Moving to Australia With Your Pet
Your visa, your shipping and your new home all have timelines. Your dog or cat has the longest one. We plan the pet's pathway alongside the rest of your relocation so the whole family lands together.
Is your pet part of the move?
✦ TL;DR
Where your pet lives now decides everything. Australia sorts origin countries into Groups 1, 2 and 3, and pets in non-approved countries (Thailand and Malaysia among them) first need 180 days in an approved country.
Plan on six months minimum for most routes. The rabies RNATT blood test and its waiting period anchor the calendar, and nobody can shortcut it.
Every pet flies as cargo into Melbourne and completes 10 or 30 days at the Mickleham quarantine facility. There is no cabin option and no home quarantine.
Sequence matters more than speed: a vaccine given before the microchip was verified may simply not count.
Start your pet's paperwork before you book your own flights, not after.
Australia is rabies-free and intends to stay that way, so bringing your dog or cat is a government-supervised project rather than a booking. Identification, vaccinations, blood tests, an import permit, an approved flight into Melbourne and a stay in quarantine all happen in a fixed order.
For families relocating, the pet's timeline is usually the longest lead item in the entire move, ahead of visas, shipping and housing. The process rewards early planning and punishes improvisation. This page walks through it in plain English; the Australian Government's current step-by-step guide and your import permit conditions always take precedence.
How we move pets to Australia
One coordinator runs your pet's eligibility, vet sequence, permit, quarantine booking and flight in parallel with your own relocation, so the family arrives on one plan.
Map the pathway
We classify your origin country's group, check breed and health eligibility, and give you the earliest realistic arrival date before you commit to anything.
Prepare and certify
Microchip verification, rabies vaccination and RNATT, country-specific tests and treatments, then the import permit, all sequenced the way Australia demands.
Fly, clear, reunite
Quarantine booked, cargo flight into Melbourne arranged, Mickleham stay managed, and your pet delivered to your new Australian address.
Australia's pet import country groups
Ask one question before any other: which country will officially prepare and certify your pet for export, and which Australian group does it sit in? The answer shapes the tests, the timeline and even the length of quarantine. Your own citizenship is irrelevant; the pet's recent address is what counts.
How long does it take to move a dog or cat to Australia?
Budget six months for a typical Group 3 route, and eight to ten if your pet needs a fresh rabies course, a laboratory is slow, or quarantine space doesn't line up with your own arrival. Families who treat the pet's calendar as the master calendar have the calmest moves.
The sequence, in the order it must happen:
- Verify the microchip and complete formal identity verification
- Confirm rabies vaccination, then draw the RNATT blood sample
- Let the 180-day preparation window run while you organise the rest of your move
- Apply for the import permit several months out (most issue in 20 to 40 business days)
- Book Mickleham quarantine once the permit exists, then lock the flight
- Final treatments, dog-specific tests and government certification in the last weeks
- Final vet examination within five days of departure
The permit does not guarantee a quarantine place, and a quarantine booking does not guarantee the airline will accept your pet. Each step has its own queue, which is why we run them in parallel rather than one after another.
Microchip and identity verification
The microchip is the thread that ties every vaccination, blood result and certificate to your actual animal. Australia requires an ISO-compliant chip (numbers starting 999 are rejected), scanned by an approved vet at each relevant visit. If a laboratory report carries a digit that doesn't match the chip, the department will not amend it, and months of preparation can become worthless.
Identity verification also decides your quarantine length. A Group 3 pet formally verified by the origin country's government authority before preparation begins qualifies for the minimum 10-day Mickleham stay. Skip that step and the minimum becomes 30 days. It is a government procedure, not your local vet waving a scanner, and it is the single cheapest way to shorten your pet's time away from you.
Rabies vaccination and the RNATT blood test
The Rabies Neutralising Antibody Titre Test proves your pet's vaccination actually produced immunity. Australia wants at least 0.5 IU/mL, from a sample usually drawn three to four weeks after a primary vaccination course. If the result comes back low, you revaccinate, retest and your calendar moves.
