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Pet relocation agency or doing it yourself: how to decide
Many pet journeys need no agency at all: a cat in the cabin to Montréal, a dog crossing Europe on its passport. Others stack up a titre test, an import permit, a quarantine booking and a cargo flight, and one missed date costs weeks of waiting or a refusal at the border. This guide helps you work out which case is yours, and sets out what an agency such as Pawgeot does and does not do.
Published · Updated · official sources at the bottom of the page
At a glance
| Your situation | On your own? | What decides it |
|---|---|---|
| Dog or cat between two EU countries, rabies vaccination up to date | Yes, in most cases | The EU pet passport is enough, no certificate needed; by car or train, the airline question does not even arise. Dogs going to Ireland, Northern Ireland, Malta, Finland or Norway need a tapeworm treatment. |
| Cat or small dog in the cabin to the USA or Canada | Usually | No titre test, no permit; a dog entering the USA must be 6 months old with the CDC Dog Import Form receipt; the cabin seat is booked directly with the airline. |
| Returning to France from a listed country (UK, USA, Japan, UAE…) | Possible, with discipline | EU animal health certificate issued or endorsed no more than 10 days before arrival, the owner's declaration, entry through a travellers' point of entry. |
| Arriving from an unlisted country (China, South Korea, Thailand, Morocco) | Tricky | Titre test at an approved laboratory at least 30 days after vaccination, then three months before the certificate can be issued: three dates in a chain with no catch-up. |
| Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan | Not advisable alone | Import permit, quarantine or station booking, manifested cargo, titre tests with 180-day waits: months of preparation where each document depends on the one before. |
| Large dog, snub-nosed breed, cargo, several pets, a pet travelling without you | Where an agency adds most | A forwarder required by some airlines, a crate to get accepted, an authorised person to name in writing, the five-day rule. |
What you can do on your own
EU law requires no intermediary: an owner may prepare and carry out every step of a non-commercial pet movement personally. Two kinds of journey lend themselves to it.
A trip within the European Union
Between France and Spain, Italy, Germany or Belgium, a microchipped dog or cat vaccinated against rabies more than 21 days earlier and holding its EU pet passport travels with no other document. If you drive, the airline and its approved crate drop out of the picture. What remains is the destination's local rules on arrival (registration, breeds, sterilisation in some regions): our guides travelling in the EU with a pet and France ⇄ country summarise them, with their sources.
A cat or small dog in the cabin to North America
For the USA and Canada, France asks for nothing beyond the passport or a certificate on departure, and no titre test is required on arrival. A dog entering the USA must be at least 6 months old, carry a readable microchip and travel with the receipt of the free online CDC Dog Import Form; a cat needs no federal document. The cabin place (8 kg at most including the bag on Air France) is booked with the airline, by phone or online. The France ⇄ USA guide covers both directions.
In both cases an agency would only add convenience. If you are comfortable reading official texts and your dates have slack, you can do without one.
Where the risk concentrates
In the difficult cases, the trouble almost always comes from dates that depend on each other and from an airline detail discovered too late. These are the situations that come up most often:
- The 10-day window. To enter the EU from a non-EU country, the animal health certificate must be issued or endorsed by the official vet no more than 10 days before the check on arrival. A flight pushed back by a week can be enough to void it. A non-compliant pet is sent back, isolated or, as a last resort, euthanised, at the owner's expense.
- A late rabies booster. Given after the previous one expired, it counts as a new primary vaccination: a 21-day wait, and a new titre test if the country requires one. See rabies vaccine and titre test.
- A titre test done too late or at the wrong lab. The blood sample is taken at least 30 days after vaccination, at an approved laboratory (in France: ANSES Nancy, LD 31, Inovalys), and three months must pass between the sample and the issue of the certificate to arrive from an unlisted country. Japan admits the animal only 180 days after the sample; for Australia the 180 days run from the laboratory's receipt of the sample.
