3 (Very Annoying) Ways Brexit Affects Traveling with Pets

Taking your pets between France and England has never been more difficult

When I first moved to England, I never thought Brexit would be a major inconvenience in my life. Sure I had to get a visa to move here despite having a French passport. But, other than that, I thought it would have no impact on me.

I was wrong.

I have a dog, Ginny, and a cat, Sierra. Every time I have attempted to visit my family in France with my pets, Brexit has come to ruin my plans.

Here’s how.

You can’t fly with pets from France to England

This was possible before Brexit but since leaving Europe, airlines have been working on crafting new rules for pet travel into the UK. Before agreements are reached, it is impossible to fly into the UK with pets, either in the hold or in the cabin, with any airline.

Airlines will transport your pets from England to France, no problem. But they do not accept pets for the flight back into England.

Pets are also not accepted on passenger trains or ferries between England and France.

Therefore, your only option to travel into the UK with pets is to have a car. You can either take the Eurotunnel with your car or a ferry, where your pet has to stay in the car the entire time.

If that is not an option for you, you can’t bring your pets to the UK, which is incredibly inconvenient.

Both times I have traveled to France with my pets, I have had to drive two days and cross both countries (I live in the North of England and my parents in the South of France) instead of taking a couple-hour flight.

You can’t get a Pet Passport in the UK anymore

UK vets used to be able to make UE pet passports allowing your pets to travel within Europe without needing any additional documents.

This passport contains all the information required for your pet including their microchip number and date of microchipping, the date of their rabies vaccinations, and worm treatments.

Instead, in order to travel with pets from the UK, you need to get a health certificate every single time you travel.

The health certificate is expensive and inconvenient as it needs to be completed by a specific vet in a specific time window before your travel. You, therefore, need to know your travel dates well in advance and make sure to get an appointment at the right time.

The first time I went to France with my pets, I brought them to a French vet who was able to get them pet passports. However, we still had issues because the passports were done after the rabies vaccination and the microchipping, which we had to do in the UK before leaving.

UK vets can’t even write in the Pet Passports

Once I had passports made for my pets, I figured I would not have to deal with health certificates anymore.

I was wrong.

Ginny and Sierra need a rabies vaccine booster in November, before I travel to France for Christmas. I, therefore, asked my vet in England to write down the vaccine in their passport so I would have no issue crossing the border.

She informed me that they are not allowed to do so because it would invalidate the passport since England is not part of the EU anymore.

My options are therefore to either have them vaccinated in France, which is not possible because their vaccines expire in November and I am not going to France before then, or to get them vaccinated here and get health certificates next time I travel because they can’t travel to France if the vaccine is not in their official passport.

To me, all of these problems seem incredibly ridiculous.

Every time I have to travel it seems that there is some new problem and there are new hoops I need to jump through.

It’s frustrating.

But I can’t stand to leave my pets behind so I jump through the hoops to bring them with me. I just wish it didn’t have to be this hard.

I would love to hear other people’s experiences with this and if anyone has easier solutions.