About
Pet travel requirements, sourced and explained.
PetCleared finds the official entry requirements for taking a dog or cat abroad, puts them in plain English, and links every step to the government source.
We turn the requirements scattered across government sites into one clear, chronological checklist.
PetCleared sits between the two most important moments of a journey with your pet: the day you decide to travel with your dog or cat, and the day you clear the border together. In between sit the entry requirements, scattered across several government sites, where one missed date can move the whole trip. That part is our job. We decode the official requirements, map the deadlines and waiting periods, and organise everything into a clear, chronological checklist, with every step linked to its official source. With our guide in hand, you can book the right appointments at the right time, and walk into the vet’s office and up to the border knowing your pet is ready to travel.
Requirements change with who is travelling and why, so we cover dogs and cats for both.
Pet travel requirements depend on who is travelling and why. A family holiday follows the personal rules; a sale or a rescue transfer follows the commercial ones. PetCleared covers dogs and cats for both:
- Personal travel: for owners travelling with their own pet. Health certificates, vaccinations, and the non-commercial entry requirements. If you’re planning a trip with your own dog or cat, this is for you.
- Commercial movement: for breeders, rescue organisations, and transport agents. The commercial toggle on the search switches the whole checklist to the commercial requirement set.
Two more travel options are planned, and we’d rather add each one properly than halfway:
- Exotic pets: parrots, reptiles, rodents, and ferrets follow different regulatory tracks. This option will be added once specific corridors prove straightforward.
- Permanent relocations: long-term moves add customs, residency proofs, and import permits, so they’ll get their own tool rather than a footnote on this one. Coming in a later phase.
Even within what we cover, a few country pairs have no official guidance we can find. The search tells you when that happens and points you to the destination’s official authority, rather than guessing at a checklist.
Official government sources only, checked twice before they reach you.
Our part: every checklist is built from official government sources only, the export authority of the country you leave and the import authority of the country you enter. An AI model with web search drafts the checklist against those sources, every result is checked against a strict format before it reaches you, and the busiest routes are verified by a human on top. The full details can be found on the methodology page.
Your final check: requirements can change quickly, so use the direct links to give the official sources a last review, book the appointments early, and complete the paperwork with your vet. Our guide makes sure that when you walk into the clinic, there are no surprises.
The information was all there. It just wasn't usable.
Taking a pet abroad should be simple logistics. In practice, the rules are scattered across several government sites, in different formats, and the details are unforgiving: the microchip has to come before the rabies shot, the 21-day wait restarts if a booster lapses, the tapeworm tablet has a tight window. Miss one and the trip can fall apart at the border.
We built PetCleared because the information was all there, just not usable. Every requirement is published by an official authority somewhere, it simply isn’t in one place, in plain language, in the order you actually need it. So we gathered it into a single checklist and linked every step back to its source. That’s the whole idea: the official answer, made readable, so you can spend less time decoding regulations and more time getting ready to go.
PetCleared is an independent project rather than a company with investors to satisfy. The site carries no advertising. That keeps the page focused on your pet’s requirements, keeps your visit private, and keeps every result driven by the official sources rather than by whatever pays best. A small, optional Trip Pack is the only thing we sell, and it goes towards the cost of keeping the site running and the search free for everyone.
The checklist covers entry requirements, and is honest about what sits outside that.
The checklist covers entry requirements. Four things sit outside that scope:
- Out-of-date official pages: if a government site is stale or contradicts itself, the checklist inherits that until the authority updates its page.
- Airline rules: cabin, cargo, and breed embargoes set by the carrier are not entry requirements. Check with the airline directly.
- Transit countries: when you change planes in a third country, that country’s requirements can apply. We don’t surface those yet.
- Changes between refreshes: each result is stamped with its last verification date. If a requirement changes between refreshes, the stamp is your cue to double-check the source.
Spotted a rule change, or want us to prioritise a corridor?
If you notice an incorrect result or a rule change, want us to prioritise a corridor, or have any other questions, feel free to get in touch at hello@petcleared.com.
This is guidance, not legal or veterinary advice. Verify the requirements with the export authority of your origin and the import authority of your destination before you travel. Requirements can change at any time, sometimes overnight.