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Help! Just found out from the airline that we can’t make reservations for us and our dog until 3 days before the flight so that the airline can guarantee that there will be room for the dog. That means we have to move out of our house here, ship our furniture and have no idea when we’ll be able to get a flight to San Jose. Talk about discouraged!! We were wondering if there was a way to travel via freighter and take our dog with us. When I googled freighters to Costa Rica, I got a list of cruise ships. Am sure they won’t let us bring our dog on board. Any ideas?
Also, to save $$ we were making a round trip reservation for us (not the dog) with a return 6 months after departure. The airline said we would have to have a visa to board here. We have applied for residency but don’t have it yet. Has anyone had to get a visa before leaving the US or for entry into CR when returning to the US more than 90 days from departure?
eehorobec,
Check with the airline and see which days of the week have the lightest travel and plan your trip for one of those days to increase the likelihood of there being room for your dog. With all the planning you have already made, don’t let a little thing like floating travel days discourage you. Where are you traveling from? What airline are you using? Have you checked other airlines and their policies? As far as the Visa question is concerned, if you have filed for residency in Costa Rica you are allowed to stay here without leaving until they decide whether or not your application is accepted. We moved here in December and it is even better than we had hoped. One way tickets are cheaper than round trip tickets and once you live here if you want to go back to visit the States you will need a round trip ticket originating from here. Good luck! Jerryeehorobec, I wish you the best on your trip. US citizens (that are not currently CR residents) visiting CR are legally allowed to be there for 3 mos/90 days and that’s why most airlines will only sell you up to a 90 day ticket unless you have a CR permission to stay longer (visa extension, etc). That said, you can get a ticket for much less time that could be changed once you are in CR. You can leave the country (go to Panama, Nicaragua, San Andres for a short visit) before your first 90 day period is over and then re-enter CR which should give you another 90 days stamped on your passport and then you can re-schedule your ticket back to the US (of course, there will be surcharges and make sure the ticket you purchase allows for re-scheduling), but be advised that the CR gov’t does not want US citizens to do this every 90 days indefinitely and if you do try to do this too much, they may catch up to you and make things a bit difficult for you to re-enter. I actually had to do this once while I was waiting for my residency to be granted. Best of luck, Rebeca.
I haven’t actually done the math on this, but you might consider using a professional pet transporter for the four-legger. That’s what we did when faced with the same dilemma you are. Nobody said “cheap”, but it was certain, safe, and worked out just fine. That way, there was no problem with our own airline tickets and the dog was well taken care of.
We used Animalsaway! at http://www.animalsaway.com but there are others. They’ll give you quotes based upon your travel plans, points of embarkation and destination, etc. You can Google “international pet transporters” for a more exhaustive list. These companies are licensed by the USDA and maybe other countries’ authorities.
Peace of mind is worth something.
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