Moving to Spain with Pets

The rules for bringing a dog, cat or ferret into Spain are not complicated. The order is.

Almost everything that goes wrong here goes wrong for one reason: several of these steps only count if the step before them was already done. A rabies vaccination given before the microchip does not count. A blood test taken too soon does not count. Each mistake costs weeks or months, and neither is visible until someone checks your paperwork.

So this page is a sequence rather than a checklist — the list is easy; the order is where people lose their move.

First: which of three starting points are you at?

Everything here depends on it, and people routinely assume there are two answers when there are three.

From another EU country. The simplest position. Your animal travels on an EU pet passport.

From a non-EU country on the EU's lists. You need an animal health certificate rather than a passport, but no blood test. Many common origins sit here — check rather than assume, because the lists change.

From a non-EU country that does not appear on those lists. Same certificate, plus a rabies antibody blood test and a waiting period afterwards. This is the position that reshapes your timeline — establish it before you plan anything else.

The requirements, by where you're coming from

Table 1

Source: European Commission — Your Europe (pet travel) and Spain's Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación (mapa.gob.es). Verified August 2026.

Two details in that table cause more problems than the rest combined.

"No more than 10 days before arrival" is a window to your arrival, not your departure. It is deliberately short, so the certificate is one of the last things you obtain rather than one of the first — timed against a travel date you're confident about.

"An official State vet" is not the same as your own vet: in most countries it means one authorised or certified by the national authority. Your own practice may or may not be able to do it, and you want to know which several weeks before you need the document.

The sequence — and why the order is not negotiable

Do these in this order. Each one depends on the one before it.

1 · Microchip, meeting the EU's technical requirements. A tattoo is accepted only if applied before 3 July 2011 and still clearly readable — now very few animals.

2 · Rabies vaccination. Given by an authorised vet, and not before the animal is 12 weeks old. It must still be valid on your travel date — check the expiry against the date you actually intend to travel.

3 · Wait at least 21 days from completion of a primary vaccination course. A booster given while the previous vaccination is still valid carries no further wait — which is why keeping the vaccination continuously in date is worth doing years ahead of a move.

These first three steps put a floor under the age at which any animal can travel: twelve weeks before it can be vaccinated, then three more weeks before it can move. A young puppy or kitten cannot meet those two floors, so the earliest possible travel date is set by them.

4 · Blood test — only from a non-listed country. A sample taken by an authorised vet at least 30 days after the primary vaccination and analysed at a laboratory designated by the EU. Not any laboratory: your vet needs to send it to an approved one.

5 · Wait three months — only if step 4 applied. Measured from the date the sample was taken, not the date of the result. Do not plan tightly against this one. It is the step that turns a pet move into a project, it runs concurrently with almost nothing else, and it belongs at the very beginning of your planning rather than the middle. Leave yourself margin at the end of it.

6 · The travel document. An EU pet passport from an EU country; otherwise the animal health certificate, from an official State vet, within the 10-day window before arrival.

7 · Travel and arrive properly — its own section below, because the arrival rules have unexpected consequences.

How many animals, and who has to travel with them

These conditions are not paperwork — they are the boundary of the regime described above. Everything here applies to what the rules call a non-commercial movement: your animals, travelling with you, as part of your life. Step outside it and you are importing animals commercially, under different rules. Exceeding a condition doesn't add a form; it changes what you are legally doing.

A maximum of five dogs, cats or ferrets per traveller — unless the animals are travelling to a competition, exhibition or sporting event, or its training, and are over six months old. For an ordinary household move, five is the ceiling.

The animal travels with you, or with someone you've authorised in writing — and if you can't travel together, that person's journey must fall within five days of your own. This matters more than it sounds: you cannot send your animals ahead and follow at your leisure, which is exactly what families juggling houses and school terms tend to plan.

Dogs: the extra layer

Spain operates a restricted-dog regime, and it is worth understanding before you arrive rather than after.

Certain dogs — identified by breed at state level, and in some cases by physical characteristics — carry additional obligations for their keeper, broadly a licence, third-party liability insurance, registration, and handling requirements in public.

The detail is deliberately not on this page, and the reason is structural rather than editorial. The obligations are administered locally — licence and registration are handled by your town hall, requirements vary between municipalities and autonomous communities, and the framework has been under review. Any specific list, fee or procedure published here would be wrong somewhere in Spain, and possibly wrong everywhere before long.

So: if you have a dog that might fall within the regime, ask the town hall for the area you're moving to, before you move. It's a short conversation and it's the difference between arriving compliant and arriving exposed. Your insurer will want to know too — the liability cover is part of the obligation, not an optional extra.

Cats, ferrets — and everything else

Cats and ferrets follow the same rules as dogs: chip, vaccination, waiting periods, documents, entry requirements. Everything above applies unchanged, and cats have no equivalent of the restricted-dog regime.

Every other species is governed differently, and none of this page applies. Birds, rabbits, rodents, reptiles, fish and invertebrates each have their own requirements; some cannot be moved at all, or need protected-species permits. If you're moving anything other than a dog, cat or ferret, treat this page as not covering you and start with the agriculture ministry's guidance for your species.

Physically moving them

Four broad options, and the right one is usually decided by your animal rather than by your budget.

In the cabin. Generally limited to small animals within an airline's weight and carrier limits. Policies vary enormously and some carriers don't accept animals in the cabin at all — confirm before you build a plan on it.

In the hold, as checked or manifested cargo. The realistic option for most dogs. The animal travels in an approved container, and airlines apply their own rules — seasonal temperature restrictions, and breed restrictions affecting snub-nosed dogs and cats in particular, where some carriers refuse carriage outright.

By road, either driving yourself or using a specialist ground transporter. Slower, but it avoids the hold entirely — for an anxious or unsuitable animal that's often the deciding factor rather than a preference.

A pet relocation specialist, handling documents, transport and entry as one job. The most expensive route, and the one that removes most risk from a complicated case.

What actually determines your options and your cost: the animal's size and breed, whether the route is direct, the season, the distance, and whether someone else handles the paperwork. We publish no prices for any of this, and be sceptical of anyone who publishes a single figure — quotes vary by more than a headline number can honestly represent. Get several, for your actual animal on your actual route.

Arrival: the part with a hard consequence

Coming from outside the EU, you may only enter through a designated travellers' point of entry — in Spain, a Punto de Entrada de Viajeros — in the country you're travelling to. On arrival you must declare the animal and present its documents for checking.

So your flight is not purely a travel decision. Check that your arrival airport is on the current designated list before you book, and note that a routing which changes your point of entry into the EU can change your compliance. The list is maintained by Spain's agriculture ministry — check the live version rather than a copy, including ours: we deliberately don't reproduce it, because a stale list would be worse than none.

Once you're there, register your animal with a local vet, who can advise on anything specific to your area, and check what your town hall requires — registration is generally municipal and expectations differ.

Pet insurance in Spain

Pet insurance is widely available in Spain, and for a restricted-breed dog the liability element is a legal obligation rather than an optional purchase. The group's insurance specialists handle it.

Our connection: pet cover is arranged through Spanish Health Insurance, a business in our own group. We recommend our own companies when they are genuinely the right next step — and we tell you every time.

Frequently asked questions

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