The famous 180-day wait follows from biology, not bureaucracy: an infected animal can incubate rabies silently for up to six months, and no test detects it in a living animal. No agent, including us, can waive it. What we can do is make sure the clock starts on the earliest possible day and never restarts.
Protect the clock:
- The RNATT stays valid for 12 months from the sample date
- Keep rabies boosters continuously valid through to departure; a single lapsed day can restart the 180-day period
- Put booster and test expiry dates in your family calendar the week you decide to move
The import permit and what it costs
Most cats and dogs from Group 2 and 3 countries need a biosecurity import permit, applied for through the government's BICON system with the identity records, RNATT report and endorsed declarations attached. As at July 2026, expect AUD 135 for the application plus AUD 491 assessment for the first pet in a consignment. Permits stay valid for up to 12 months.
The order that works: permit first, quarantine reservation second, flight third, final vet work last. Families who book flights first routinely pay to rebook them.
Every pet lands in Melbourne, as cargo
However your family flies, your pet's route is fixed: manifest cargo into Melbourne International Airport, where biosecurity officers collect the crate and drive it to the Mickleham quarantine facility. No cabin, no checked baggage, no arrival into Sydney, Brisbane or Perth, and no exceptions on the standard pathway.
Manifest cargo sounds industrial but is a tracking discipline, not rough handling: an air waybill, formal live-animal acceptance, and a pressurised, temperature-controlled hold. You can be on the very same aircraft, and many owners are. If your new home is in another state, we handle the domestic leg after quarantine release.
Inside Mickleham: what your pet's 10 or 30 days actually look like
Mickleham, north of Melbourne, is the only post-entry quarantine facility in the country, and every imported cat and dog passes through it. Owners worry about this stage more than any other, so here is the honest picture of daily life inside.
Accommodation and care:
- Pets live in climate-controlled individual pens; animals of the same species from one family are usually placed in adjacent pens
- Biosecurity officers feed, clean and provide regular exercise during staffed daylight hours; nobody watches the pens overnight
- The facility supplies its own bedding and a range of commercial foods; anything you send in the crate is destroyed on arrival as biosecurity waste
- If your pet needs a special diet for a genuine medical reason, Australian-sourced food can be arranged with the facility in advance
Medication, illness and contact:
- Stable, disclosed medication schedules can be administered, with veterinary instructions and clear English labelling; cytotoxic and chemotherapy drugs cannot
- Diabetic, epileptic and heart-condition pets need a conversation with Mickleham and your vet before travel is booked, because dosing happens within operating hours
- If a pet falls ill, government vets manage biosecurity concerns while private vets provide treatment at the owner's cost; urgent care goes ahead even if you cannot be reached
- Visits are not permitted during the 10- or 30-day stay, and you should receive an arrival confirmation email within 24 hours of landing
Release happens by appointment once compliance is confirmed. Treat the planned date as provisional until the facility confirms it, remember cats leave in their original travel crate, and think about whether a night's rest near Melbourne beats an immediate onward journey.
The vet work differs for cats and dogs
Rabies gets the headlines, but the rest of the veterinary file depends on the species, the origin country and your pet's history. Dogs carry the heavier testing load.
Dogs from Group 3 countries commonly face:
- Brucella canis testing, with rules that vary by sex and desexing status
- Leishmania infantum and Ehrlichia canis blood tests through approved laboratories
- Leptospirosis vaccination or testing depending on the route
- External parasite treatment that kills ticks and fleas on contact; oral products that need the parasite to bite are not accepted for this condition, and neither are tick collars
Cats have a shorter list:
- Repeated internal and external parasite treatments in fixed windows
- A declaration that the cat is not pregnant beyond the permitted stage
- Routine protection against enteritis, rhinotracheitis and calicivirus is recommended, though not always a formal import condition
Product, active ingredient, dose and date all get recorded against the microchip. A treatment given two days outside its window is not close enough; it is invalid. This is where a coordinator quietly earns their fee.
