We are entering a whole new age of travel that allows us to take our most loyal friends on holiday with us, or to live with us abroad.

The pet Passport scheme is there, not to allow us to take our pets out of the country, that has always been possible with the right documentation, but rather to allow us to bring them back into the UK.

There are a number of procedures that need to be followed, and a good deal of paperwork to collect to enable re-entry.

The scheme started on 28th.February 2000. and is for dogs and cats only at this stage. The order of procedures is as follows;

Your dog or cat must be Microchipped with an ISO type chip.

They must be Vaccinated against Rabies. This is done with two injections, one month apart.

One month after the second injection, They must have a Blood Test done. The blood sample is sent away to find out if the animal has developed a minimum amount of antibodies. Although all the results come back via the UK, the sample can sometimes be sent abroad for the actual testing and can take as long as one month to be returned. If your cat or dog fails this blood test, they will need to be re-vaccinated and re-tested. It is also worth noting that there are suggestions that some animals may never reach the required level of immunity.

Once your animal has had all of the above an authorised vet can issue you with an official PETS certificate which shows; the animals identification by its microchip number, that it has a current vaccination against rabies and that it has had a blood test showing satisfactory protection against rabies.

There now comes a Wait of Six Months after the positive test before the protected animal can come back into the UK. They may travel out at anytime, the passport only effects re-entry.

Although the Pet Passport allows re-entry into the UK, your animals do still need documentation to leave the UK. This is an Export Health Certificate and it is obtained through The Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food.

There remains only one obstacle before you can bring your pet back into the UK. Between 24 and 48 hours before embarking for the UK, the animal must be given a Treatment against a type of Tape Worm and a type of Tick.This has to be administered by a vet who will then issue you with a certificate to show that this has been done.

It is worth noteing that although the required Tick Treatment has to be administered within 24 to 48 hours before returning to the UK, this will not actually protect your animal from the disease that the tick can carry before that. The treatment is to prevent any infected ticks from coming live, into the UK on your pet. Therefore it is well worth talking to your vet about getting a treatment done prior to you going abroad. How soon before obviously depends on how long a gap is needed between the two treatments.

There are only a limited number of Routes that you can use to come back into Britain as the scheme is still in its pilot stage. These are; The sea ports of Portsmouth and Dover, London Heathrow Airport and the Channel Tunnel. Private transport can not be used.

The Countries that you can travel back from are also limited to; Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Vatican. Your vet will give you a certificate that you will have to sign to say that the re-entering animal has not been outside the qualifiing countries within the last six months.

The export health certificate mentioned above is required for entering France, Gibraltar, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, or Switzerland. Gibraltar, Iceland and Sweden also require a seperate import permit. These can only be obtained from the countries themselves. A list of contact points is available from Export of Cats and Dogs Section, MAFF, 1A Page Street, London SW1P 4PQ. Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany and Luxembourg also require a seperate certificate to show that the animal has been vaccinated against rabies, but your vet will be able to provide this.

Finally it is important that you check all the information given, as being a pilot scheme it is likely to be subject to change.

All the information given is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of writing, however the producers of these pages cannot be held responsible for any misinformation or changes, or for any damages arising from that information.