Traveling with pets
general information
airline requirements
Airlines have different requirements for traveling with pets. You must follow the rules of the airline that is operating your flight. Avoid flights combining different airlines for different legs of the journey. The specific rules will be listed on the airline website and you may want to choose your airline based on these rules (weight and size restrictions for pets, allowed pet containers, additional cost, deadlines for registering your pet's travel etc.).
Possible modes of travel include:
- Traveling with a small pet (usually only cats or dogs) as additional carry-on baggage in the cabin. Typical weight restriction: 8kg including transport box.
- This can depend on the destination country, e.g. the UK only allows pets in the hold unless it's a service dog or a private charter flight.
- Traveling with your pet as checked luggage (crate) in the cargo hold.
- For some airlines: transport as air freight with cargo plane.
Example airline information website: Lufthansa https://www.lufthansa.com/us/en/travelling-with-animals
flight route
Try to book a direct flight from the US to your country of destination. Some countries (e.g. Iceland) have very strict quarantine rules that make stopovers with pets impractical or impossible. If your pet is traveling in the cargo hold, avoiding layovers reduces stress for your pet and decreases chances that anything can go wrong.
A potential exception to this can be if the entry-modalities of the target country differ between air and land. E.g. entry with a pet to the UK is significantly easier via ferry/car shuttle train than via air.
Country-specific information: US to EU
import requirements for cats, dogs, ferrets (EU)
You can travel with your cats, dogs, or ferrets (up to five at a time) if you take the following steps:
- Your pet must be equipped with an ISO-compliant microchip. If your pet is not chipped yet, do this first.
- Your pet must be vaccinated against rabies *after* it has been microchipped. The primary rabies vaccination (if vaccinated for the first time or if previous vaccination is more than a year old), must be completed 21 days before traveling to the EU and the microchip number must be recorded on the vaccination certificate.
- An Accredited Veterinarian must issue you an EU animal health certificate. It is only valid for 30 days after the veterinarian has issued it. This is done in the US before your travel.
- You must fill in the declaration that is part of the EU animal health certificate and take it with you when you travel.
- The USDA must endorse your EU animal health certificate within 10 days of your pet's arrival. This can be done electronically by your US-based Accredited Veterinarian through the Veterinary Export Health Certification System (VEHCS) or you can do it by mailing the certificate to the USDA and having it returned.
- When traveling to Finland, Ireland, Malta, Norway or Northern Ireland: Your pet must have been treated against the tapeworm Echinococcus multilocularis within 5 days of arrival.
Further information
- EU: Travelling with pets and other animals in the EU https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/carry/pets-and-other-animals/index_en.htm
- USDA: Take a Pet From the United States to Another Country (Export) https://web.archive.org/web/20250130132822/https://www.aphis.usda.gov/pet-travel/us-to-another-country-export
- Legal basis: Regulation (EU) No 576/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 June 2013 on the non-commercial movement of pet animals https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2013/576/oj/eng & Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 577/2013 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32013R0577
flight route
You must enter the EU with your pet through a designated travellers' point of entry. These include international airports like Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Amsterdam etc., as well as many smaller ones.
- Germany: https://www.bmel.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/_Tiere/Haus-Zootiere/Liste_Einreiseorte_Bundesrepublik_Deutschland.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=4
- Other EU countries: https://food.ec.europa.eu/animals/movement-pets/travellers-points-entry_en
Country-specific information: US to UK
import requirements for cats, dogs, ferrets (UK)
The UK.gov website provides a lot of information about bringing pets.
On a high level the requirements are:
- Traveling by approved route (see below)
- The pet needs to be microchipped
- The pet needs to be vaccinated against rabies. The primary vaccination needs to be at least 21 days old at time of arrival.
- You have a valid pet travel document. Coming from the US, you will need a Great Britain Pet Health Certificate . This certificate must be signed, stamped and dated by an official veterinarian (OV) who has authority from their government to issue it. In practice this can mean that your vet might need to contact the OV to certify the document.
- If you have a dog: Dogs need to have a tapeworm-done at least 24 hours but no more than 5 days before arrival in the UK, this likely also needs to be marked in the Great Britain Health Certificate.
Extra rules can apply if your pet arrives >5 days before/after you - or if you bring 5+ pets with you.
flight route
Check "approved travel route", in reality this means: if you arrive by plane, fly to Healthrow (no other LDN airport allows pet arrives) - otherwise ferry & car shuttle train are okay too, but unlikely to apply if you emigrate from the US directly to the UK.