# Moving to South Africa



## bigonroad (Oct 18, 2011)

Hey,

We are planning on moving to South Africa, and would love some input on you guys on costs.

I am a doctor, and I have a wife and a son.
We have a house in the UK, and 2 dogs.

Roughly how much would it cost for:
a) visas and other application costs
b) transporting the contents of our house - I filled in an online estimate which said around 800 cubit feet
c) transporting our dogs

Once in South Africa, how much does it cost to
a) run a car
b) pay monthly bills
c) send kids to school

Thanks!
Chris


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## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

Hi and welcome to the forum

Visa applications and costs..... check the SA embassy website 

Removals.... you have already got an on line quote, best solution is to try several firms as of course any move depends on the amount of furniture. Same goes for dogs.. this will depend on the size of them, dont forget to start their passport work in time.

Good luck with your move

Maiden


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## Stevan (Jun 30, 2009)

Hi

Houshold goods is easy if you use a good company. we used doree bonner door to door including packing and unpacking. came to arround 5000. 1 sole use container.

Dogs were the hardest of everything. we brought over 2 westies . it came to about 2000 each including extra vet bills. It is a very long process and a lot has to be done at the last moment. You will get good info on the defra website. 
a very basic run down. you will need an import certificate from south african ministry of agriculture. they will require certain blood test to be done for this in uk. they must have rabbies vacination. they must start a course of medication before they leave for some sort of virus (sorry cant remember what it was for) you must bring with you the remainder of medicine as it is not available in sa. you will need to measure them as there transport boxes are specialy made to fit the dogs (one each they cant travel together we asked). have to be micro chipped. a day or so before they leave they must have a medical by a defra approved vet who fills out a very long form for each dog.

we left from edinburgh to durban it may vary dependant on your departure but the big day went as follows.

Dropped the dogs at edinburgh at 6 in the morning there cages where already at cargo handling waiting for them with fresh bedding and water. Dont feed yor dogs. they went to london and stayed in a doggy hotel for the night we traveled that day. the dogs flew the next day (the day we arrived) picked them up the next afternoon. when you arrive at cargo handleing the dispatcher will give you paper work back (sorry all original paperwork must travel with the dogs make copies). take it to cargo handling office pay a small fee for local handleing. go to customes for clearence back to dispatch with paper work. this took an hour. they bring you your dogs still in crates. by now the crates and bedding were soaking and the dogs stunk to high heaven. i contacted the company we used and they apoligised but there is nothing they can do once they are handed over they are at the mercy of the cargo handling crew.

on arrival they were not happy doggies and a bit stressed. took them a couple of days to settle and a month or so to aclimatise. now they can chase monkeys with the best of them and are perfectly happy in there new country.

best advice i can give. 

contact an animal shipping company early and agree a price. they will give you nothing but basic info until deposit is paid.

contact defra early, they were excelent and very helpful.
find your nearest defra approved vet and make contact. the one we used was excelent but did explain that there are so many diffrent regulations for diffrent countries the earlier they know your plans the better, they can then brush up on what is needed.

i will dig out the name of the company we used and post later for you. but im sure i picked up the link from this site.

as to your other questions on costs will depend on where you intend to live.


good lcuk with your move

steve


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## Stevan (Jun 30, 2009)

Hi

Houshold goods is easy if you use a good company. we used doree bonner door to door including packing and unpacking. came to arround 5000. 1 sole use container.

Dogs were the hardest of everything. we brought over 2 westies . it came to about 2000 each including extra vet bills. It is a very long process and a lot has to be done at the last moment. You will get good info on the defra website. 
a very basic run down. you will need an import certificate from south african ministry of agriculture. they will require certain blood test to be done for this in uk. they must have rabbies vacination. they must start a course of medication before they leave for some sort of virus (sorry cant remember what it was for) you must bring with you the remainder of medicine as it is not available in sa. you will need to measure them as there transport boxes are specialy made to fit the dogs (one each they cant travel together we asked). have to be micro chipped. a day or so before they leave they must have a medical by a defra approved vet who fills out a very long form for each dog.

we left from edinburgh to durban it may vary dependant on your departure but the big day went as follows.

Dropped the dogs at edinburgh at 6 in the morning there cages where already at cargo handling waiting for them with fresh bedding and water. Dont feed yor dogs. they went to london and stayed in a doggy hotel for the night we traveled that day. the dogs flew the next day (the day we arrived) picked them up the next afternoon. when you arrive at cargo handleing the dispatcher will give you paper work back (sorry all original paperwork must travel with the dogs make copies). take it to cargo handling office pay a small fee for local handleing. go to customes for clearence back to dispatch with paper work. this took an hour. they bring you your dogs still in crates. by now the crates and bedding were soaking and the dogs stunk to high heaven. i contacted the company we used and they apoligised but there is nothing they can do once they are handed over they are at the mercy of the cargo handling crew.

on arrival they were not happy doggies and a bit stressed. took them a couple of days to settle and a month or so to aclimatise. now they can chase monkeys with the best of them and are perfectly happy in there new country.

best advice i can give. 

contact an animal shipping company early and agree a price. they will give you nothing but basic info until deposit is paid.

contact defra early, they were excelent and very helpful.
find your nearest defra approved vet and make contact. the one we used was excelent but did explain that there are so many diffrent regulations for diffrent countries the earlier they know your plans the better, they can then brush up on what is needed.

i will dig out the name of the company we used and post later for you. but im sure i picked up the link from this site.

as to your other questions on costs will depend on where you intend to live.


good lcuk with your move

steve


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## bigonroad (Oct 18, 2011)

Stevan said:


> Dogs were the hardest of everything. we brought over 2 westies . it came to about 2000 each including extra vet bills.
> 
> steve


Woah? £2,000 per dog? Seriously? Anyone else brought over pets - did it cost that much?


