US to FR: the paperwork no one warns you about.
A Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, six years old, generally calm. Greenwich to Cap d'Antibes, one‑way, late summer. The route is well‑trodden. The paperwork is not.
The shape of the problem
The United States and France both publish their import requirements for companion animals. Each set is reasonable read in isolation. Read together — with the addition of the EU's harmonized framework and the realities of USDA endorsement scheduling — they form a constraint puzzle that most owners do not realize they are solving until they fail.
The four documents that, in our experience, account for the majority of failed attempts are these.
Document one — The EU Animal Health Certificate (Annex IV)
France accepts an Animal Health Certificate issued in the format set out by EU Regulation 2019/2035, Annex IV. The form must be completed by an accredited US veterinarian, in English and French, and endorsed by the USDA Veterinary Services office in your state within ten days of arrival.
The window is the trap. Ten days is short. Some USDA offices are scheduling endorsements three weeks out. A certificate completed too early will be rejected on arrival; a certificate scheduled too late will arrive after departure. The owners we have seen miss this most often were not careless — they were working from the requirements as published, which describe the window correctly but do not advertise the queue.
The window is published. The queue is not. Learning the gap between them is the entire job.
Document two — The rabies titre, only sometimes
France, as an EU member state, does not require a rabies neutralizing antibody titration test for dogs originating in the United States. However — if the dog has lived in or transited through a country not on the EU's approved third‑country list within the prior six months, the titre is mandatory. And the titre must be performed at an EU‑approved laboratory at least 30 days after vaccination and at least three months before entry.
We see this fail most often when an owner has summered in a non‑listed country — Morocco is the common one for the Mediterranean set — and assumes their normal US documentation will carry forward. It will not.
Document three — The microchip, before the rabies vaccine
The microchip must be implanted before the rabies vaccination that the certificate references. A vaccine administered before the chip is, for the purposes of EU import, invisible. The dog is considered unvaccinated until the next dose is administered after chipping, and a 21‑day waiting period observed.
This document is not, strictly, a separate filing — it is a sequence error. But it is the single most common cause of last‑minute trip postponement in our caseload. We mention it here because the certificate quietly reflects the sequence; if the dates do not work, no veterinarian will sign.
Document four — The CDC dog import form (re‑entry)
If the dog will return to the United States, the CDC's Dog Import Form (introduced August 2024) must be completed at least two business days before re‑entry, with a CDC reservation number generated at the time of submission. The reservation expires; if your return ticket changes, the form is not portable. It must be re‑filed.
For one‑way travel south, this does not apply. For the yacht owner who will return to Connecticut in November, it applies twice — and a fresh form is required if the trip extends.
The order of operations, counted backward
Working from a target arrival date, the schedule that, in our practice, succeeds most reliably is roughly this:
- T − 6 months: Confirm microchip is ISO 11784/11785 compliant. Re‑chip if not.
- T − 5 months: Rabies vaccination administered, post‑chip.
- T − 4 months: If titre is required, perform at approved EU laboratory.
- T − 21 days: Begin USDA endorsement scheduling. Confirm queue length with the relevant state office.
- T − 10 days: Accredited veterinarian completes the EU AHC.
- T − 8 days: USDA endorsement appointment. Endorsement complete.
- T − 2 days: Final document review. Folder assembled.
- T − 0: Departure.
What we do
For the cases we accept, we maintain a working calendar in this shape for every active engagement. We schedule with USDA on your behalf. We brief your veterinarian in their format. We confirm the titre laboratory is approved and the timing is inside the window. We deliver the folder, on time, with everything signed.
The route from Greenwich to Cap d'Antibes is not difficult. It is just unforgiving. Most failures we see are the consequence of accurate information held in the wrong order. The job is to hold it in the right one.
Filed from the desk · 18 April 2026