SHORT ANSWER
French law doesn’t require you to hire either one. Most families moving permanently from the U.S. to France with a dog or cat still benefit from both, because each covers a different half of the move. A relocation consultant handles the human side on the ground in France. That includes housing, visa follow-up, administration, banking, insurance and local services. A pet shipper handles your pet’s side, from coordinating the USDA-accredited vet paperwork and USDA APHIS endorsement to booking the airline and clearing customs on arrival. Neither one replaces the other. The real risk is hiring both and never connecting them, because your pet affects the home you rent, the dates you travel and even which health certificate your pet qualifies for.
A relocation consultant focuses on the people. For Americans moving to France, that usually means help finding long-term housing, setting up utilities, opening a French bank account, arranging insurance and getting through French administration after you land.
That administrative work comes with deadlines of its own. According to Service-Public.fr, France’s official government information site, holders of a long-stay visa that serves as a residence permit (VLS-TS) must validate it within 3 months of arriving in France and pay an associated tax. The visa application itself goes through the official France-Visas portal. A consultant who knows these steps can keep you on schedule while you’re also trying to find a vet, a grocery store and a dog-friendly park.
What a relocation consultant typically doesn’t do is manage the regulated side of moving an animal across borders. That work involves U.S. federal endorsement, EU entry rules and airline live animal policies. It falls to a different kind of specialist.
A pet shipper manages the chain of steps that gets your dog or cat from your home in the U.S. to your new address in France. In practice, that includes:
It’s worth being precise about who is responsible for what. The USDA APHIS page for pet travel from the U.S. to France states that “It is the responsibility of the veterinarian to make sure the pet has met all health requirements of the destination country before issuing a health certificate.” APHIS also notes that airlines set their own pet transport policies. A pet shipper’s value comes from keeping the vet, USDA and the airline working on the same timeline, and from catching errors before they reach the border.
For the step-by-step order of the veterinary requirements, see our guide on why sequencing matters when relocating to France with a pet.
This is where families get caught. They hire both specialists, and each one assumes the other has the pet covered.
Cécile GALLET, founder and CEO of Haven in France, put it this way on our Pet Travel Insider podcast:
“I would say that the pet isn’t a separate part of the move, because it affects the home you choose, the timing, the temporary accommodation and the life you’re building in France. So it needs to be part of the relocation strategy from day one. That’s the most important thing.”
French housing law shows why she starts with the home. According to Service-Public.fr, a tenant who rents a home as their primary residence, furnished or unfurnished, may keep one or more pets as long as they don’t disturb the neighbors. A landlord may still write a ban on Category 1 dogs into the lease. Short-term furnished tourist rentals follow a different rule: the owner can prohibit any animal at all.
That distinction matters for many American families, who spend their first weeks in France in a short-term rental while they look for something permanent. If your consultant books a temporary stay that bans pets, your pet’s arrival date has to move, or you need a different plan for those first weeks. If your shipper books a flight before the long-term lease starts, you may have a pet arriving with nowhere to stay. For more on the long-term search, see our guide to finding a pet-friendly rental in France.
The second big overlap is timing. Families sometimes plan for one adult to fly ahead, sign the lease and set up the apartment, with the pet following later. That can work, but only inside specific limits.
According to USDA APHIS, your pet can travel on the non-commercial EU health certificate when:
APHIS defines a designated person as “a family member, friend, or other person authorized by the owner to travel with the pet.” The certificate also includes a Declaration that the owner or designated person must sign, and that Declaration must travel with the pet.
If neither the owner nor a designated person can travel with the pet, or if six or more pets are moving, APHIS says the commercial health certificate applies instead. That route adds tighter deadlines. The pet must be inspected by a USDA-accredited veterinarian within 48 hours of departure, and USDA must endorse the certificate within 48 hours of the vet issuing it.
So a relocation decision that sounds simple, like “I’ll go first and get the keys,” can change your pet’s paperwork. That’s the clearest case for your consultant and your shipper to compare calendars early.
Here’s how I explain the handoff to families: “The relocation consultant and the pet shipper are each holding one end of the same rope. Your consultant knows when the apartment is ready and when you need to be at the prefecture. We know when the rabies vaccine clears, when the vet can issue the certificate and which flights accept your pet that week. When those two calendars never meet, someone ends up rebooking a flight or paying for an extra month in a rental. When they meet in the first planning call, the move usually goes the way it should.”
Every move is different, but a coordinated plan usually follows this outline:
In an r/AmerExit thread about moving dogs from the USA to France, one commenter recommended professional pet transport for families who can budget for it: “They can handle all of the vetting and paperwork and flight arrangements” (r/AmerExit discussion). That matches the division of labor above. The pet shipper owns the vet, paperwork and flight chain. Everything about your life in France on the other side of customs belongs to your relocation team.
Some families don’t need both:
Ask a relocation consultant:
Ask a pet shipper:
If you’d like help planning your pet’s side of a move, our team can work alongside your relocation consultant. Start with our pet transport to France page.