- An expired permit. The United Arab Emirates import permit is valid for 90 days and an animal cannot enter on an expired one. Every country that issues permits has its own validity and its own sequence with the certificate.
- Quarantine to slot in. Australia admits dogs through Melbourne only, for at least 10 days of quarantine, and advises allowing at least six months; New Zealand opens only through Auckland and Christchurch. Permit, titre test, certificate and flight must fall in the right order.
- A crate refused at the counter. The airline checks the crate, the animal and the documents before accepting the shipment; a crate that does not meet IATA's requirements or the airline's own is turned away on the day. See airline pet crates.
- A breed the airline will not take. Air France bans snub-nosed breeds from the hold and no longer accepts pugs, bulldogs and Boston terriers as cargo; Delta refuses them on all its flights. The Staffordshire bull terrier, not a category dog in France, is on Air France's snub-nosed list and is banned from entry in Germany, the UAE and Singapore.
- A pet travelling without you. To stay non-commercial, the pet must move within five days before or after you, under the responsibility of a named person you authorised in writing (Annex V of Regulation 2026/705). Otherwise it enters the EU as a commercial consignment, through a border control post, with different paperwork.
None of these can be put right on the day of departure. Most are decided six to twelve weeks earlier, when the dates of the titre test, the certificate or the permit are fixed.
What an agency does, and what it does not
A pet relocation agency coordinates; the vet, the airline and the authorities each keep their own role. At Pawgeot the split is as follows, and you can ask any agency you consult for the same table.
| What we do | What we do not do |
|---|---|
| Check the rules of the departure country, the destination and any stopover for your particular animal (age, breed, weight, travel history), and tell you at once if there is an obstacle | Work around a rule, or move an animal on a date when it cannot legally enter |
| Build the timeline backwards from your arrival date: microchip, vaccine, blood sample, treatments, certificate, permit | The veterinary acts themselves: that is your vet, then, for certificate signatures, the official veterinary services (DDPP) |
| Prepare and proofread every document before it is signed, including the authorised person's declaration when the pet does not travel with you | The laboratory work: the titre test is run by an approved laboratory, and we only check that the destination accepts it |
| Choose the mode (cabin, hold, cargo) and the routing, then book with the airline or, for cargo, through a partner forwarder | Transport the animal ourselves or promise a place on a flight and an arrival date: airlines and authorities decide those |
| Coordinate, depending on the country and on availability, the drive to the airport and the reception on arrival with partners named in the quote | Decide in place of customs or the destination's veterinary services, or guarantee that there will be no quarantine |
| Stay your single point of contact until arrival, with a client portal showing the steps, deadlines, documents and messages | Replace you: your vet appointments and your signatures remain essential |
Each step is described on how it works, and what our international pet transport covers is on the services page.
The price: how to read an agency quote
An agency charges fees for its coordination work. The third-party costs exist whether or not you use an agency: the vet, the laboratory, official charges, the airline, the crate, ground services. A useful quote separates the two and says who bills each line. At Pawgeot, some third-party costs are billed to you directly (the vet, for instance) while others pass through us; the quote states it line by line, and nothing is added without your written agreement.
We publish no flat rate, because no single figure fits both a cat in the cabin to Lisbon and a German shepherd as cargo to Sydney. The pricing and quotes page explains how a quote is built; the article on the cost of international pet relocation walks through each component and explains why a large, light crate can cost more as cargo than a heavy dog in a compact one.
To compare quotes, ask three questions: is every line named and attributed to whoever bills it? Is what is excluded written down? Are official charges quoted as published by the authority, with the source? A single global price cannot answer any of them.
