The following transcript was generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Carlie: Welcome back to the Expat Focus Podcast. I’m your host, Carlie, and did you know that we’re on YouTube these days? If you like to watch as well as listen to the show, head over to our channel — just search for Expat Focus — and be sure to subscribe while you’re there.
Have you moved abroad with your pet, or are you thinking about it? Giulia Gebhardt from WorldCare Pet Transport joins me in this episode to catch you up on all of the latest requirements. She’s going to talk through why some animal breeds are riskier to move internationally than others, and she’ll dispel some common pet transport myths to help put your mind at ease.
Giulia, it’s great to have you on the Expat Focus Podcast. It’s actually been a few years since we did an episode on pet relocation, so for expats whose knowledge of moving a pet abroad may date back to a move they did 10 or even 20 years ago — can you tell me about some of the biggest shifts we’ve seen in country regulations and requirements over the last few years?
Giulia: Absolutely. When it comes to the beast of pet relocation, it’s an ever-evolving aspect of international travel — especially with a lot of countries that are more rabies-free, or working to change how they’re categorised in terms of rabies risk on the global stage.
The requirements you have today may not hold true tomorrow for any particular country. A lot of the steps you might have had to take even one or two years ago could differ vastly from what’s required today. A couple of major examples: in 2023, Australia implemented a change in its requirements. New Zealand has just implemented a new change that will impact pets entering the country going forward. Singapore as well, and the United States, of course, with the CDC import regulations. So the biggest factor is time — how much time you leave yourself to get all the necessary paperwork, tests, and documents endorsed by your government so your pet is eligible to travel.
Carlie: Being Australian, I’m very aware of how strict our biosecurity laws are. I’ve spoken to friends who’ve really hesitated about moving their animals abroad because of the rules to bring them back into Australia, and the need to keep your pet in quarantine. I think it used to be as long as six months or something — I’m not sure how long it is these days. But such hard quarantine laws, even if you can bring your pet back at all.
And the point you make about rabies is interesting, because growing up in Australia it wasn’t really a thing we had. I think we still don’t have rabies in Australia, but it’s something I became familiar with from American movies. So — I’m probably incorrect — but for me rabies is a very American cultural thing when it comes to animals, not so much Europe. How important is it for countries to set rules around the movement of animals?
Giulia: That’s a really good question. It genuinely does depend on the country and how secure they want to keep their biosecurity. You always hear about invasive plant or bug species, but it’s very similar with animals.
I’ll use Australia again as a great example — they’re the epitome of rabies-free on the global stage. There’s no rabies in household animals like dogs and cats, but there’s also no rabies in the wildlife within the country. So they take the risk of any animal entering that could potentially carry the rabies virus very seriously, and they have rigorous requirements, documents, and evidence that need to be shown before a pet is even allowed to set paws on the ground in Australia for quarantine.
There’s a lot that goes into it, but countries that really want to maintain their rabies categorisation on the global stage — as well as their own biosecurity — more often than not take this very seriously. They want to ensure that any animal entering isn’t going to put the rest of the country at risk: not just other animals, but people as well. Rabies being a virus that can be transmitted to humans makes it a very scary one for a lot of countries, especially where the risk is minimal or not present at all.
Carlie: And it’s really nothing personal against you and your pet, is it?
Giulia: Oh, no, no. A lot of people feel as though they’re being targeted, but this is something everyone has to go through. It’s just an unfortunate circumstance. If you’re moving from the United States to Australia, your pet has to do a blood test to confirm they have sufficient antibodies to protect against rabies — but you still have to wait six months before your pet can even land in the country. And that goes for every dog and cat coming from the United States to Australia, and some other countries as well.
Carlie: I know there’s a big trend right now of North Americans looking to relocate to Europe. On the CDC and EU rules, what are some surprising or heavily enforced requirements that can catch people off guard?
Giulia: A lot of North Americans — and this isn’t just the US, but also Canada and Mexico — come from places where microchipping isn’t mandated. You don’t have to chip your pet here to register them with your town or your vet. However, if you’re moving from, say, the US to Europe, your pet needs an ISO-compatible microchip, which is normally a 15-digit chip. And that chip needs to have been implanted and scanned before the rabies vaccination history you’ll be using for travel.
A lot of families will say, “Oh, my pet had a rabies vaccine two months ago, we’re perfect.” But their dog or cat doesn’t have a microchip — and we’d have to start over from step one to meet the requirements for entering the EU. Thankfully, with the EU and some additional countries that aren’t member states but fall under the EU pet travel scheme, like Switzerland, the overall requirements and timelines are closer to about three to four weeks — as opposed to other countries where it’s four to six, even seven months before a pet is eligible to enter. So that’s one of the biggest surprises for people in North America moving to Europe.
