Flying Your Pets Abroad
Starwood Pet Travel's team on the import rules and timelines for flying a dog or cat to a new country.
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- Recorded webinar
- 1h 5m
- July 15, 2026
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About this session
Adam, VP of strategic initiatives at Starwood Pet Travel, and colleague Georgina explain what it takes to fly a dog or cat to a new country. Every country sets its own rules. They walk through a generic timeline that starts six or more months before travel, then a step-by-step process, with spotlights on New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Two mistakes get special attention: starting too late and using a crate that misses airline or IATA specs. Budgeting comes up too. Audience questions cover whether cats are harder to move than dogs, what can go in the crate, how to check a microchip, what happens after an accident during a layover, and how to judge an airline's pet program.
Key takeaways
- Have a vet scan your pet's microchip early in planning to make sure it is readable, because importing authorities scan it to match the pet to the paperwork. If the chip is unreliable or the country doesn't accept it, your pet can get a second microchip.
- New Zealand requires an approved import permit before travel and a 3-month wait after the rabies titer blood test, so 6-plus months is a safe timeline. If the microchip went in after the rabies vaccination, you need a new vaccination and blood test, and the 3-month wait starts over.
- For the UK, the rabies vaccination must be at least 21 days old and, in most cases, no older than 365 days. Dogs, but not cats, also need a tapeworm treatment within 5 days of departure.
- In most cases, pets travel to the EU under commercial rules, which means the final health certificate has to be done within 48 hours of departure instead of the usual 7 to 10 days.
- For almost every destination, a USDA-accredited vet issues a final health certificate about 7 to 10 days before travel, and the US Department of Agriculture then endorses it so the importing country will accept it.
- Check with a professional that a crate meets airline and IATA specs before you buy it; crates sold online as airline approved sometimes aren't. Airlines require snub-nosed breeds to travel in a crate one size larger than otherwise required.
- Airlines price a pet's cargo travel mostly on the dimensional volume of its crate, not on the destination or travel dates.
Chapters
- 0:03Welcome from a host who moved their own dogs from Texas to Porto
- 2:01Meet the presenters from Starwood Pet Travel
- 7:41Why pet relocation is complex: import rules, agencies and IATA
- 12:32A generic pet move timeline, from six months out to arrival
- 18:39Step one: research breed bans, rabies status and quarantine
- 21:56Step two: microchips, rabies vaccines and titer tests
- 26:12Permits, document windows and why cargo travel is safe
- 33:38Destination spotlights: New Zealand, the UK and the EU
- 42:19Common mistakes: late starts, out-of-order steps, wrong crates
- 45:49Budgeting a pet move, how airlines price it, and Starwood's packages
- 48:52Q&A: in-cabin travel, cats vs dogs, cargo safety and crate comforts
- 58:37Q&A: top safety tips and choosing an airline with a strong pet program
Questions from the session
Are cats harder to move abroad than dogs?
Under the rules, cats are easier in almost every country. Going to the UK, cats don't need the tapeworm treatment dogs do, and for Australia or New Zealand they skip additional blood tests that only apply to dogs, because those diseases are endemic to dogs.
Can I put my dog's favorite toy in the travel crate?
Yes. A toy or a piece of clothing with a familiar scent is recommended. Bedding has to be in the crate, but not bedding so thick it takes away height, and you can't fill the crate so much that it limits your pet's movement. Some countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, incinerate bedding and toys on arrival and power wash the crate before returning it.
How do I know if my pet's microchip is the right kind for international travel?
The rule of thumb is that the chip has 15 digits and is readable. Your vet can scan it for you, or you can buy a reader for $25 to $30 on Amazon. Chips can also move after being implanted as a puppy or kitten, so confirm it can still be found reliably.
What happens if my pet has an accident in the crate during a layover?
Staff clean the crate and the pet, and replace soiled bedding before the next flight. Airlines such as Lufthansa, Qatar and Emirates have dedicated animal facilities at their layover hubs, where dogs are let out into a larger kennel run and cats get a container with a litter box.
What can I do to make sure my pet arrives safely?
Plan early, since your stress affects your pet and early planning avoids last-minute problems. Talk to your vet, especially if your pet is older, overweight or snub-nosed. Get your pet used to its crate early and often with positive associations. Finally, choose an airline with a strong pet program, since airlines that follow IATA regulations don't all have the same capacity to handle pets.
Transcript
Auto-generated from the session’s captions and lightly corrected; it may contain errors.
0:03Hello everybody. Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome to today's webinar. Um, it is a topic that is near and dear to my heart. Um, he's asleep, but I'm going to try to like [laughter] this is our baby that we moved Texas to Porto Porto. Um, I am one of y'all. I have moved abroad with pets. Our other our other dog is with my my partner. Um, but again, today we're going to be talking about a a very common question that we get is how do I safely move my pets abroad? How do I get them ready?
0:33What do I need to plan for? Um, and just what what is the experience like? Um, it is, at least I know for me it was probably the most stressful part of the move. let me navigate a visa all day long, but making sure that these little terrors are, you know, safe and secure and um you know that our most precious cargo uh made it to our new country safe. Um before I turn things over to our presenters from Starwood Pet Travel, just a couple quick pieces of housekeeping. Number one, we are recording this session. I'll make sure that everybody has a copy of the
1:07recording. So, if for some reason you need to bounce early, your internet cuts out, or you're like me and needs to hear everything twice before it sticks, don't worry, we got you covered. Number two, we always encourage questions during our sessions, and this one is no different. Down at the bottom of your Zoom window, maybe some of you, it's at the top, but where your menu bar is, you're going to see a little square has a question mark in the center. It says Q&A right below it. You can click on that box at any point in time and ask your questions. is
1:37please do not feel like you have to wait till the end or that you have to wait for us to call for questions. If um Adam mentions something and you're like, "Oh my gosh, I need to ask about XYZ." Great. Click on the box, type in uh type in your question, and we will make sure we get it taken care of. That said, we're going to wait until the end to address everybody's question. So, if you type it in, um I promise we see it.
2:01You'll see your question in the queue so you know that we got it. I think that's enough of me, Adam and Georgina. I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to you. Thank you so much for joining us today. Yeah, thank you Stephanie. I appreciate it. Thanks for the warm welcome. Excited to be here and to talk pet travel. Uh because as Stephanie said, um yeah, a lot goes into relocation overseas, but I don't know if there's any as as emotional any aspect of it that's as emotional as moving uh your pet. So, uh, that's what we're going to talk about
2:34today. Um, so as we get started, just a little bit about Starwood. Uh, first, who I am. I'm Adam Melton. I'm VP of strategic initiatives here at Starwood Pet Travel. I've been in this industry for over 10 years now. Uh, so I guess you could call me a veteran in the pet travel space. Um, and hopefully with your questions that you uh, ask, I'll be able to answer those. If there's any I can't answer, uh we can definitely sync offline and we can put you in touch with one of our um destination specific experts uh that does uh the actual
