Moving to England with Greeks

[devsharkey]

Well, it looks like my girlfriend and I are moving to England. We currently live in Arizona, in the US.

I have three greek torts, one male and two females, and I'd like to bring them along with me rather than sell them or leave them here.

Will England accept my torts, and what exactly is CITES, and will they be able to travel to England with me? Will they be quarantined, and for how long? What do I need to travel with them? Do I need a license of some sort? What airlines will let me take them with me?

I don't know exactly what else to ask, those are just the top questions on my mind.

Please help!

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

Why would you want to leave AZ it's so great here snow when you want it, only about 2 months of winter , and it's legal to carry , and most of all your torts will never be as happy as they are here . Sorry your leaving AZ. !


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[FLINTUS]

Well, it looks like my girlfriend and I are moving to England. We currently live in Arizona, in the US.

I have three greek torts, one male and two females, and I'd like to bring them along with me rather than sell them or leave them here.

Will England accept my torts, and what exactly is CITES, and will they be able to travel to England with me? Will they be quarantined, and for how long? What do I need to travel with them? Do I need a license of some sort? What airlines will let me take them with me?

I don't know exactly what else to ask, those are just the top questions on my mind.

Please help!

You'll need import and export permits. Contact CITES(http://www.cites.org/) to talk through it, but it will take time. The UK agency for importing is DEFRA- http://www.defra.gov.uk/animal-trade/category/imports/. They won't need quarantine. Finding an airline to transport them will be the biggest expense. I believe United allow them in cabin though as extra hand-luggage for a fee, but I don't think animals are allowed in cabin to the UK, so you'd have to land in Paris or Amsterdam maybe, and then drive or catch the train from there. Otherwise, they'd have to be cargo. Delta have quite reasonable costs for cargo I think. Or you could get a pet transport specialist to organize it all for you, but it'll be very expensive that way.
Once you're in the UK, if you plan to breed them you will need Article 10 certs to show they're CB as we don't allow non CB Greeks here for sale-or their offspring. DEFRA may grant A10's to LTC animals as well, so if they can't be proved CB, you still should be able to obtain A10's in theory.

 

[devsharkey]

Why would you want to leave AZ it's so great here snow when you want it, only about 2 months of winter , and it's legal to carry , and most of all your torts will never be as happy as they are here . Sorry your leaving AZ. !


Sent from my iPhone using TortForum

I'm not a guns person, it holds no meaning to me. And the heats too much for me, and I've lived here all my life.

My girlfriend and I are training for the cycling divisions in the Olympics, and I'm not good enough by the US standards, even though England took all the cycling gold, silver and bronze metals last Olympics, but I'm good enough by England's standards. So, I just need to be there for two years and gain duel citizenship, and I can race for England.

And since my girlfriend is already a UK citizen, it won't be hard to live in England for a while so we're moving our lives there, and that means my torts and I as well

 

[devsharkey]

You'll need import and export permits. Contact CITES(http://www.cites.org/) to talk through it, but it will take time. The UK agency for importing is DEFRA- http://www.defra.gov.uk/animal-trade/category/imports/. They won't need quarantine. Finding an airline to transport them will be the biggest expense. I believe United allow them in cabin though as extra hand-luggage for a fee, but I don't think animals are allowed in cabin to the UK, so you'd have to land in Paris or Amsterdam maybe, and then drive or catch the train from there. Otherwise, they'd have to be cargo. Delta have quite reasonable costs for cargo I think. Or you could get a pet transport specialist to organize it all for you, but it'll be very expensive that way.
Once you're in the UK, if you plan to breed them you will need Article 10 certs to show they're CB as we don't allow non CB Greeks here for sale-or their offspring. DEFRA may grant A10's to LTC animals as well, so if they can't be proved CB, you still should be able to obtain A10's in theory.

How long will it take to get those permits? Weeks or months? We're not leaving for about two months still, I'm just curious if it'll take longer to get these permits or if it's only a week or two long process?

Thanks so much! You're reply really helped me!

 

[Yellow Turtle01]

I have never shipped a tort (sorry ) but I hope you and all your torts make it safley!

 

[FLINTUS]

How long will it take to get those permits? Weeks or months? We're not leaving for about two months still, I'm just curious if it'll take longer to get these permits or if it's only a week or two long process?

Thanks so much! You're reply really helped me!

Months, and probably quite a number of months. More than 2 months. I'd contact DEFRA and I'd guess the USFW dept. ( @tortadise is that who does export permits in the US? ) NOW to get the process started. You may find it easier to tag along with a shipment by one of the big snake breeders. Bob Clark would be a good bet, as I know he will allow animals to be tagged along on shipments, and will almost certainly have a master CITES, which would allow the export and import permits to be obtained MUCH QUICKER. If Bob wouldn't let you tag onto his shipment, you'd have to work out the transport for these. I would personally try to fly into somewhere in western Europe as I said above, and then go overland(and the Channel) from there with them. This would mean that depending on who you're flying on-do you have the flights booked yet?- you could bring them in cabin as extra hand luggage for a quite cheap amount. Otherwise, if going flying to the UK, one you have to deal with the long customs at LHR, and two they'd have to be cargo.

 

[tortadise]

Since this is a pet. Should take about a week or so to get the permit. Its definitely not as rigorous as commercial shipments. You will just need a cites permit from the United States to show customs when you get to wherever your going. USFW has some information on the website I believe.

 

[FLINTUS]

Since this is a pet. Should take about a week or so to get the permit. Its definitely not as rigorous as commercial shipments. You will just need a cites permit from the United States to show customs when you get to wherever your going. USFW has some information on the website I believe.

Interesting. So when they're pets the export permit is much quicker?

 

[devsharkey]

Since this is a pet. Should take about a week or so to get the permit. Its definitely not as rigorous as commercial shipments. You will just need a cites permit from the United States to show customs when you get to wherever your going. USFW has some information on the website I believe.

So what form do I fill out, would you know by chance?

 

[FLINTUS]

This is the USFW export permit I think http://www.fws.gov/forms/3-200-24.pdf
You'll also need an import permit from Defra.