Frequently asked questions

No — and that is a load-bearing no. We prepare, check and orchestrate documents. We never take possession of an animal. When a pet needs to travel in the aircraft hold, that is the work of a licensed IPATA specialist, and we refer you to one.

Dogs, cats and ferrets — the three species the major pet-travel schemes define together. Everything else (birds, rabbits, reptiles) crosses borders under a different regime, and a checklist that is wrong for your animal is worse than none. More species come after these three are right.

At the border, a service dog is a dog — the same document route applies, and it is fully in scope today. Cabin access with the airline is a separate stack of forms (in the US, the DOT service-animal attestations) that we do not handle yet, and this page will say so until we do.

It depends entirely on the route. US into the UK or EU: no — the US is a listed country — but you still wait 21 days after the rabies vaccination before travelling. Japan: yes, followed by a 180-day wait counted from the blood draw. Australia: yes, drawn at least 180 days before export. New Zealand: yes for cats and dogs, drawn at least 90 days out — but not for ferrets from the US, which need neither titer nor permit. Unlisted-country origins into the EU: yes, plus a three-month wait. This one answer is why generic checklists fail.

UK or EU from the US: about a month. Japan: seven months or more. Australia: six months or more, plus a quarantine-space reservation. The honest rule: compute the start-by date backwards from departure the day you first consider the trip — starting early costs nothing, starting late can cost the trip.

On most routes, no — arrive with the file right and there is nothing to quarantine for. Australia and New Zealand are the exceptions, and they differ: New Zealand holds cats and dogs about 10 days, while a pet arriving in Australia from the United States faces 30 days, cut to a 10-day minimum only if its identity was officially verified before the titer blood draw and at least 180 days before export. Japan’s version is avoidable entirely: serve the 180-day wait at home and inspection clears in hours.

No, and nobody honest can — the final decision at any border belongs to the officer at the counter. What can be done is making sure the file you hand over matches what the destination actually asked for, verified by a person against your real documents. That is the entire product.

Two services, and a trip means one direction. Filing is $99 per pet: you supply the documents, a pet-travel consultant checks every critical value against your destination’s rules, and we prepare and file the paperwork. Each animal is its own import, so two pets one way is $198. Guided adds a consultant for $99 per direction — a one-to-one consultation, trip guidance on what to arrange and when, airline rules walked through, and a written brief your vet can work from. That consultant fee is charged once however many pets are travelling, so one pet one way on Guided is $198 and two pets one way is $297. Coming home again is a second import with its own paperwork — add the return leg for $49 per pet at the time you buy, and the consultant is charged for that direction too. One-time payments; nothing recurring.

No — every price covers one direction, because a round trip is genuinely two imports with two sets of rules. Coming back into the United States with a dog has its own requirements (a CDC import form, microchip verification, and a six-month age floor) that have nothing to do with getting out. If you are returning with your pet, add the return leg for $49 when you buy and we prepare and file both directions. It has to be added at the time of purchase rather than later: the way home can constrain decisions you take at the very start of the outbound sequence, so it is planned in from the beginning.

$99 per direction of a consultant’s time. Both tiers are worked by a real person and both end with your paperwork prepared and filed. Filing is your documents: you gather them, we verify them and we file them, $99 per pet. Guided adds a consultant who carries the trip with you — you can ask questions directly for the life of the trip, you get the order of operations for what to arrange and when, the airline rules explained for your pet and route, and a written brief your veterinarian can work straight from. To be plain about the boundary: we do not book your travel and we do not make your vet appointments. We tell you exactly what to book and what to ask for; you make the bookings.

No. We advise what to arrange and when, and explain the airline rules that apply to your pet — but you make the bookings. When an animal travels in the hold, that is a licensed IPATA specialist’s work and we refer you to one. We prepare documents; we never take possession of an animal.

PetPaperwork is in development. Early access means joining the small group of owners whose real upcoming trips shape the product: your route gets mapped first, at the published prices, before checkout opens to everyone. One email is the whole signup.