We will be moving to the US at the end of Nov. with our 2 cats. From the information I gathered, it seems the requirements are not that strict; only a health certificate from the vet is needed; no chip & no rabies vaccination required. Can anyone confirm this? Thanks.

When we moved to the us in 2009 we needed nothing at all for the cat.

Well we just arranged for our cat to come over here and it has been a bit of a nightmare, we eventually had to go to a professional pet removal agency and to be honest it is worth it. We moved from Houston to Geneva a couple of weeks ago, the cat is now due here next week. Happy to share info, or name of agency and contact details for them if PMd

Thank you both for your replies. I think we are set to go. I only am concerned that the cats will have to be in small carriers under the seat during the flight. Perhaps the vet can provide some meds to calm them.

Found this

http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/...d.ctt/pets.pdf

Have you checked with the airline about their pet policy? Some carriers allow you to take your pets on board, in a box

Tom

Thanks for that information, Tom. It is very helpful. I have reserved a flight with Delta. They allow cats on board. We are just working out the details of the cat box size.

We brought two cats over from the US to CH 1 year ago, via Delta. If I remember, the price to bring them into the cabin was around $100 per cat, plus they counted as 1 piece of carry-on luggage apiece. The carriers needed to be soft-sided (can't remember the dimensions) and to fit under the seats. Based on the size of our cats, we had to medicate them twice, once before boarding and later when they both woke up and wouldn't sleep anymore. Most of the other passengers were very accepting and the flight attendants were super helpful as well.
The airline did require health certificates and vaccination records for the animals to board, and I think having this information available is a very good idea regardless of what you are told; it could prevent unexpected bottlenecks further along in the process.

Sounds almost like the travelling adventures of this cat.

I am moving back to the US at the beginning of November with 2 cats. There is no requirement for bringing cats into the country from the federal government for regular vaccinations or rabies shots, however, the CDC has a list of states that require updated vaccines and rabies. I connected to the CDC website through the airline website.

There are few airlines that will let pets travel in cabin anymore. That was also difficult to to book.

We are also moving back to the US with cats at the end of November, using Swiss. We took the cats to the vet this week to make sure they were up on all vaccines and the vet mentioned that we could use Zylkène for the stress. It's not a sedative but just calms them a bit and reminds them of their mothers milk. You start giving it a week before and a week after (or maybe she told us to since when we get there it will still be a little stressful?) You might want to ask your vet about it. We will probably go ahead and try that.

Also, I didn't see this mentioned anywhere on here yet, but I think that along with the vaccines, the "clean bill of health" that is needed when entering the US must be issued less than 10 days before travel.

Massachusetts apparently requires rabies certificate - just google for your state to see.

Good luck!!!

We're moving to Houston from Geneva just before Christmas with two (yowling Siamese) cats in the cabin with us and our two big dogs travelling with us in the hold - Geneva-Frankfurt-Houston. There is only 1h30 between flights in Frankfurt and according to Lufthansa, that's fine - but I'm wondering.

Does anybody have experience with those flights? A colleague of mine took Lufthansa to Denver a couple of months ago.. and they lost his baggage for 3 weeks... kind of worried about our dogs!

You want to check with LH what type of plane they will be using on the GVA-FRA run. It may be a turbo prop commuter plane !

This may be an issue depending on the size of the crates you are using. The opening of a commuter plane cargo door is not normally big enough (height) to pass an L or XL size of dog crate. I know this from experience as I had to dismantle one on the tarmac of FRA coming to GVA from YYZ with an XL crate and an upset Bernese. Then I had to hop up into the hold and reassemble it. Then hoist the dog (60kg) up as well. Then convince him that he should go back in the crate. Was I sweating? Yes!

Then in GVA I had to do the reverse.

So, depending on the size of the dogs, it might be an issue or not. Good luck.

Uh-oh. Thanks! I'll have to check. Our big dog stands 95 cm tall, so she'll need the biggest crate.

I checked - the Geneva-Frankfurt flight is a 737 and the Frankfurt-Houston flight is an Airbus... presumably a big one, so I hope this works! Does anybody know if 1 1/2 hours is enough at Frankfurt airport to ensure we can make our connecting flight (with hand luggage + cats) and our dogs don't miss the flight either.

I'd say it was the minimum time limit, but it depends on what checks you and they might have to go through at Frankfurt. As that's the American part of the journey I would suspect there might be more stringent check-ins on that part of the trip than the Geneva-Frankfurt part. Also if the first part from Geneva runs late for any reason then you could be in trouble. I'd try for a longer interval if you can get it; minimum 2 hours and preferably 2 and a half just to be on the safe side. I'd rather hang around for a bit and be sure of making the connection than cutting it fine and worrying about the first flight being late. However, that's just me travelling as humans only without pets so you need to also consider how a longer overall journey time might affect them. Are they used to travelling by air or is this their first time?

I had friends traveling back to the US in July with Lufthansa (ZRH to Frankfurt then on to DC). In Zurich they were allowed to put the cats through the x-ray machine while still in the carrier. They turned down the level of the x-ray apparently and told them it was safe. In Frankfurt they had to be rescreened, but this time they had to take the cats out of the carriers, put the carriers through the x-ray and walk through the metal detector with the cats. They had leashes on the cats, but apparently some old woman thought that this was a nice time to just walk up to my friend and try to pet the cat without asking. Needless to say, the cat flipped out, scratched my friend quite deep, slipped out of the harness and ran off into the Frankfurt airport. Luckily, her husband saw where the cat was going (he too had a cat in his arms), and they were able to find the other cat quickly. Both cats are now happily living in the states but it was quite a difficult day for everyone. So, if you do go through Frankfurt, be mindful that you might need a second security check. If that is the case, keep an eye out for idiot travelers that might think cats love all forms of attention even when in unfamiliar places.