Hi ananth, it did go relatively smoothly, but you need to follow the 5-day-or-less checklist from the Hawaii Department of Agriculture very religiously:
http://hawaii.gov/hdoa/ai/aqs/aqs-checklist-5.pdf
For direct release, there's at least a 4 month waiting period when you decide to bring your pets to Hawaii. The reason for this waiting period is for the Rabies Blood Titer test (OIE-FAVLN) - after the lab receives the sample, you need to wait 4 months.
Make sure your pet is up-to-date on Rabies vaccinations. Your pet needs to have been vaccinated twice in its lifetime. If you need to do another vaccination, or your current one is expired, you need to get another Rabies shot, and you have to make sure your entry date is more than 3 months after your last Rabies shot. Also, if you need a Rabies shot and a titer test, you need to wait about a month after administering the rabies vaccine before you can get a titer test result sent to a lab.
Oh, and to get a titer test, you need to have your pet microchipped.
I would say that the process itself isn't so bad, it's just that you might need to be prepared for a long waiting period. I'd say it's the cost of the whole thing that's really going the thing that hits you:
Rabies Titer test: $130
Microchip: $40
Direct Airport Release fee: $165
Health Certificate: $60
Flea/tick medication: $40
Pet import form notorization: $10
And whatever else you need to do - as you can see it can get pretty costly.
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Yep...
