Greetings, Everyone!

My spouse and I are preparing to move to Whangarei next year, around March. We have a 2-year-old dog coming with us, and we'd heard all the horror stories about NZ's complex import process, but we thought we were well prepared to handle it. All our vaccines were up to date, we hired a veterinary documents consultant to assist us, and we are about 4 months out. It seemed like perfect timing.

But here's the one thing that tripped us up--and I wish someone had told me about this about a year ago, when we first started planning:

NZ won't accept any vaccines given before a microchip is implanted.

None.

Any vaccine given prior to microchipping is considered invalid.

This means that, with the exception of canine influenza, [I]all[I] of our dog's vaccines are invalid and will have to be redone within the next 4 months--and that includes some that require multiple boosters.

According to our consultant, this is very common for migrants to NZ from the US, where many people (like us) have their puppy chipped at the same time it is spayed.

So, that's the one thing I wish I had known. At the very least, we could have spaced out the re-vaccination shots over a longer period of time, for our poor little doggy's comfort, and we wouldn't now, suddenly, be in a time crunch.

I'll post more about our experience on this thread, as it unfolds.