Alone or with an agency: what actually changes
| Criterion | On your own | With an agency |
|---|---|---|
| Time | Reading both countries' texts, calling airlines and authorities, appointments, tracking dates: all of it is yours | Your appointments and signatures stay yours; research, timeline, bookings and follow-up are coordinated |
| Risk of a timeline error | Carried entirely by you, with no second pair of eyes | Timeline computed backwards and documents proofread before each signature; the risk shrinks, it does not vanish if an appointment is missed |
| Cost | Third-party costs only | The same third-party costs, plus fees |
| Access to cargo | Some airlines accept live animals as cargo only through a forwarder | Booking through a partner forwarder, crate checked before drop-off |
| Liability at the border | In both cases the owner answers for the pet's compliance before customs and the veterinary services. An agency reduces the risk of error; it does not transfer that responsibility. | |
Six questions to decide
- Does the destination require a titre test, a permit or quarantine? If so, the timeline has dates that cannot be caught up.
- Can your pet fly in the cabin or in the hold on your flight, or is cargo unavoidable (weight, destination, airline, breed)?
- How many animals are moving, and do they all travel with you, within five days?
- Is your date fixed by an employer or a lease, with no room to postpone?
- Do you have time to read both countries' official texts, and to read them again when they change?
- Could you and your pet absorb a refusal on arrival or an unplanned quarantine?
If three or more answers worry you, describe the move to us: we check its feasibility before any quote, and the quote carries no obligation.
Frequently asked questions
Is an agency compulsory to move a pet abroad?
No, never under the regulations. In practice, some airlines accept live animals as cargo only through a forwarder: Air France KLM Martinair Cargo does not take live animals directly from private individuals, and Cathay Cargo has only taken direct bookings from professionals since 1 September 2025. A forwarder is not a relocation agency, but you then have to find one.
Can I do part of it myself and hand over the rest?
Yes. You might handle the vet and the passport and leave us the cargo booking, the crate and the arrival. Our quote states who does what, line by line, and charges only for what you entrust to us.
How do I judge an agency beyond online reviews?
Ask for an itemised quote and check whether it names every line and every party, cites the rules with their official sources, states the validity periods of each document and says plainly what depends on the airline and the authorities. Be wary of any promise of a date, a flight or no quarantine: nobody can keep it on behalf of an airline or a customs service.
How far ahead do I need to decide?
A few weeks are enough within the EU if the vaccine is current, one to two months for the UK or North America, three months and more for the UAE or Singapore, and at least six months for Australia, New Zealand or Japan.
Official sources
The rules above come from the texts and pages of these authorities. Last checked: .
- Règlement délégué (UE) 2026/131 — mouvements non commerciaux d’animaux de compagnie (art. 3, 5, 13 à 20)
- Règlement d’exécution (UE) 2026/705 — modèles de certificat sanitaire et de déclarations (annexe V)
- Règlement d’exécution (UE) 2026/766 — États membres indemnes d’échinocoque (annexe XIX du règlement 2021/620)
- Commission européenne — Questions fréquentes sur les chiens, chats et furets (soute, fret, personne autorisée, délai de cinq jours, cinq animaux)
- Douane française — Voyager ou venir en France avec mon animal de compagnie
- DGAL — Note d’information « Importation non commerciale d’animaux de compagnie en provenance de pays tiers » (juin 2026)
- Ministère de l’Agriculture — Liste des laboratoires agréés pour le titrage antirabique
- CDC — Entry requirements for dogs from dog rabies-free or low-risk countries
- MOCCAE (Émirats arabes unis) — Import of pets (cats / dogs)
- MAFF (Japon) — Import of dogs and cats from non-designated regions
- DAFF (Australie) — Bringing a dog from a Group 3 country
- MPI (Nouvelle-Zélande) — Import Health Standard: Cats and Dogs 2026
- AVS (Singapour) — Veterinary conditions for the importation of dogs and cats, Schedule II
- GOV.UK — Bring your pet dog, cat or ferret to Great Britain
- Air France — Voyager avec son animal (chien, chat)
- Air France KLM Martinair Cargo — Transporting dogs and cats
- Cathay Pacific — Travelling with animals (réservations fret par des professionnels)
- IATA — Traveler’s Pet Corner
Rules change. Before anything is booked, we reconfirm every requirement with the authorities, the airline and the vet for your pet and your itinerary.
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