Pet Passport Guidlines

In ALL circumstances the “client” is responsible for the animal’s passport. Please take particular care with the passports of animals going into the UK. If the animal’s passport is not complete and the animal needs to be held in customs, quarantined or taken to a vets we will do all we can to help but can not incur any costs or delays to our schedule.

Common errors that we come across include:

a) Name not entered on the front page
b) Date of microchip not entered (date must be BEFORE the rabies vaccination or the SAME day)
c) The end date for the rabies not completed
d) The time and date both not entered for worming and ticks. You only need worming but if you treat for ticks this needs to be completed as well. REMEMBER you have 1-5 days before we travel. (MUST be stamped, signed and dated by the vet with the TIME and DATE)
e) Date for the clinical examination that the animal fit for travel. MUST be completed by same vet and same time as the worming treatment.

Here is an example of a correctly completed passport. If you are in ANY doubt please contact us and email through a scanned copy of the passport.

IF your vet makes a mistake DO NOT get them to try and amend it! Cross it out and do it again. An amended entry looks like we have changed it and will cause problems. A crossed out and redone entry looks like a mistake was made and rectified by the vet.

21 Day Wait

You must wait 21 days from the date of the first rabies vaccination before your pet can enter the UK or another EU country if you are travelling from an EU or a listed non-EU country.

If the vaccine manufacturer’s data sheet requires more than one vaccination to complete the primary course of vaccinations, the 21 day wait applies from the date of the final vaccination of that course. It is important to note that the day of vaccination counts as day 0 not day 1 – eg if you have your pet vaccinated on the 1st of the month the earliest it can travel is the 22nd. Ask your vet for advice. Pet passports issued after 29 December 2014 also include a ‘valid from’ field which will be completed by your vet.

This means that if the initial rabies vaccination is for two weeks or a month and the vet has filled in the expiry date as such then the initial vaccination is the first part of a two part ‘course of vaccinations’ so you will have to have the second part done, with the expiry date a year times, and then wait 21 days.

You can read the full details on the DEFRA site

AND remember the day of the vaccination counts as Day Zero, so Day One of the 21 days is the day after e.g Vaccinated the 1st of the month, the 21 days means the vaccine is active (can travel) from the 22nd of the month. This has ALWAYS been the case, but now the vets are required to enter the active date in the passport a LOT are counting the vaccination date as the first day and so getting the active date wrong, which will cause problems at pet passport (so we wont take them unless 100% accurate as always)

IF you have an older passport and the vet has hand written in the rabies vaccination details but NO sticker then the only way that the animal can travel is with the Vaccination Booklet which must have the same vaccination details (batch number, expiry etc.) signed and stamped by the same vet. No exceptions!

New Passports

NB Your cat requires the microchip and rabies vaccination NOT the worming.

Please check here for the latest DEFRA guidelines of taking your pet to the UK.

Please note that we will check the microchip and passport prior to accepting the pet onto a transport. ANY errors and we will not take the pet and we will not provide a refund.

So to recap ……..

Common errors that we come across on a regular basis include:

1. Name not entered on the front page
2. Date of microchip not entered
3. The valid from date for rabies (new passports) not completed
4. The end date for the rabies not completed
5. The time and date both not entered for worming and ticks. You only need worming but if you treat for ticks this needs to be completed as well. REMEMBER you have 1-5 days before we travel.
6. Date for the clinical examination that the animal fit for travel.
7. New passports not laminated: Microchip Page, Ownership Page, Issuing Date page (which MUST be completed in FULL), Rabies Page

Here is an example of a correctly completed passport. If you are in ANY doubt please contact us and email through a scanned copy of the passport.

IF your vet makes a mistake DO NOT get them to try and amend it! Cross it out and do it again. An amended entry looks like we have changed it and will cause problems. A crossed out and redone entry looks like a mistake was made and rectified by the vet. Make sure that the vet stamps and signs any amendments that they make.

Please note that we will check the microchip and passport prior to accepting the pet onto a transport. ANY errors and we will not take the pet and we will not provide a refund. If the passport looks like it could have been amended by an individual and not a vet we will not accept it as if Pet Passport eve think the passport has been adjusted by anybody other than a vet they will not allow the animal through.

Note: to get through pet passport the rabies date MUST be 100% correct, the vet must STAMP and SIGN where indicated on passport. A number of Spanish vets are being told to write their details in and not stamp them but they MUST stamp and sign them if you want them transported by ALStrays through Pet Passport. Additionally for the New Passports, the areas that the vet has stamped, signed and added stickers to MUST be laminated, as Pet Passport have confirmed that any non laminated passport will be rejected

Mistakes: they happen, but if they do the DEFRA guidelines remain the same, the vet should put a line through the original entry and redo it all below, including a new sticker as relevant. IF NO sticker is available I suggest the vet comments on the passport that the second entry is a correction and ensures that this comment is laminated so it is clear that it was made by the vet.