There have been important changes to pet travel requirements for journeys from Great Britain (GB) to the European Union (EU), which came into effect from Wednesday 22 April 2026.
If you travel with your pet from the UK to the EU, please read on!
From this date, EU pet passports issued to pet owners residing in Great Britain will no longer be valid for travel to the EU. This applies to all such passports, including those originally issued in EU countries or Northern Ireland.
It used to be a great hack of this [frankly, mad :-0] system we now use for pet travel involving animal health certificates (AHCs). Before this week, if your pet was initially from the EU and had an EU passport, or you got hold of an EU passport for your pet from an obliging EU vet….then you didn’t need to get an AHC each time you travel. Sadly, the government have now closed this loophole.
What does this mean?
Annoyingly, for you guys and for us… your pet must have an AHC each time you travel to the EU. Each trip can be up to 4 months, but for each journey from UK to EU you need a new AHC. This is a ten-page document which takes over an hour for us to fill in. We don’t love them, that’s for sure…!
The other normal rules apply eg your pet must have a valid rabies vaccine (at least a month prior to travel) and a microchip to travel. You need an appointment with you and your pet within 10 days of your departure date – closer to 10 days the better for us as it gives us more time to do the paperwork around clinical cases
Any questions, please get in touch – we are very disappointed in this change and are as frustrated as you guys.
New family member? Take a look at our Puppy & Kitten Info Sheets.
You can even download them and pass them on to friends and family.