Older pets, snub-nosed breeds and medical conditions
Australia sets no maximum age, but eligibility is not the same as wisdom. A fourteen-year-old cat with kidney disease can legally travel; whether she should is a different question, and the government itself advises reconsidering the import of sick or very elderly animals.
Have a frank conversation with your vet when your pet is:
- Brachycephalic (pugs, bulldogs, Persians and their crosses): airlines restrict or refuse snub-nosed breeds in the hold, and summer routes narrow further
- Elderly, with heart, kidney or mobility issues that a 20-hour journey and a quarantine stay could destabilise
- Dependent on precisely timed medication, since Mickleham administers within working hours
- Highly anxious or crate-averse, where months of gradual crate training make a real difference
The right question is not "can my pet survive the flight" but "is my pet fit for the entire journey, including ground handling, quarantine and the recovery weeks afterwards". Sometimes the kindest plan is a delayed flight, a redesigned route, or in hard cases a rehoming conversation. We will tell you honestly which one you are looking at.
Travel day: what actually happens, hour by hour
By departure day the paperwork is finished and the day itself is logistics. Knowing the sequence takes most of the fear out of it.
At home:
- Light meal four to six hours before pickup, water always available
- A calm walk for dogs; cats stay securely indoors so nobody bolts on the big day
- Documents pouch checked one final time, and a photo of your pet and crate taken for identification
At the cargo terminal:
- The handler presents the pet and originals; the airline verifies the booking and air waybill
- Pet and crate are weighed and inspected, water bowls topped up and secured
- For Australia-bound pets an official seal often goes on the crate; it must remain intact through the journey
- Custody passes to the airline several hours before departure, which is normal and planned
In the air and on arrival:
- The crate rides in a pressurised, temperature-managed hold; crew cannot visit mid-flight, so all care is front-loaded
- At any transit stop, handling staff check the animal airside; dogs are not automatically walked, which is why route choice matters
- In Melbourne, biosecurity officers collect the crate directly from the aircraft; you collect your emailed confirmation, not the pet, which is already on its way to Mickleham
The travel crate: buy it early, train for it
Your pet must stand with ears clear of the roof, turn, lie flat and drink from an externally refillable bowl, inside a container with a secure metal door and a leak-proof floor. "IATA approved" on a shop listing settles nothing; the airline judges the actual crate against the actual animal, and rejections at the terminal happen weekly.
Buy the crate months out and make it furniture: feed beside it, then inside it, close the door for seconds, then minutes, and let your pet sleep there by choice. A crate-calm animal has a measurably easier journey, and the training costs nothing but consistency. Size it honestly, because freight is priced on crate volume rather than body weight, and giant breeds can outgrow some aircraft doors entirely.
Breeds Australia will not admit
Prohibited dog breeds, plus every wolf hybrid:
- Dogo Argentino
- Fila Brasileiro
- Japanese Tosa
- American Pit Bull Terrier / Pit Bull Terrier
- Perro de Presa Canario / Presa Canario
Prohibited cat hybrids, with Bengals barred since 1 March 2026:
- Savannah
- Safari
- Chausie
- Bengal
You declare the breed during the application, and an animal that appears to be a hybrid can be investigated after arrival. Airlines add their own restrictions on top, particularly for snub-nosed breeds in warm months.
What moving a pet to Australia costs
The honest answer is a range, because origin, dog size, crate volume and quarantine length all move the number. The fixed part is governmental: as at July 2026, Australia's own permit and quarantine charges run to roughly AUD 3,114 for a 10-day stay or AUD 4,234 for 30 days.
On top sit the vet work, laboratory fees, the crate, air freight, origin handling and delivery from Mickleham to your new home. For most families the pet lands somewhere between the cost of one adult airfare and three, with large dogs at the expensive end purely because their crates occupy aircraft space.
Compare quotes by their inclusions, not their headlines. A price that omits quarantine fees or the Melbourne-to-your-city leg is not a smaller quote; it is an incomplete one.
