International Adoption Timeline and Process
Step 1
Find Your Next Best Friend
Check out our adoptables pages to see our eligible pups. Our amazing rescues come in all shapes and sizes, breed and temperaments.
When you find your perfect Sula Soul-pup, scroll to the bottom of their listing page, click Adopt Now and complete the application.
Step 2
Adoption Application Processing
It can take a few days to a few weeks to process your adoption application, however we try to process them within a two-week period. This is an estimate and can be delayed depending on how busy we are at the shelter and how many applications are received. Please hang tight - this step may require some patience.
Step 3
Hooray! You've Been Approved for the Adoption!
What's the next steps?
Upon being accepted and approved for your requested adoption, an adoption fee deposit is due to hold the dog for you while we begin our search for a flight angel to a major airport near you.
If you are not accepted, it is because you didn't meet our adopter criteria, or the dog was better suited to another applicant. If you meet our adopter criteria but missed out on your top choice, keep checking the adoptables page for another dog that would fit into your family, or we can also recommend another dog that might suit your needs, considering your size and personality matches. We have amazing pups at SULA. They are hoping every day that today is THEIR day - that a family will want to adopt them and love them forever, and they won't be passed over. And we get new dogs almost every day, who need families.
Step 4
Waiting For A Flight Angel
We are able to keep our adoption fees as low as possible by relying on volunteer flight angels (people already traveling) to accompany our dogs to their final destination. The timeline to get a flight angel can be long or short, depending on how often there are flights from Puerto Vallarta to your closest international airport, and the number of flight angels who have volunteered to help.
The remaining balance of the adoption fee is due when the flight angel is found and before the pup boards for the flight.
Step 5
Your New Bestie Has Landed
The day you've been waiting for has finally arrived! We will let you know as far in advance as possible the day your pup will be arriving at your nearest international airport. Sometimes there are last minute opportunities that come up. We will communicate with you the day of the flight, coordinating with the volunteers bringing the pup to the PV airport, the flight angel and you to ensure everyone knows what is happening and ready for the arrival. Be at the airport at the specific date and time, meet your flight angels in arrivals and bring home your new best friend who has waited their entire life to have a real family who chose them!
Step 6
Follow Up Expectations
Keep us posted on how things are going. We love to hear from you and see our rescues live their best lives.
Please remember that your little pup has had a very stressful day. They woke up that morning thinking it was the same as every other day, and instead were driven from SULA to the Puerto Vallarta airport, placed in a kennel, taken a 4-6 hour flight, and have now landed in a completely different place to live with new people, a different language and very different weather- all in one day! Unless your pup was a jet-setting rock-star in a previous life, they are not used to the jet-setting lifestyle and have been through ALOT. It would be like taking you from your hometown to the moon in one day, and not knowing any of it was going to happen or where you would land.
We need to give them time to decompress, and adjust to a whole new and much wider life.
It takes most dogs 3 days to start to adjust to their brand new environment and expectations, 3 weeks to get comfortable and 3 months for them to know that this is home. Patience, love and kindness are needed to let your new best friend know that you are there for them and help them know that no more abandonment, no more fear, no more shelters - they are HOME. FUR REAL. And that a family who will love them forever and a life beyond their dreams has just begun.
Questions? Visit our FAQ page!
Ready to get started finding your next best friend?
Check out our Adoptables Page.