Yesterday, November 3, 2025, was a great day — our visas arrived!!! It was only 52 days from when we applied until we received the visas, but it sure felt a lot longer. Now the very nerve wracking part begins, making sure we’ve thought of every little detail, and there are a lot of them!
Plane Tickets
Check. December 10th we take flight. Thank god for frequent flier miles. Two business class tickets purchased for $71.20. Woohoo!!!
Atlanta to Philly, Philly to Lisbon.
Rental Car & Hotel
Check. We have a large rental car reserved for December 9th to load up and drive to Atlanta. We have a hotel reservation at the Atlanta airport for the night of December 9th.
Transport from Lisbon to Home
We’re working on it. There’s a great service that comes highly recommended by thousands of members of the Americans & FriendsPT Facebook group that we’re working on reserving.
Dogs
This is my biggest concern, especially since Spooner is a senior at 14. We have decided to contract with Continental Pet Relocation to move the dogs for us. It’s not cheap, but at least we saved money on our tickets. They work with our vet to make sure all the paperwork is in order and in compliance with USDA and EU regulations. Each dog needs a European compliant microchip and up to date on all shots. Max is good, Spooner needs to get a new microchip which we’re doing this afternoon. Then 10 days before departure they each need a vet exam and a health certificate sent to USDA APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service). Fortunately since this a fee service the shutdown is not affecting it… yet. The USDA then signs off on the health certificate and returns a copy to us (Continental Pet Relocation) and sends a copy to the vet at the airport in Lisbon. Upon arrival in Lisbon the vet confirms all the paperwork matches and scans their microchips to confirm they are the same dogs. Then we can pick them up.
They will be flying on Lufthansa from Atlanta to Frankfurt and then on to Lisbon. We are paying for the premium services for them at the Frankfurt Animal Lounge for their overnight layover, which includes sending us a picture. We’ll arrive the morning of December 11th and they’ll arrive the morning of December 12th, so we have a day to get ourselves settled before retrieving them.
Christmas in Portugal
Then there’s nothing left to do but celebrate Christmas in Portugal!
Comments
2 responses to “IT’S REALLY HAPPENING!!!”
Congrats on your new adventure.
So very exciting to read about your relocation. Interesting details for Spooner and Max’s preparation and travel plans. I hope the dog lounge in Frankfurt has their special treats available. Wishing you both and your fur babies a very safe flight.