🇳🇿Taking a dog or cat to New Zealand: entry rules and flights

A permanent, unique microchip. The ISO 11784/11785 standard is not formally mandatory but is strongly recommended: MPI may have no reader for a non-standard chip, and the ISO chip is also required to register a dog in New Zealand.

KEY POINT: a veterinarian verifies and records the chip number at EVERY procedure — examination, test, vaccination, treatment. If it was not verified at one of them, that procedure does not count and must be repeated.

Not required from every departure country — checking your own route gives the exact answer.

A rabies vaccination with a vaccine listed in mpi-std-saa, given by a veterinarian no earlier than 12 weeks of age. A PRIMARY vaccination must be given no later than six months before shipment — this is not a typo and not the European '21 days'. The vaccination must remain continuously valid right up to departure: if the manufacturer's period lapses even by a day, the next one counts as primary and the six months start over.

The vaccination and the titre sampling must be done in a category 1, 2 or 3 country or in New Zealand — those done in a non-categorised country are not accepted.

Treatment against ticks and fleas with a product listed in mpi-std-saa. A CAT — once, within the 16 days before shipment. A DOG — twice: the first at least 14 days before the Babesia gibsoni blood sample, the last within the 16 days before shipment. Protection must be continuous from the first treatment to departure, per the manufacturer's directions.

This is not a formality: if a tick, alive or dead, is found on arrival the animal is not released — treatment, tests and extended quarantine at the owner's expense.

Not required from every departure country — checking your own route gives the exact answer.

The RNATT — rabies neutralising antibody titration test, result at least 0.5 IU/mL. Blood is taken not less than three and not more than twelve months before shipment — a window on both sides, and an expired titre has to be redone. At sampling the veterinarian again verifies and records the chip number.

The laboratory must be approved by the competent authority of a category 1–3 country, or listed by the European Commission, or be a WOAH reference laboratory. MPI recommends waiting 3–4 weeks after vaccination before taking the sample.

A veterinary certificate on the MPI model for category 1 — or a certificate agreed with MPI's Chief Technical Officer setting out the same measures. Some countries have negotiated their own forms; check with your pet transporter in advance which one applies to yours. The certificate is signed by an official veterinarian after the inspection two days before shipment.

A veterinary inspection within TWO DAYS before shipment. The vet certifies the animal is healthy and fit to travel, free from visible external parasites, dirt, insects and seeds, and free from clinical signs of the diseases listed in the IHS. For dogs additionally: no evidence of recent dog bites, and for entire dogs no visible signs of canine transmissible venereal tumour on examination of the external genitalia.

Not required from every departure country — checking your own route gives the exact answer.

An MPI import permit — mandatory for categories 2 and 3. Apply online no later than eight weeks before you need it: processing takes 30 working days AFTER the full set of documents has been received. Many airlines will not accept a pet on a flight without the permit.

A signed quarantine booking form is attached to the application.

The order matters: book quarantine first, then apply for the permit.