[Nathan]

I had filled out the import application for our cats only to discover that it changed since the form was e-mailed to me in early May. Fortunately, the differences are small.

The new application is at:

http://www.biosecurity.govt.nz/imports/animals/standards/domaniic.spe.htm

Cheers! :cheers
(I'm glad my liver was still working when we had our medical exams!!)

[nickydwuk]

How has it changed? I thought the animal shippers arranged the import permit and all we had to do was make sure all the tests etc... had been carried out.

[Nathan]

How has it changed? ....
It may depend on from whence you're shipping, but from US the form has a different third page. The letter from the vet is eliminated and the same information is confirmed on the new version of the third page.


I thought the animal shippers arranged the import permit and all we had to do was make sure all the tests etc... had been carried out.
That depends on the level of service one contracts. In my case, I do the permits and shipper does part of the vet work. They arrange international flights and I arrange domestic flights. I had the option of letting them handle the domestic travel. I suppose you could do the whole thing yourself, but it's surely nice to have the inside information and exoerience that the shippers provide.

Incidentally, both forms have the same version number! Yagottaluvit!!:D

[srivett]

A heads up: I'm not sure if this is the case with any other facilities, but the quarantine facility I booked my cats into for October had out-of-date import permit information. As a result, they sent us an old application form and a medical checklist that did not include the 3 week wait necessary between the initial rabies vaccine and the blood titre test. The new application form lists those 3 weeks as essential, but the older application does not. As a result of this mix up, one of my cats may have to be delayed entry into the country. Everything's still unresolved right now - I'm in contact with MAF - but if you're still working on the import requirements, make sure you're meeting the current conditions as posted on the official website. I wouldn't want anyone else to run into the same problem if it's avoidable!

[srivett]

Update:

Good news for us! Canterbury Quarantine and MAF talked things over and came to an understanding. Since the gov't neglected to include Canterbery Q in their notification mailing (even though they list them as an accredited facility on the application form!), they adjusted the requirement for us. Unheard of for a gov't dept to bend the rules in someone's favour, but I'm not complaining! Very impressed, in fact. And Richard at MAF was very helpful. Now all we need to do is provide an extra titre test for Sev and resubmit the new application form and they'll provide the import permit for the date we need it. I'm so relieved.

[kanatakiwi]

Update:

Unheard of for a gov't dept to bend the rules in someone's favour, but I'm not complaining! Very impressed, in fact..

Its one of the nice things about NZ that officials can and do bend the rules once you get to the level of personal contact with them. they can be very officious at the start but once you start talking to a real person , they are quite often happy to bend the rules. The person at the library lowered by book fines just because she said she liked the sound of may accent! I didnt ask for them to be lowered and was quite prepared to pay but she insisted!
G

[srivett]

How nice! :) If it's that common, I'm even more impressed. Personal contact with gov't officials is just not something I'm used to. During my OH's PR application period into Canada, there was absolutely no contact with a human being at all beyond call-centre operators. Something came up and I was able to hunt down the woman in charge of our application, but she was surprised and annoyed that I'd been able to contact her. I'm looking forward to living somewhere that's a little more personable at the official level.

Makes me look forward to the library system too... but I was going to be there a lot anyway ;)

[nolasmom]

Update:

Good news for us! Canterbury Quarantine and MAF talked things over and came to an understanding. Since the gov't neglected to include Canterbery Q in their notification mailing (even though they list them as an accredited facility on the application form!), they adjusted the requirement for us. Unheard of for a gov't dept to bend the rules in someone's favour, but I'm not complaining! Very impressed, in fact. And Richard at MAF was very helpful.

You must have caught Richard on a good day. When I contacted him last week, I was curtly told that I had to follow the new rules (Canterbury had told me MAF would work with me as well). The new requirement called for a USDA-accredited vet to look over my rabies info and sign and stamp the certificates. For this privilege, I had to drive three hours round trip and pay $76.

[srivett]

I'm sorry to hear you didn't have a similarly positive response. I had to resubmit the new application with accredited vet stamp as well, which involves me taking a day off work and somehow finding my way up to Markham, but the huge relief for me was not having to delay departure for one of my cats. Any extra complications are worth that. I wouldn't be surprised if Richard's been swamped with similar emails in the last week. Seems like quite a mess, but I hope you'll be able to import your guys now without any more trouble!

We'll just have to keep our fingers crossed that Canterbury turns out to meet its claim of being the best quarantine facility in the world.

[Nathan]

The permit to import is here already!!
I'm not sure when I sent it in 12.Jun by FedEx MAF billed my credit card 19.Jun and we received the permit in the mail today.:yes

As Christine says, "Our kitties have PR!" :raebanana :raebanana

[srivett]

Congratulations! Yay for the kitties!

[srivett]

We finally got approval for our import permit! There was a lot of run-around and hassle with our vet, so this makes me more than a little happy. Now we just have to get through the final month's worth of tests and the actual shipping. But what became one of the biggest hurdles of the whole process is resolved, finally. *relieved*