The mistakes that cost expat families months
- Booking the family's flights before mapping the pet's timeline
- Doing rabies work before the microchip and identity step, which can void the lot
- Letting a rabies booster lapse mid-preparation and restarting the 180-day clock
- A single wrong digit in the microchip number on any document
- Assuming the permit guarantees a quarantine place on your date
- Choosing the crate by weight rating instead of measured dimensions
- Planning for cabin travel that does not exist on this route
- Assuming every pet gets the 10-day quarantine without the identity step
- Packing toys, food or a favourite blanket in the crate, all destroyed on arrival
- Forgetting the pet still needs to get from Melbourne to your actual city
- Treating an Australian-born pet as exempt; health status lapses on departure
- Trusting a two-year-old forum post over the current government guide
Rated 4.8 by relocating families
Pets who made the move to Australia with us
Frequently asked questions
Six months minimum for most Group 2 and Group 3 routes, and often eight to ten in practice. Pets starting in non-approved countries such as Thailand need 180 days in an approved country first, so those routes run closer to a year.
Both exist. Complete the formal government identity verification before preparation and a Group 3 pet qualifies for the 10-day minimum; without it, 30 days applies. Problems found on arrival can extend either.
No. Every imported cat and dog stays at the Mickleham facility near Melbourne, and owners cannot visit during the stay. You will receive an arrival confirmation email within about 24 hours of landing.
No, all pets land in Melbourne and clear Mickleham first. After release we arrange the domestic flight or road leg to Sydney, Brisbane, Perth or anywhere else you're settling.
Not into Australia. The standard pathway requires manifest cargo. You can travel on the same aircraft, and many families do, but your pet rides in the temperature-controlled live-animal hold under an air waybill.
It's the rabies antibody blood test that anchors the whole Group 3 timeline. Australia requires at least 0.5 IU/mL, the result is valid for 12 months, and the 180-day preparation period counts from the qualifying sample. Lose vaccination continuity and the clock restarts.
Not directly, because Thailand is non-approved. The standard plan moves the pet to an approved country such as Singapore for at least 180 compliant days, then to Australia. We run these staged routes end to end, aligned with your own relocation date.
Government permit and quarantine charges alone are about AUD 3,114 (10-day stay) or AUD 4,234 (30-day stay) as at July 2026. Veterinary work, freight, the crate and delivery are additional. Most family budgets land between one and three adult airfares, with large dogs at the top because freight is priced on crate volume.
Nobody can access the hold mid-flight, which is why everything is front-loaded: fitness checks, crate acclimation, secure water and route selection. Handlers check animals at acceptance, any transit stop and unloading, and biosecurity staff take over the moment the aircraft doors open in Melbourne.
No, routine sedation is discouraged and airlines can refuse a sedated animal, because sedatives interfere with breathing and temperature control at altitude. Months of crate training beats a pill on the day. Genuine prescription medication is different; disclose it to the vet, the airline and Mickleham.
Extended quarantine, extra testing, re-export or, in the worst cases, euthanasia, all at the importer's expense. This single risk is why the government itself recommends using an experienced agent.
Yes. The Dogo Argentino, Fila Brasileiro, Japanese Tosa, Pit Bull Terrier and Presa Canario, plus all wolf hybrids, cannot enter. Cat hybrids including Savannah, Safari, Chausie and Bengal are also prohibited, with Bengals barred since 1 March 2026.
Some owners handle simple approved-country routes, and the government publishes every rule. In practice the sequencing, laboratory logistics and quarantine-flight alignment are where DIY moves lose months, which is why DAFF recommends an experienced agent. We're most valuable on staged routes, large or snub-nosed dogs, medical needs and fixed start dates.
Your pet's move, in four steps
- Tell us the origin country, breed, age and weight in the pet quote form.
- Get the pathway, earliest arrival date and cost range within 48 hours.
- We run identity, RNATT, permit, quarantine and the flight on one calendar with your move.
- Your pet lands in Melbourne, clears Mickleham and joins the family at your new address.