When it comes to CDC entry requirements, I’ll be honest — it isn’t as easily understood when you look at the website and everything listed. It can seem daunting. But if you’re coming from a country the US CDC categorises as low-risk, negligible-risk, or no-risk for rabies, the details you have to provide are minimal. For example, if I moved from Germany to California with my dog, I don’t have to go into one of the six approved ports of entry or undergo CDC rabies revaccination or quarantine or anything of the sort.
Because Germany is a low-risk rabies country, all the CDC wants for that dog — beyond a health certificate, a rabies vaccine, and the dog being healthy and approved for entry by a vet in Germany — is a CDC import receipt. That’s an online form, quite easy to fill out; maybe 10 minutes maximum. You just indicate the specifics of the pet: name, microchip details, how they’re arriving, owner information, who’s responsible for the pet, and so on. You get that form emailed back to you, and as long as it’s printed and included with your dog’s travel documentation — whether they’re travelling in cabin, as excess baggage, or unaccompanied through manifest cargo — that document needs to be with your dog for them to be released and approved for entry.
Carlie: WorldCare has moved so many different types of pets around the world. Cats and dogs are the first pets that spring to mind, but can you tell me about some of the easiest breeds to relocate internationally — and on the other end of the spectrum, some of the more difficult animals to move?
Giulia: Absolutely. The easiest would be your typical run-of-the-mill tabby cat, a Labrador or Golden Retriever — any dog or cat that’s a generalised domestic breed without a shortened nose, and that’s either fairly young (but not a puppy) or a little older but in great health. Those tend to be easier.
Surprisingly, a lot of families don’t realise how difficult snub-nosed breeds can be — Persian cats, pugs, Shih Tzus — as many airlines won’t accept them for carriage. And a few surprising breeds that many families don’t realise are considered high-risk or brachycephalic: the apple-headed Chihuahua, Pomeranians, and then Bengal cats, Savannah cats — some of those designer cat breeds. The apple-headed Chihuahua and Pomeranians, depending on who you ask, may be considered snub-nosed. And with cats like Bengals and Savannahs, while they’re domesticated and several generations removed from the wild cat, you’d still need specific documentation from an internationally recognised, approved cat association showing your cat is at least five generations removed.
So you’d need a lineage showing your cat, their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents —
Carlie: Oh, gosh.
Giulia: — and so on and so forth.
Carlie: You need ancestry.com for pets.
Giulia: Exactly. While they may be domesticated, and while you may have happened upon a beautiful cat for a decent price, if you don’t have that lineage they’re considered a CITES breed, and we’d have to go through Fish and Wildlife requirements with every government they’re travelling through.
Carlie: Wow. Okay, I have a couple of questions. Is it because they then fall into a wild-animal category?
Giulia: Correct.
Carlie: Wow, that’s interesting. And then snub noses — I can kind of assume. I had a friend who moved a French bulldog from Australia to France, and I remember her and her partner being extremely stressed about that process, because they routed through the Middle East. They were really paranoid, sitting on that tarmac for a long time in 35–40-degree heat, about what was happening with their dog — whether it was just sitting in the heat on the tarmac. So I want to talk about the treatment of animals in transit as well. But first, what’s the issue with snub noses and international relocation?
Giulia: At the end of the day, airlines are reluctant to accept them for carriage on many flights because they’re considered higher-risk for cardiovascular and respiratory complications under heightened stress. A French bulldog, for example, being a snub-nosed brachycephalic breed, actually has a shortened esophagus along with the shortened nose. Because of that, their ability to regulate temperature through panting and breathing can be more complicated.
When a pet travels, as much as we do everything in our power to keep them comfortable, happy, and safe, some pets are just more nervous than others. And if a pet that already has difficulty breathing under normal circumstances is in a heightened-stress situation where they can’t calm themselves and regulate their body temperature, that can lead to fatal complications. I never like to talk about it, but it’s an unfortunate reality. So many airlines just don’t accept these breeds at all, simply because of the risk associated with their travel.
Carlie: That’s a risk you do have to accept — even if it’s small, and even for a non-risky breed, you’re still putting your animal in a high-stress situation. But I want to know about the cargo hold, the myth versus reality. Let’s do some myth-busting on the cargo hold of a plane. I don’t have the best impression of what an animal in a cargo hold might look like — because unless they’re small enough to travel with you in a bag under the seat, depending on the airline, they have to go in the hold. So in that situation, what is that experience actually like?
