Moving with a dog or cat

For Great Britain, gov.uk says your pet must be microchipped before it gets its rabies vaccination, and you must then wait at least 21 full days after the first vaccination. For the other destinations on this site we quoted the microchip and the rabies vaccination as requirements, but we have not verified an order or a waiting period for them, so ask the official authority.

If you travel from a non-EU country, the Commission's Your Europe page says your pet must have an EU animal health certificate issued by an official State vet in the country of departure not more than 10 days before your pet arrives in the EU. We show this on the Spain, Portugal and Ireland pages. Travelling inside the EU, the pet passport applies instead.

It depends on the destination and the direction. For Great Britain, gov.uk says dogs must be treated no less than 24 hours and no more than 5 days before arrival. Ireland is a tapeworm-free area: dogs entering Ireland need treatment, and the Irish Department of Agriculture says no treatment is needed to leave Ireland but one is needed to return. For Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and the Netherlands our data shows none required. We have no verified US or Canada rule.

We only publish a rule when we could read the exact words on an official page. The US pages of APHIS and the CDC blocked our checks, Canada keeps its rules inside an interactive tool, and we found no quotable French or German national page. Those parts are marked and link to the official authority. A pet's rules also change: confirm with the official authority and your vet before you travel.