Bringing Your Pet to Europe: What Actually Has to Happen

For a lot of our clients, the dog or cat isn't a detail of the move; it's the whole reason to get the move right. The good news: bringing a pet into the EU is very doable, and people do it every day. The catch: it's the part of the move with the least forgiving calendar, so it rewards starting early and punishes leaving it late.

The core requirements

For cats and dogs, the EU works from a consistent set of building blocks: a microchip, a valid rabies vaccination, and the right health documentation from an official vet before travel. The exact forms and endorsements depend on which country you're travelling from, but the shape of it is the same across the bloc, which makes it more predictable than it first appears.

Timing is the trap

Here's what catches people out: the steps have to happen in the right order, with waiting periods in between. The microchip has to come before the rabies vaccination for it to count, and there's a required gap before travel after that vaccination. Miss the sequence and you can be looking at weeks of delay you didn't budget for. This is why we tell clients with pets to raise it at the very start of planning, not once the visa is sorted.

Airlines, breeds, and the journey itself

Beyond the paperwork, the practical trip matters: whether your pet travels in the cabin or as cargo, airline-specific rules, crate requirements, and extra considerations for snub-nosed breeds that some carriers restrict. For older pets, a conversation with your vet about the journey itself is worth having early.

Do it once, do it right

Almost every part of a pet move is straightforward on its own. The difficulty is that they're time-locked and stacked on top of everything else you're organising. Getting the sequence mapped against your target move date is most of the battle.

Pet relocation is one of the services we coordinate, and we build its timeline into the wider move so your companion arrives with you, not weeks behind. If a pet is part of your plan, tell us on the first call.