Giulia: That’s a great question, and the one most people ask. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of misinformation online about how pets are treated and what that space looks like. From personal experience — I’ve been in the industry going on nine years now — I’ve sent pets on several airlines all across the globe, and manifest cargo in the hold is a lot safer than one might think.
The airlines WorldCare Pet personally books with are ones recognised by IPATA, and that follow IATA — the International Air Transport Association. IATA releases a manual every year called the LAR, the Live Animals Regulations, which dictates the safe parameters for transporting a pet in the hold. Airlines that abide by these regulations are the ones we look to use, because they take the safety and welfare of the pet seriously.
For example, when a family is moving, especially with dogs — regardless of breed — we ask for four measurements of the dog so we can size a carrier appropriately: large enough for them to stand without ducking their head, turn around with ease, and lie down with their paws stretched out. I like to call it the pet equivalent of a business-class seat.
Carlie: I love that. That legroom.
Giulia: Exactly. It’s a little confined, of course, because they can’t roam freely, but they’re not feeling smushed in or claustrophobic in a way that could heighten their anxiety.
When pets travel through manifest cargo and are checked in for their flight, the airline handlers load them onto the plane last. On a normal commercial passenger flight, all the passenger luggage, passengers, and other cargo are loaded first, generally towards the back half of the plane. Pets are loaded last and placed at the front. Many airlines — Lufthansa, Emirates, and Qantas, to name a few — have a dedicated pet cabin, a space partitioned away from any other luggage or cargo. So Fluffy isn’t going to be among the suitcases.
Before pets even get onto the plane, the pilot checks all the functions of that space to ensure it’s climate-controlled — they usually keep it at about 70°F / 20°C. It’s pressurised so there’s no risk of anything like a lithium battery exploding; it’s oxygenated, so there’s airflow; and it’s insulated, so it’s not just the cold air you’d experience at altitude. The lighting is dim — not bright floodlights keeping pets stressed and alert, but not pitch-black either. They try to make it as conducive an environment as they can for the pets in that space.
Carlie: That kind of sounds like somewhere I’d like to hang out on a plane, to be honest.
Giulia: There’s no physical person within the space, though.
Carlie: Take me to that calm, dim, oxygenated cabin to hang out with a few dogs and cats for 20 hours.
Giulia: Getting ample space to stretch your legs too — sign me up. But at the end of the day, airlines take pet transportation very seriously. They’re not only dealing with their own internal rules, but IATA’s regulations and each country’s animal-welfare rules. There are a lot of factors that go into a pet’s transport that people don’t fully think about when travelling this way.
Carlie: So if you’re transiting through the Middle East with your pet, is there a real concern about your pet being left out in a crate on the tarmac between flights? And is there someone tasked with checking, during those transit periods, that your pet is doing okay?
Giulia: Great question. When we have pets transit via the Middle East — whether through Dubai on Emirates or Doha on Qatar Airways, the two most popular airlines for that route — there’s a lot of stress around weather and temperature. But on our end, when we book flights through these regions, we always look at flights arriving in the middle of the night or early-morning hours, when the sun is down and it’s significantly cooler.
As a passenger who’s travelled into very hot, humid regions myself, the second they open the door to let passengers off, you feel that heat come onto the plane — and it can be even more intense for a pet in the cargo area, closer to the tarmac. So part of why we choose those arrival and departure times is to minimise the shock to their system when the door opens. Specifically in Dubai and Doha, both airports have dedicated pet handlers who are aware of pets arriving, departing, and transiting, and they have specialised vehicles that meet the pets at the plane once it reaches the gate and the doors are approved for opening. Pets are removed first, put onto a climate-controlled vehicle, and brought to another part of the airport where there’s a dedicated pet lounge facility.
Carlie: Ooh, I like the sound of this.
Giulia: It’s a fully indoor environment, so their only real exposure to the outside temperature is being taken off the plane and, later, being put back on. So the myth of a pet sitting on the tarmac in the Middle Eastern heat isn’t true. In fact, Emirates was voted the number-one airline for pet transport in 2025 by IPATA — the International Pet and Animal Transportation Association — simply because they put so much time, care, and effort into making sure a route is safe for pets.
Whether it’s a snub-nosed pet like a French bulldog or your typical black Bombay cat, they want to ensure not only that all the documentation is in proper order, but that the pet has sufficient transit time at the pet lounge facility, where they can get out of the travel crate into a larger space. Cats get a cattery-condo space with water, food, and a fresh, clean litter tray. Dogs get a kennel space similar to an overnight boarding facility, with access to food and water and the chance to walk in an indoor environment. In the Middle East, a lot of these are indoor dog parks with grassy turf, fully inside — so pets aren’t going out into daytime heat they’re not used to just to relieve themselves.
