Moving to Chile with Dogs - Any Advice?

Hello calgal.

Welcome to Expat.com!

Hope other members will be able to help you soon.

Thank you,
Aurélie

I hope a nice trip for ur dogs, are so sweet the goldens

calgal wrote:

We're seriously considering moving to Chile from Southern California, USA. Trying to best understand how to get our three golden retrievers transported with the minimal amount of stress to them and us.  Any insight/advice would be greatly appreciated. 

Do your homework first. Go tot he SAG (Ministry of Agriculture) website and see what the rules are from the US. Generally you will need a Rabies Vaccine, and anti parasite treatment and some forms filled in in Spanish and English. Sounds like the breed you have will mean you will go in Cargo, so then you will have to enter the cargo area, go to the shipping agentget the papers with all of the shipment info, then with that you go to the SAG counter where the will review the info and call for one of the vets to inspect the dogs. After this you then go to customs to pay any duty, you put a nominal fee on the dog and pay an admis cost. After you get your papers certified here then you return to the shipping agent who has your dog in their warehouse and pay the final fee while delivering all of the papers signed by Customs and SAG and then you leave,,,,,

I did it with our dog coming from Canada.

Advice:

Be patient, be calm and nice - the people who process this are friendly but the process is not.
Carry cash - the Point of sale technology wasnt yet installed in the government offices.
Consider hours of operation that coincide with when your plane lands....for example if you arrive on a weekend or at the end of the day you may need to wait or the dogs may not be released until the next business day - check this out carefully.
You could also consider a pet transport service that will do it door to door

Good luck

LAN airlines has a brochure on this topic along with the web address for more detailed information. Timing is the most important aspect: The timing of the vaccinations, the paperwork and the flight.