Pets & Vehicle Relocation to France

For families making the move from the UAE to France, the two questions that tend to come up earliest — and cause the most anxiety — are not about furniture at all. They are: “What happens to the dog?” and “Can I bring the car?” Both are entirely possible. Both have requirements that need to be managed in the right sequence. And both are much easier when they are planned early and handled as part of the overall move rather than treated as a separate problem at the end.

Bringing your pet to France

France applies EU pet entry rules. For animals coming from a non-EU country like the UAE, those rules are specific and the timing matters: the microchip must be implanted first; a valid rabies vaccination follows the chip (not the other way round — if the order is wrong the vaccination does not count for EU entry); a 21-day waiting period must elapse after the rabies vaccination before the animal can travel; and an EU-format Animal Health Certificate, issued by an official UAE government veterinarian using the current EU template, must be in place within ten days of travel. It is a sequence with fixed windows, not a checklist you can compress at the last minute. We typically tell clients to start the pet timeline as soon as the move is on the table.

One France-specific point worth flagging: French law splits certain dog breeds into two regulated categories. Catégorie 1 covers types that are not eligible for entry — this is restrictive and the rules are enforced. Catégorie 2 covers a list of guard and defence breeds that can be brought in but must be muzzled and leashed in public, registered with the local mairie, declared on a permis de détention, and the owner must hold a certificate of competence. American Staffordshire Terriers, Rottweilers, Tosa Inus and a handful of others fall into these categories depending on pedigree paperwork. If you are moving with a breed that might be affected, we say so before the booking is made.

• Step-by-step guidance on EU Animal Health Certificate and entry requirements from the UAE
• Timeline mapping — microchip first, then rabies vaccination, then the 21-day waiting period, then the AHC within ten days of travel
• Coordination with specialist pet-relocation handlers experienced in EU animal entry through CDG, NCE and the other main French entry airports
• Catégorie 1/2 breed-law check carried out before booking, with paperwork prepared where the breed falls under restricted categories
• Alignment with your household move so the arrival timing makes sense

Shipping a vehicle to France

Moving a car or motorcycle from the UAE to France involves three distinct pieces of work: sea freight from the UAE to Le Havre or Marseille; French and EU customs on arrival; and the French registration sequence to get the vehicle legally on the road. The registration piece is where most of the work sits, and where most people underestimate the timeline.

A personal car can enter France free of duty and VAT under transfer-of-residence relief if you have lived outside the EU for at least twelve months and are moving your main residence to France, you have owned and used the car for at least six months, it was bought with all taxes paid in the country you are leaving, and it is listed on your inventory; utility and mixed-use vehicles are excluded. Otherwise, vehicles imported from outside the EU pay import duty (typically 10% on cars) and French VAT at 20% on the customs value plus duty. Either way, French customs issues certificate 846 A once the car is cleared, and without it you cannot apply for a Carte Grise (the French registration certificate).

For vehicles that are not already EU type-approved, the next step is a réception à titre isolé (RTI) — an individual conformity inspection conducted by DREAL (the regional environment and transport authority). RTI examines lighting, emissions, mechanical conformity and safety against the relevant French standards; cars built for the GCC market often need small modifications — headlight beam pattern adjustment, daytime running lights, sometimes rear fog lights — before they pass. If the vehicle is already EU type-approved (a European model originally sold to the UAE buyer), a Certificate of Conformity (COC) from the manufacturer can be used in place of RTI, which shortens the process considerably. A contrôle technique inspection (the French roadworthiness test) is then required for any vehicle more than four years old. Once all three documents are in hand — certificate 846 A, COC or RTI report, and contrôle technique — the Carte Grise registration goes through the ANTS online portal. And the final piece is the Crit'Air air-quality sticker, which French cities use to restrict traffic on pollution-alert days and, where they apply, in low-emission zones (ZFE).

We handle the freight and the documentation from start to finish and are straightforward about the cost implications so you can make the decision knowing what it involves. For some vehicles the duties, RTI work and modifications add up to a number that makes selling in the UAE and buying again in France the more rational choice; for cars with sentimental or collector value, the registration route is well worth it.

• Container or specialist vehicle freight booked for the sea route to Le Havre or Marseille from a port outside the Strait of Hormuz
• UAE export and French/EU import documentation prepared and accurate — including the vehicle on your customs inventory, which French customs needs before it issues certificate 846 A
• Customs duty and VAT guidance, with a pre-shipment condition record for the vehicle
• Coordination with DREAL for RTI inspection, or COC processing where the vehicle is EU type-approved
• Crit'Air sticker application built into the handover so the vehicle is ready for low-emission zones from day one
• Delivery to your French address or a nominated compound for collection

The planning sequence

1. Tell us what is moving. The pet (species, breed, size — including catégorie 1/2 check for affected dog breeds) and / or the vehicle (make, model, year, EU type-approval status), alongside your move dates.
2. Map the requirements. We set out the EU entry requirements, the exact timeline for each, and identify the steps that have fixed lead times — the 21-day rabies window for the pet, the 846 A / RTI / Carte Grise sequence for the vehicle.
3. Book and coordinate. Pet travel and vehicle freight are arranged and aligned with your household move so timings work as a whole.
4. Update you through it. Your coordinator updates you at each stage, and you can ask for an update at any time, through to arrival in France and the French registration.

For a move to the south of France in particular, we know from experience that families who ask about pets and vehicles in the first conversation have a much smoother arrival than those who raise it in the final week. Get in touch early and we will plan it properly from the start.