I am writing this article to counter various claims that you can only obtain and use an EU Pet Passport if you live in the EU. Most of these claims are made on Facebook, in the Animal Health Certificate and Animal Health Certificate UK groups. Recently there has appeared in both these groups posts which claim to have received the ‘definitive answer’ from official EU sources. These alleged definitive responses invariably raise more questions than they answer. However, these questions never seem to be asked and so the responses are posted as gospel. While we know that Facebook is an unreliable source of information, some of these posts become widely repeated and then take on a life of their own, regardless of accuracy.
To counter false claims like these we need to go back to first principles. In this case the first principle is the actual legislation which governs the entry of pet dogs, cats and ferrets into the EU. This is Regulation (EU) 576/2013 on the non-commercial movement of pet animals:
Regulation (EU) 576/2013
This is a lengthy document written in legal terms but the EU Commission has converted it into simpler language on its website in the section ’Movement of pets - EU legislation’:
Movement of pets - EU legislation
This covers many webpages but the page we are particularly interested in is ‘Non-commercial movement from non-EU countries’. (We will be returning to this page later.):
Non-commercial movement from non-EU countries
The first important point to notice from all of the above is that nowhere in the Regulation does it specify that an EU Pet Passport may only be issued to an EU resident.
When we were still members of the EU and therefore in a position to issue our own Pet Passports, the booklet published by the Animal & Plant Health Agency (APHA) titled ‘How to Complete Pet Passports’ contained the following information:
This was made even more explicit in the earlier version of this booklet titled ‘EU Pet Passport Guidance Notes’:
It is, however, important to note that while there is no EU-wide legal requirement for a pet owner to be an EU resident in order to obtain a pet passport, individual countries may introduce their own particular ‘requirements’ concerning their issue. For example, Italy has always required that a pet owner has an Italian address to which the pet is registered, and Pet Passports cannot be issued directly by vets but only via the ASL (a health department with an animal section). However much I love Italy I have to say that its bureaucracy runs on steroids. A more recent ‘requirement’ is the one introduced in France (apparently as the result of a government directive), for an animal to have been in France for at least 90 days and registered on their national pet database (I-cad) in order to be issued with a Pet Passport. This ‘requirement’ would seem to be motivated more by political resentment over Brexit than anything to do with animal health.
Returning to Regulation 576/2013, now that we are no longer an EU member state and have become a Part 2 listed third country, the most relevant part of the legislation to us is Article 27.
As mentioned previously the legal language makes it difficult reading but Article 27 has been paraphrased on the EU Commission webpage mentioned earlier:
Article 27 is the provision by which Americans, Canadians, etc have been able to obtain EU Pet Passports for many years, and subsequently use them to re-enter the EU from the US, Canada, etc. As the UK (or at least the GB part) is now classed as a Part 2 listed country, the same provision applies to us.
This use of EU Pet Passports is documented on various official websites and I have posted screenshots and links to a few of them below:
1. US Dept of Agriculture, Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/pet-travel/by-country/eu/pet_travel-european_union_pet_passports
2. Spanish Embassy for the US and Canada
<Broken link removed>
3. French Embassy in the US
<Broken link removed>
I hope that people will find this information useful and that it will enable them to simplify their travels abroad with their pets.
To counter false claims like these we need to go back to first principles. In this case the first principle is the actual legislation which governs the entry of pet dogs, cats and ferrets into the EU. This is Regulation (EU) 576/2013 on the non-commercial movement of pet animals:
Regulation (EU) 576/2013
This is a lengthy document written in legal terms but the EU Commission has converted it into simpler language on its website in the section ’Movement of pets - EU legislation’:
Movement of pets - EU legislation
This covers many webpages but the page we are particularly interested in is ‘Non-commercial movement from non-EU countries’. (We will be returning to this page later.):
Non-commercial movement from non-EU countries
The first important point to notice from all of the above is that nowhere in the Regulation does it specify that an EU Pet Passport may only be issued to an EU resident.
When we were still members of the EU and therefore in a position to issue our own Pet Passports, the booklet published by the Animal & Plant Health Agency (APHA) titled ‘How to Complete Pet Passports’ contained the following information:
This was made even more explicit in the earlier version of this booklet titled ‘EU Pet Passport Guidance Notes’:
It is, however, important to note that while there is no EU-wide legal requirement for a pet owner to be an EU resident in order to obtain a pet passport, individual countries may introduce their own particular ‘requirements’ concerning their issue. For example, Italy has always required that a pet owner has an Italian address to which the pet is registered, and Pet Passports cannot be issued directly by vets but only via the ASL (a health department with an animal section). However much I love Italy I have to say that its bureaucracy runs on steroids. A more recent ‘requirement’ is the one introduced in France (apparently as the result of a government directive), for an animal to have been in France for at least 90 days and registered on their national pet database (I-cad) in order to be issued with a Pet Passport. This ‘requirement’ would seem to be motivated more by political resentment over Brexit than anything to do with animal health.
Returning to Regulation 576/2013, now that we are no longer an EU member state and have become a Part 2 listed third country, the most relevant part of the legislation to us is Article 27.
As mentioned previously the legal language makes it difficult reading but Article 27 has been paraphrased on the EU Commission webpage mentioned earlier:
Article 27 is the provision by which Americans, Canadians, etc have been able to obtain EU Pet Passports for many years, and subsequently use them to re-enter the EU from the US, Canada, etc. As the UK (or at least the GB part) is now classed as a Part 2 listed country, the same provision applies to us.
This use of EU Pet Passports is documented on various official websites and I have posted screenshots and links to a few of them below:
1. US Dept of Agriculture, Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/pet-travel/by-country/eu/pet_travel-european_union_pet_passports
2. Spanish Embassy for the US and Canada
<Broken link removed>
3. French Embassy in the US
<Broken link removed>
I hope that people will find this information useful and that it will enable them to simplify their travels abroad with their pets.
putting me on your ‘ignore’ list. 
. No problems, though they asked for sight of his previous PP to check when the chip was inserted, as on his new Spanish PP, it's completed as "date of chip reading"
. The only query at pet control at Dieppe was that on the new Spanish PP, the Vet has to state whether it's the date of application or reading of the transponder & he crossed out date of application & put the date of reading, which was 07.02.22. At Dieppe.they just wanted to check the original date of application of the transponder, it was all very laid back, not an issue at all. He said he would also register Oscar on Spain s dog database 
