How did I navigate the visa application process for my family and pets to move to Thailand?

@Brandie *********

Hey! You have to get approved first before any dependents can be approved. Their application requires you to submit your own valid visa in order for them to be approved :)

@Dennis ********

The first reason was because they said our kennels were too small. We followed their guidelines on their website exactly. Their process at the airport is to take pictures on a phone with the dog next to the kennel and then they send the picture to the vet crew and vet crew said “too small”. I asked them to measure the kennels and they would see it was according to their guidelines. They said, “we don’t have a measuring tape”. Which is just ridiculous and I told them that to give PRECISE guidelines for kennel sizes and then go according to a picture is not okay. They kept saying, “their tails touch the back of the kennel” when their instructions explicitly say to NOT measure the tail. So my husband had to spend an hour and a half in an Uber to go buy a new $300 kennel for one of our dogs.

The next problem was that they said the USDA health certificate had to be no older than 48 hours. Which isn’t listed anywhere on any website and the certificate is good for 10 days.

The next problem was more my fault because I misread the import permit had to be requested no less than 7 days before the flight when you’re not supposed to apply any LESS than 7 days before. HOWEVER, all of Thailand’s websites (their customs website and the Bangkok airport animal quarantine website say that you don’t have to have an import permit prior to departure and that you can apply at AQS in the Bangkok airport. Which Qatar had contradicting information in their own system and they said they have to have clarification from Bangkok before they could let us board. They never heard back from BKK AQS so they never let us on the flight.

We will probably have to pay to have a pet relocation company do the move as we had to get over for work and didn’t have time to get everything sorted before we left. Left the dogs with some family in Texas.