B&E Consultants International

Blog II: Relocation with Pets:

Two weeks before our relocation to Riyadh,/Saudi Arabia, I additionally had to process travel documents for our two dogs.  Tasheel VSF International in Berlin could unfortunately not tell me what to do with the visa requirements of our two animals, and suggested to call the Royal Saudi Embassy again.  After I spoke to an Embassy staff member for about 10 minutes, I had an idea what was needed to be done and a website link to follow: www.docu-legal.de, however there were only two weeks left before departure…  So, besides other organizational work to do, I went on their website, and, to be sure, called them up:  It meant a visit to a veterinarian twice: once to get a normal health certificate (EUR 28 for both dogs) and a second visit to get a certificate from the German government health authority, the “Amtstierarzt” (EUR 30), now only payable via bank transfer, which can be difficult, while relocating…  This was done easily, but please ensure that your appointments with the vets are confirmed way in advance.  2-4 weeks before is advisable, as the “Amtstierarzt” has usually only one office hour a week.  I urged them to get an extra appointment on a Thursday, because all of our documents had to be translated into English. Filling out of all papers took 45 minutes, needless to say that the appointment was during my working hours…

 

A week later, as I had all the documents together from the vet and the “Amtstierarzt”, I filled in a form online, printed it out, sent it in via mail, together with the indicated documents.  On Friday morning, I called the company Docu-legal, because our travel day was only 6 days away to insure that work is completed correctly.  I was lucky I did, as the friendly assistant told me to be sure to also send the original documents, no copies!  All documents should be certified by a lawyer and furthermore, they required me to go back to the “Amtstierarzt” to have the health certificate from our vet certified by the “Amtstierarzt”!!  Needless to say it was Friday, 11:30 a.m., and as some of you know, official buildings will be closed in Germany by 2:00 p.m.  Due to a good personal connection, I could manage to get an appointment at 1:30 p.m.  In the evening, I made copies, put everything into the mail and on the following Tuesday, I got a call from Docu-Legal that all the documents were ready to go and will be delivered next day via courier service.  The costs were around EUR 139.20.

 

Without good time management, this would not have been possible for me!  By the way, Lufthansa went on strike on our travel day, so the urgency was not meant to be…