Third Party Certificate (98/2003) Confusion!

My vet did our certificates for our 2 cats last week.  I was about to send them in today, when I was perusing the DEFRA website and noticed this:

Third country official veterinary certificate
This certificate can be issued by any vet in a non-EU listed country. It is headed "Veterinary certificate for domestic dogs, cats and ferrets entering the European Community for non-commercial movements (Regulation (EC) No 998/2003)". The certificate must be a single sheet in English and may also contain a translation in another language. It must be completed in block letters in the language of the EU country of entry or in English.

A single sheet?  I'm looking at 3 pages -- there's no way it would all fit onto one page without being absolutely minute.  Am I missing something?

 

Ugh.  Our vet printed the sheet off of the internet.  Apparently that wasn't the right thing to do.  I called DEFRA and they said it definitely had to be an official single sheet form from the USDA and not printed from the internet.   

The vet is totally confused and said they've never run into this before and they've done a number of US-UK animals.  They were calling DEFRA themselves today and then I go back to the vet tomorrow.  Good times.

 

Mine are printed off the Internet, I printed one page and flipped it over and printed page 2 on the back.  Then there is a 3rd page.  When I took mine into the USDA to get it signed off on they told me that it did not have to be one single sheet.  This was in the Austin TX USDA Office.  In fact she put like 4 seals on mine, everywhere she wrote something she put a seal there.

I didn't even know you could get a form from the the USDA?  As long as the USDA put a seal where they write I would see no problem and am sure others on here have had theirs in three sheets...

Added:  We are flying into Manchester and 'Pets on Jets' are the company that clears the pets there.  I have been E-Mailing them and they let me Scan/E-Mail my paperwork over to them and they let me know everything was in perfect order.  They also confirmed the Tick/Tapeworm that the vet was using would be correct!  So at least we know my two sheets are okay..   If you are nervous just print page one then flip and print page two and have page three separate.

Also wanted to add that the USDA lady wrote 'page 1 of 3, page 2 of 3 and page 3 of 3' on top of each of my pages.

Mine are printed off the Internet, I printed one page and flipped it over and printed page 2 on the back.  Then there is a 3rd page.  When I took mine into the USDA to get it signed off on they told me that it did not have to be one single sheet.  This was in the Austin TX USDA Office.  In fact she put like 4 seals on mine, everywhere she wrote something she put a seal there.

I didn't even know you could get a form from the the USDA?  As long as the USDA put a seal where they write I would see no problem and am sure others on here have had theirs in three sheets...

Added:  We are flying into Manchester and 'Pets on Jets' are the company that clears the pets there.  I have been E-Mailing them and they let me Scan/E-Mail my paperwork over to them and they let me know everything was in perfect order.  They also confirmed the Tick/Tapeworm that the vet was using would be correct!  So at least we know my two sheets are okay..   If you are nervous just print page one then flip and print page two and have page three separate.

Also wanted to add that the USDA lady wrote 'page 1 of 3, page 2 of 3 and page 3 of 3' on top of each of my pages.

Mine was in two sheets also, ie, page 1 and 2 back to back on one sheet of paper, and page 3 by itself, and the Austin USDA lady also marked mine with "Page 1 of 3" etc. It all passed approval just fine with both the USDA office and the pet reception people in the UK.

Holy confusion, Batman!  So it turns out that you guys are quite right (thanks!) and our vet was correct, too.  The vet spoke with USDA and then called DEFRA and apparently a single sheet form exists somewhere in the universe, but its a PITA to get it and, as you've all said -- it isn't necessary.

The first woman I spoke with at DEFRA was nice enough, but really scared me when she told me that the forms from the internet were just "examples" and not meant to be used officially. 

ARGH. 

So it turns out that it was a lot of worry for nothing.  Which is great.  Until the next time.

Thank you!

Welcome to the Worry Club!

In my (seriously) hectic last few days, I forgot to fill out part of the 98/2003.  For the tapeworm/tick treatment, my vet signed and stamped and said "you can fill out the rest, can't you?"  I said, SURE (I had done it for the rabies stuff), and then promptly forgot.  Halfway through the flight, I remembered!

Got to the PETS office, and the first thing the lady said was - "there is a problem with your paperwork".  I said, "I know - can't I just fill it out now?"  She said, "no you cannot". 

Fortunately, I had a receipt for the tick/tapeworm treatment and they released my cats to me.  However, they still wanted a fax + original copy from my vet to confirm the date and time of the treatments.

Had I filled out the paperwork on my own, no one would be the wiser.  I feel like an absolute fool for forgetting.  The PETS lady very clearly told me how lucky I am that DEFRA was understanding with me, because mostly they are hardlined.   

Pets on Jets in Manchester (the people that clear the animals at that airport) told me that if something did happen with the Tick/Tapeworm not being right the most they would do is give them their own medication and hold them 24 hours before releasing them.  It would not cause them to have to do a full six month quarantine as it is the rabies stuff that causes that.

I hope the PETS lady wasn't too hard on you or scare you too much.   

if something did happen with the Tick/Tapeworm not being right the most they would do is give them their own medication and hold them 24 hours before releasing them. 

I can verify that this is true - since my vet screwed up the tick & tapeworm treatment despite being told very specifically - several times! - what needed to be done.

Our boys were held for an extra 28 hours (4 hours until the vet arrived at ARC Gatwick to administer the medication, then 24 more for observation)...they were pretty much unfazed by the experience, but I was a nervous wreck!  And £307 poorer for it....

Meg, at the time I remembered your account of the final stage having gone wrong - and knew that the worst case senario would be extended wait time.

PLUS, lost time and expenses!  As if the process isn't expensive enough.    And a dear uncle that would have gone out of his way to help me for nothing. 

The PETS lady was lovely.  She was a bit stand-offish at first.  Perhaps she deals with a lot of people getting upset when they can't get their animals.  At the end, she was very sweet to me and my little dears.

Update!  I just got the paperwork back from USDA.  All three pages.  HEEEEEEEEE!

One more thing off the list!