Annex 4 certified by Aphis?

So - my USDA vet appointment is tomorrow for my kitty Elly. After that, do I have to send the Annex 4 to the state Aphis office for certification? Or is the vet's signed certificate enough? Thanks!

So - my USDA vet appointment is tomorrow for my kitty Elly. After that, do I have to send the Annex 4 to the state Aphis office for certification? Or is the vet's signed certificate enough? Thanks!

You have to have it certified by the state USDA office. Check the timeframe though as this has to be done a within a certain time frame before Elly flies.

The vet appointment is different to the USDA meeting. You have a vet inspection, of which they complete the forms, and then you take the forms to the USDA to inspect and stamp. Once USDA certify the forms, then you've 10 days to ship your cat.

Be sure to arrive at the USDA place as early as possible. In Los Angeles USDA, there was a ticketing system (you arrive, grab a ticket and wait for your number to be called), which was available from 7:30am to 11am. Once you got your ticket then you had to wait. We arrived at 09:45am and waited 6.5 hours to get processed. If you arrive after 11am then you're told to come back the next day.

Be sure to have your vet's phone number to hand as the USDA person inspected our forms, saw a mistake which meant we had to phone the vet to update the signed form to fax to the USDA.

Be sure to have your vet's phone number to hand as the USDA person inspected our forms, saw a mistake which meant we had to phone the vet to update the signed form to fax to the USDA.

I actually did this the other way around.  While I was still at the vets, I had them fax the form to the USDA to check over. I then called the USDA and they pointed out something that needed to be corrected. I had the vet make the correction while I was still at their office so I knew the form was perfect when I headed down to the USDA office the next day.
I agree with you about needing to get there early in LA. I went right at opening time so the wait was fairly decent!

I agree with you about needing to get there early in LA. I went right at opening time so the wait was fairly decent!

The usual person who deals with people had a doctor's appointment at lunchtime so everything ground to a halt around 11am. Even regular users said that it was twice as long as usual.

One thing we were surprised about was the number of people using emotional support animals. It seems a bit of a trick, but  many people in LA were using it to get their pets into the cabin to heavily reduce costs. Unfortunately, that can't be used for the UK.

Speaking of which, I'll swear that it wasn't that long ago that you could take pets into the cabin for flights to the UK.

I'm in Buffalo NY, the Aphis office is in Albany and doesn't take walk ins. I'm really confused now.


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I'm in Buffalo NY, the Aphis office is in Albany and doesn't take walk ins. I'm really confused now.


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Call them and find out what the procedure is.

They are emailing me ... I was right about the certification by them in my state. Here's hoping my vet does everything correctly! This is why I chose to start this process now and not any later. (She'll be arriving in the U.K. on the 21st, and in case of any canceled flights I wanted a day allowance.)


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So draconian, you have to overnight mail/fedex the certificates to them with a prepaid return envelope, for something that is only good for 10 days.


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So draconian, you have to overnight mail/fedex the certificates to them with a prepaid return envelope, for something that is only good for 10 days.

To fly, they need to physically stamp the original document so if they won't let you attend in person, then that I guess is the only other way.
What I would do before you send it though is to fax it first while you are still with your vet so that they can check it over and make sure everything is OK before you send it in.

The only mistake my vet made was to leave out the country (USA) but they would not accept it without this change. Because I was still at the vet, I was able to have them make the change right then and saved myself a wasted trip to the USDA office.  And time is very precious at that late stage in the game!

To fly, they need to physically stamp the original document so if they won't let you attend in person, then that I guess is the only other way.
What I would do before you send it though is to fax it first while you are still with your vet so that they can check it over and make sure everything is OK before you send it in.

The only mistake my vet made was to leave out the country (USA) but they would not accept it without this change. Because I was still at the vet, I was able to have them make the change right then and saved myself a wasted trip to the USDA office.  And time is very precious at that late stage in the game!

The office here is so helpful they won't even do a cursory review of the docs before you mail them! *shakes head* They make this process so easy and user friendly.


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The office here is so helpful they won't even do a cursory review of the docs before you mail them! *shakes head* They make this process so easy and user friendly.

I don't suppose telling them that the Los Angeles office is happy to assist would help any?... no, probably not!

Well, I'm glad I asked anyways! Hopefully this will help future kitty owners in NY. Current state: Evil glares while we wait for the vet.


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One more thing to add for people doing this on their own, if their regular vet isn't a USDA one, the rabies certificate needs both the microchip number, and manufacturer and serial # for the vaccine given. Thankfully they accepted an email from my vet and my endorsed certificate is on its way back to me!


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