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## bokbabe (Nov 28, 2010)

*!*



bigonroad said:


> Woah? £2,000 per dog? Seriously? Anyone else brought over pets - did it cost that much?


Hi there

We moved from the UK in April this year and we brought our 2 spaniels with us. I think (if I remember correctly) Virgin Atlantic cost 1700 quid in total for them both and were the only airline that allowed us to do booking and didn't want it via an animal shipping company...I think that is why Steve's cost so much maybe? The injections and blood tests, rabies etc came to a further 600-800 pounds for both (total). 

My advice is to do it yourself, a long as you are an organised person, as, even though it sounds VERY daunting etc, it is actually very straight forward. They didn't need a passport, just a clearance certificate that listed the tests they had and results etc (your vet will be able to get list of what is needed from DEFRA) We had to take with 6 months of heartworm tabs to give here (but, you can actually get them here). The vets, however, must be licensed as Local Veterinary inspectors, you can check with your local vets by phoning them, most larger ones are. That doesn't mean that they are au fait with the procedures however, as they may not have ever come across anyone taking their animals to SA!

Steve was very right in saying that alot of the stuff has to be done last minute, which can be a tad stressful when you have 100 other things to think about due to your impending emigration!!! What I forgot to do was to contact animal health, who send your vet the paperwork they need to be filled in, which becomes your dog's health certificate (their email address is: [email protected]) BUT, as they only send it to the vets 10 days before your dogs' flight and I got their application form MONTH's earlier and before I had an export date, I forgot to email it back to them once I had booked the flights. Disaster was averted though, as they responded IMMEDIATELY when I contacted them 4 days before the flight (!!) and my vet received it the next day. Luckily though, because I had contacted DEFRA, all their blood tests etc had been done and it was just a matter of the vet filling in results etc and doing an up to date health check. 

The dogs then flew on our flight from LHR to JNB and we dropped them off at Virgin's cargo place at Heathrow at 4pm, before heading to the airport. We ordered their Vari Kennels from doggiesolutions.co.uk and we got them a few months prior to departure, so they could sleep in them and get used to them beforehand. 

They travelled very well, it didn't help that our flight was delayed an hour though, which mean't that we missed our appointment with the government vet at the cargo area (they have to sign dogs and paperwork off), which mean't we had to hang around for 4hours (!!) and weren't allowed to even let them out of the crate for a wee or anything to eat  it was heart breaking!! Then, to add insult to injury, the vet flew in, looked at the paperwork, bent down to check the dogs were the correct breed (at least!) and then signed them off....they didn't even scan their microchips, which our vet had done diligently EVERY appointment, so we could've really brought any disease ridden spaniels into the country!!! WELCOME TO AFRICA  Anyway, once we got then fed and watered, you would never even have known they had just been through a 24 hour ordeal like they had and, apart from tiring a bit easier (not a bad thing with mad spaniels), the altitude didn't affect them at all. With regards to the weather, arriving at the beginning of winter was probably best for them, but they currently LOVE the sunshine and their garden (in the UK, they were kept inside alot due to the weather  but they have very quickly got used to being outside dogs) and are as happy and healthy as ever!!

Phew, what started off as a quick post, kinda got outta hand, sorry!! hope it helped a bit though and GOOD LUCK!

Bok

P.s: we had half a container to ship our items in and it cost us 3000 pounds, delivered to our door. We used Blatchford's International and they were superb!


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## bigonroad (Oct 18, 2011)

Thanks for that. It helps to get feedback like this.

We have a labrador and a collie, and I'm thinking they will love the weather and space too.

Bless,
Chris


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## Stevan (Jun 30, 2009)

our was more expensive but we did have three flights edinburgh to heathrow heathrow to joburgh then joburgh to durban. they could not go straight through as this would have meant 36 hours in there crates. we choose to board them in heathrow over night instead of joburgh, we were not sure the level of care they would have received in sa kennels. bok babe is correct the agents dont do a lot for you except send you leaflets and book flights. i did try myself but it was turning into a nightmare with three seperate flights. the vet bills were quite expensive. 

praise were praise is due defra where excelent and i spent a lot of time on the phone with the lady in the pet export department. our vet was very good as well. once she knew our plans she made sure she was well up on the south african regs. and yes heart worm was the thing we had to bring meds for. a word of warning about the meds though. we had relatives here that checked local vets and it was not available in our area but maybe not the right kind of vets. 

just another little thing for you. i dont know if the frontline is a diffrent formula here but it just did not keep the fleas off our dogs. we actualy take ours to the spca every couple of weeks and get them dipped for r20 each. i dont know if bok has had the same problem.

its expensive to bring them over but worth it. and my wife said she would happily leave me behind but the dogs where comming.

steve


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