Bringing Pets

Cats and dogs are the most common pets in Saudi Arabia, though the pet shops sell everything from fish to turtles to lizards to birds to. snakes to German Shepherds. Veterinarians can be found at Pet Oasis and Happy Pets. You can buy dog food and cat food at large supermarkets. Pet accessories such as collars and leashes can be purchased at the pet shops but there is a limited selection. Popular pet stores are Pet Oasis and Happy Pets. The following article written by one of our current teachers includes everything someone would need to know about bringing a dog to Saudi Arabia:

A Dog’s Tale: Relocating a Dog from the United States to Saudi Arabia

Everything you read will tell you that importing a dog or dogs into Saudi Arabia is difficult. That is true. The amount of paperwork required is daunting, but not insurmountable and, ultimately, satisfying. If your dogs are a part of your family you can get them into the country (unless they are members of certain breeds of dogs).

You will read a bewildering plethora of contradictory material outlining the requirements for importing animals into Saudi Arabia. This is because Saudi Arabia changes requirements regularly and without fanfare, so that trying to divine the most up-to-date requirements can be near impossible. Persevere and be patient (the best advice for dealing with all bureaucracy in Saudi Arabia).

The first step for importing is determining if your dog is a prohibited breed: see Pet Travel.com for details. The list is long and seemingly arbitrary. If your dog is a mixed breed of one of these, you can have them classified as one not on the list as the dominant breed. Work with your veterinarian.

The Easy Part

Your dogs will have to have up-to-date vaccine records from your vet. You will also have to have your dogs microchipped. There are two types of microchip: one is good just in the US; the other is an international microchip. You will of course need the latter. There are forms—many forms—that will have to be filled out. There is a Saudi Arabian Veterinary Health Certificate [form 054] available online that your vet will need to fill out. Only two dogs are permitted in per family and on the paperwork your vet will have to verify that the dogs are either service dogs, guard dogs or hunting dogs. This paperwork is valid for 45 days.

Once you have the paperwork filled out, you will need to send it to the USDA for endorsement, as well as to the Saudi Arabia embassy in the United States. Once validated, this paperwork is good for 30 days. We had problems with paperwork at this stage (the USDA can be unhelpful to say the least). We decided to contract with a pet relocation company (PetRelocation out of Austin, TX). This can be pricey, but if you get the right person to work with (we did), then it can make the process much easier. This company had experience getting animals into Saudi Arabia, but even they did not know about some of the most recent rule changes. They were able to facilitate the transition of paperwork through the USDA and the Saudi embassy (though could do nothing about the hurricane and the Saudi holidays that held up the process). This meant that we received completed paperwork later than expected and since we were already in Saudi Arabia the paperwork had to catch up to us, leaving us even less time to get this process done. Once we had the paperwork from the USDA and the Saudi embassy, we had to get the entry permit for the dogs.

If you are in the country before your dogs, you will have to get a background check through the police before you will be able to get an entry permit. First, an application for the entry permit must be acquired from the Ministry of Agriculture. Once you have the application, the person transporting the dogs needs to be finger printed. A week after being finger printed, optimistically, the person should receive a background check that can then be brought to the Ministry of Agriculture to acquire the entry permit.

Once the entry permit is received, you are good to go. Transporting the animals via plane is another process altogether. Talk to your air carrier. Make sure there is room on the plane you are going to take for the animals in cargo (if you cannot take them in the cabin). There are strict rules for transporting animals on planes, so check with your carrier and let them know you will be traveling with your animals.

Things will go wrong at various stages of the process outlined above. In general, people are willing to do whatever they can to help you with the process. Be patient and don’t take no for an answer. The airline usually has people experienced with travel with animals. Check-in can take an hour or longer, so make sure you get to the airport early. If you have connecting flights on different airlines, give yourself four or more hours between flights. And remember, BE PATIENT! And always keep all of your paperwork with you.

Checklist

· Have no more than two dogs

· Make sure they are not classified as forbidden breeds

· Take the dogs to a vet to fill out a Saudi Arabian Veterinary Health Certificate [form 054]

· Send paperwork to a USDA office for endorsement

· Send endorsed paperwork to a Saudi Embassy in the US

· Get entry permit from Ministry of Agriculture in Saudi Arabia

· Get the second health certificate from vet for travel

· Have second health certificate verified by USDA

· Book travel within 10 days of second health certificate

· Carry all documents with you during travel