Cat migration woes...

I have a huge problem....
I am getting married. My fiance has 3 cats. She lives in Texas USA, I live in QLD Australia. She is immigrating to here... but we want to bring her cats over too. I have 5 cats myself and can accommodate the extra 3 - that's no problem... the problem is the time and cost involved.
It's going to cost over $600 PLUS air shipping fees just to get them into the country, and then over $240/week to keep them in quarantine... which they may have to stay in for several months.
This is really stressing out the both of use. Neither of use is going to be able to afford this. There is a chance we might be able to afford it if we migrate 1 cat at a time.. but we really want to be together as soon as possible, and if she is here with me, who will look after the cats left behind?
We don't know what to do.
Any suggestions other than giving the cats away to a shelter?

Does she have any friends that would be good for rehomeing ??? or a temp foster and bring one at a time as $$$ permits??

She only has 1 close friend who might be willing to accept looking after her cats... but this person already owns 7 of their own cats and she does not want to over burden them...

I think her only choice to find homes for them would be to advertise in her local area, but then you never know if strangers are going to be able to be trusted with your loved ones.

It is looking more and more likely that she will have to permanently give away her babies

Hey!
I just returned to Melbourne from Germany, the cats only had to be in quarantine for 30 days! (they arent australian) make sure all cats are vaccinated and have all the requirements that the quarantine wants.
We had a problem when we got here because the Germans and air freight authorized documents when their flu shots were expired and we had to pay another $500 to get them vaccinated here!

I paid $1,100 for them to be in quarantine for the month, and then the $500 for the extra vet fees as they were outbound vets.

The girl next to our pen was from Chicago and she managed to get both her cats for under $2000 USD in Australia.

I know how stressful it is, i heard bad stories from people, a lot of people at work thought i was crazy for investing my money and so much time on them, in the end nothing was true and everything went smoothly and it surely is all worth it!

What i spent on my cats was just minimum costs, others had paid $10,000+ for just the one pet!

If you want more information just PM me and i can help you

P.s the cats just came out of quarantine last saturday!

I found this website with some good information on moving your pet to Australia
http://www.daff.gov.au/aqis/cat-dogs
and here is a page all about the requirements your pet needs to get into the country http://www.daff.gov.au/__data/assets...on-package.doc
It looks like the main sticking point on how long they have to be in Quarentine is the Rabies Neutralising Antibody Titre One hundred and eighty (180) days must elapse between the date that the blood was taken for the RNAT test (with a satisfactory result) and the date the animal is released from quarantine in Australia.

it's the before hand work that determins when your animal can leave quarentine.

Can´t to sell any for you can join the Money? With all respect my friend If were you I sell my car or anything that I have to can stay together as you well said my friend....
A shelter for a member of the family I don´t think is a good Idea.... ...
My good wishes for you can solve this hard situation.... ... ....... ...

Thank you everyone for your reponses. My fiance has her heart dead set on bringing the cats over. With any luck they will only have to be kept in quarantine for the minimum 30 days, which will cost almost $1000 for the 3 cats.

We want to look into professional pet movers too to see what options that gives us... Has anyone had experience with professional pet moving companies before, or can suggest/recommend any to us?

I can recommend a pet mover -they specialise in Australia and New Zealand. They were so wonderful in moving my cats to NZ.

They give you all the information that you need and they helped to ease my worries about moving the furkids.

http://www.iptlax.com/services.htm

The woman I dealt with was Diana, and she was so wonderful and so supportive.

Good luck!

IMO it will probably costs a lot more doing it one by one. Prices keep going up you know.

Is there any relative that is willing to adopt them here in the states? How about one of the TCS members?

Ok... My fiance has now reconsidered her stand on the matter and is putting consideration into trying to find new homes for 2 of the cats... however, I know how much they mean to her and how it's going to break her heart (one has been with her for 9 years of her life since it was a kitten, the other belonged to her deceased mum), so I am going to try and budget to put some money towards getting them all over

Ok... we've decided the cats are definitely coming over with her now
I am going to look into the company Kiwideus suggested.
We are also waiting on quotes from several other pet moving companies.

Good luck with all of that. I am sure there is a way and it looks as though you are willing to do what it takes I know it would be impossible for me to leave my pets behind, they are family.