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Travelling with pets in the EU: dog, cat or ferret

What your dog, cat or ferret must have to cross a border, what changes if you come from outside the EU, and what happens if something is missing at the check.

General information, not legal advice. What you’re entitled to depends on your trip, the country, the carrier and the rules in force. If your case is complicated, check with the relevant authority or a professional. More in the terms of use.

New EU rules have applied since 22 April 2026. Anything you read that cites Regulation 576/2013 predates that.

What it needs to travel between EU countries

For a private trip, not a sale or a change of owner, your dog, cat or ferret needs:

  • A microchip, or a legible tattoo if it was done before 3 July 2011.
  • A rabies vaccination. The first one is given at 12 weeks old at the earliest, and then you must wait at least 21 days to travel.
  • An EU pet passport, signed by you. It is issued by an authorised vet in the country where you live, and it is valid as long as the rabies vaccination is up to date.

Order matters: the microchip goes in before the vaccine. If the pet is vaccinated before it is chipped, the vaccine doesn’t count.

Give the booster before the previous vaccination expires. If it lapses, the next one counts as the first and you wait 21 days again.

If something is missing at the check

  • If the animal fails the check when entering the EU, it can be sent back to the country it came from, put in quarantine until it meets the rules, at your expense, or, if neither is possible, put down.
  • In exceptional situations, the destination country can give you a permit to let it in even if it doesn’t meet every condition. You ask its authorities before you travel or on arrival, and it may include supervised isolation for up to six months.
  • If it is an EU pet and a non-EU country refuses it, it can come back into the EU through a travellers’ point of entry with its passport and, if you are given one, the paper explaining the refusal.

If it’s a puppy or kitten

A pet under 12 weeks old and unvaccinated, or between 12 and 16 weeks old and less than 21 days after its vaccination, can only go to a country that allows it and says so on a website. It also needs a declaration from you that it has had no contact with animals that could pass on rabies, or must travel with its vaccinated mother.

Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Romania and Switzerland allow it.

Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Germany and the Netherlands, among others, don’t. Before you leave, check the website of the country you are going to: that is where it has to say so.

If you take a dog to Finland, Ireland, Malta, Norway or Northern Ireland

It must be treated against the Echinococcus multilocularis tapeworm between 24 and 120 hours before arrival, that is, one to five days, and the vet records it in its passport.

If you travel directly between those countries, you don’t need it.

If you come from outside the EU, or come back from outside

  • If you live in the EU and leave with your pet for a short stay, have the rabies antibody test done before you go. If it was vaccinated, passed the test and the vet recorded it in its passport, you don’t have to wait the three months when you come back.
  • If you come from outside, it needs an EU animal health certificate, issued by an official vet no more than ten days before arrival, and a signed declaration that the trip is not commercial. After that it is valid for travel around the EU for six months, or until the vaccination expires if that is sooner.
  • And, unless you come from an exempt country, a rabies antibody test: an authorised vet takes the blood, an approved laboratory tests it and, if it passes, you must wait three months from the sample date to travel.
  • You enter through a designated travellers’ point of entry, and report there to the authorities, who check the animal and its papers.

Other cases

  • If it doesn’t travel with you, someone else can take it with your signed authorisation, kept with its passport, as long as you travel within five days. If it travels alone, the rules for trade in animals apply.
  • Up to five pets. With more than five, you must show they are going to a competition, show or sporting event and are over six months old.
  • Birds, rabbits, rodents, reptiles or fish don’t use the EU pet passport: the rules of the country you are going to apply.
  • Airlines must carry recognised guide dogs in the cabin.
  • To travel with an animal of an endangered species you need a CITES permit.
  • Since 1 January 2021, EU pet passports issued to residents of Great Britain are not valid for travel from there to the EU.

This page doesn’t cover how the animal travels on the plane, train or ferry, or what it costs: each company decides, and it isn’t a rule we have read.

More traveller rights and rules

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Official sources

Last reviewed: 15 October 2026