through Bangkok, so the animals will all clear customs there, and then have a short flight up to CM.

We have 3 different sized cages

1. 118 cm long by 90 cm wide, 80 cm high

2. 108 cm long by 56 cm wide, 92 cm high

3. 102 cm long by 62 cm wide, 75 cm high

We're supposed to arrive in CM at 6:30 in the evening, so hopefully things will still be available!

I really appreciate the information! We've moved internationally before, and we visited Chiang Mai and loved it, having spent lots of time in Thailand before, just in other parts. The only thing that has my anxiety churning at the moment is being sure we make it as easy on the animals as we can. It's going to be a not very fun day for them as it is, though we're coming from only about 8 hours away by plane, so it's not as horrendous a journey as if we were coming from the US. Still, we know it will be hard.

Here's a pic of the dogs back when they were celebrating the Dog Day of Tihar in Nepal where they all come from originally:

We will be arriving in Chiang Mai fairly soon, and accompanying us will be our three dogs. Two of them are quite large dogs, the other a medium-sized street dog. So, we will have not only our family and a ton of luggage, but three fairly large dog crates to transport from the airport to our new house.

We feel guilty enough about the strain of the move, but given where we live now (there are no shelters, street animals are routinely poisoned, terrible vet care, and no possibility of re-homing an adult dog), there is no way we would leave them behind, even if they weren't so much part of the family. So, the question isn't should we be bringing them, but how to make sure that we can get them home from the airport without too much delay and added strain.

Fortunately we will arrive in the evening when it won't be as hot, but we're not sure who to call or how to go about arranging to get them to their new home. Anyone know any good company that we could contact to help us with this?

I live in a different African country now and haven't had any problems. Sorry you were cut off, but it doesn't seem Africa-wide or anything.

We've lived overseas for our jobs for years, and our kids' schooling has generally cost between $12,000 and $20,000 per year.

Was that 12-20K per child?

Yes, each. Ouch. That doesn't count the capital improvement fees, one time registration fee of sometimes as much as $2,000 (again, each), etc.

We've lived overseas for our jobs for years, and our kids' schooling has generally cost between $12,000 and $20,000 per year, and these were in places with much lower demand than, say China, so $26,000 for Nanjing International School doesn't surprise me. We also are quite accustomed to having to pay capital improvement fees for a fund that will take care of future school needs to replacing aging equipment or plant, or expand, none of which we would probably benefit from. But then again, presumably prior parents' capital contributions paid for the science equipment or computers our kids use now, so we never were too bothered by that. What we do believe, though, is that the schools are better with a high degree of transparency and parental involvement and consultation on the decisions the schools face about investment, direction, expansion, etc. There will always be some things that are kept confidential - we don't need to know a specific teacher's salary for instance - but knowing what the standards are for teacher recruitment would be a different matter. We've found that generally with more openness comes less grumbling or problems, but that's just been our experience.

Dean, you are very sweet to offer! We are still working on this, and hopefully something will be settled before we arrive. I'll keep this in mind though, and I really appreciate the kindness of the offer!

Well, we're 3+ weeks from our arrival in beautiful Chiang Mai, and the house we thought we liked and that was available, is now very suddenly not available!

So! Bumping this up to the top in case anyone has any good leads on a house that might be suitable for our somewhat large family, and 3 dogs who have travelled with us from country to country and are now ready to retire in their old age, along with us, in Chiang Mai!

What NancyL said.

I'll add one more -- do some volunteer activities. My wife teaches English to Burmese students a couple of evenings a week and I spend time at the dog shelter. (Please notice that I called it "volunteer activities". I don't work as it's prohibited under my visa.)

The only stress I have living as an early retiree in Chiang Mai is finding the time to do all the things I want to do.

Can someone please clarify as we may be in that status soon there? We knew working was prohibited on a retiree visa. But volunteer activities are not? I thought you needed a work permit even for volunteer work. If that's not the case, I'll be delighted, since I've been exploring other visa options primarily because I thought retirees were restricted in that way.

Dean, thank you so much, but I think with our family size, including an elderly parent who will likely live with us for part of the year, we will really need the 5th bedroom.

Rama, I've answered your private message!

Thanks for the links to the various classifieds too, we're eagerly going through them!

One of our older kids is in Chiang Mai for a few weeks until she goes back to school and can go and see whatever may be available, so I hope we can find something soon.

Moved to the Chiang Mai forum for local input.

Thank you so much. As a complete newbie to Thaivisa I wasn't sure where to post the question.

We're moving to Chiang Mai in early July, and are looking for a large house with a big compound in Chiang Mai. We'd prefer to be on the north/northeast side of town. We're looking for an unfurnished 5-7 bedroom house with at least 1500 sq meters of land. If anyone knows of a suitable place, we'd love to hear about it!