Carlie: That’s so reassuring, I’m sure, for a lot of people.
Giulia: It’s not something a lot of people understand when a pet is transiting — that these options exist. And that was just the Middle East. Many airlines and airports through Europe, the United States, Latin America, and Asia that have a transit in their hub country also have these facilities, so pets get a proper rest stop before connecting onwards.
Carlie: That’s super reassuring — that pets get so much care and their own space at these airports too. Just like the rest of us on a three- or five-hour layover: take a break, stretch your legs, go to the bathroom, freshen up, because flying can be exhausting.
My other question is about preparing your animal to go into a crate. Coaxing my cat into a soft carrier just to get him to the vet a couple of times a year for a short car ride is an absolute nightmare. So can any animal be trained to be comfortable in a crate for an international move, or do you have to be really dedicated when they’re young to make sure they can handle it?
Giulia: As a cat owner myself, it’s a huge task to get my little guy Zephyr into his crate — and I bought him one similar to the airline-approved crates, a very big one — and he still fights me tooth and nail. The best recommendation I can make, and this is something I do myself… I also have a dog, but he’s a Labrador, so he’s a lot more agreeable — especially when there’s food.
Carlie: Me too — I had a Labrador as well, and they’re just goofy and wonderful. They’ll do anything you tell them. Sometimes they’ll play little games, but mostly they’re like, “Sure, we’ll do this.”
Giulia: Just wave a little treat around and you’ve got them hooked.
Carlie: Very easy. Food-motivated.
Giulia: Exactly. But one of the best things I suggest — even with cats — is getting the airline-approved travel carrier in advance and setting it up in a high-traffic area of the home. A living room or den where the family spends a lot of time. Or, if they have a favourite person — we never like to think our pets have favourites, but sometimes they do — putting the carrier in that person’s room. For a couple of reasons: one, the carrier starts to become an extension of the home, a familiar item rather than a strange box they have to get into to leave their family on the day of the trip. And the carrier itself starts to smell like home, which alleviates a lot of separation anxiety — especially if a pet was never crate-trained as a puppy or kitten, or hasn’t had any crate experience in years.
The crates themselves, even for dogs, are hard-sided plastic held together with nuts and bolts, so they’re fairly easy to take apart. If a pet is very averse to getting in when it’s fully assembled, having a couple of months — or even a few weeks — of prep time lets you take it apart and build it up around the pet’s comfort level. Start with just the bottom half.
Carlie: Brick by brick, you know?
Giulia: Exactly. Put their bed inside so they feel comfortable lying in it, throw their treats in, and once they start getting into the bottom half on their own, put the top portion on and get them acclimated to that. Then add the door, feed them inside the crate, and celebrate when they go in. It may seem silly, but clapping and saying “good boy, good girl” — giving them positive reinforcement during the training process — makes the world of difference. It makes the crate feel safe rather than a strange box they have to leave you in.
And having something personal inside — an old towel, a T-shirt of yours, or a small blanket (no big pillowy duvets) — that you can sleep with the night before, or leave on the bed for a couple of days to catch your scent, helps reduce separation stress further. It gives them your smell while they travel, so they can say, “All right, Mum or Dad isn’t here right now, but I smell them and I know I’ll see them again, and wherever I’m headed, they’ll be there too.”
As a cat owner, I always suggest a blanket or towel — something a little larger — for them to hide under. Cats like to feel they have control, and want to be able to tuck away when they’re overwhelmed. So something you were going to donate anyway: leave it on the bed, then toss it in for your cat while they travel.
A funny story — I had a family who left their cat at my preferred cat-boarding facility here in the States while they travelled to Australia before their little guy could follow. He had some bedding but no blanket, and I’d connected with him — I ended up being the one taking him to and from his vet visits — so I gave him one of my old bath towels for his crate. Now, whether that towel made it home with him or was tossed along the way — either because it got soiled, or because a big thing in Australia is that bedding and blankets tend to be disposed of on arrival to reduce the risk of flea- and tick-borne diseases — I gave him something to hide under so he’d have a little semblance of control amid all the new sights, sounds, smells, people, and scenarios. It made a lot of difference for him, and in every photo I got along the way from my colleagues assisting with his travels, my towel was there. He was hiding under it a lot.
Carlie: Aw, that’s adorable.
Giulia: It gave him the comfort he needed.
Carlie: So crate training, depending on your pet, sounds like weeks to months of preparation. What about the various shots, certificates, and other paperwork? I guess it depends on where you are and where you’re going, but generally, what timeline should you be thinking about — and is there any requirement that can trip people up if they don’t handle it in time?
Giulia: It really does depend on where you are and where you’re going. I always fall back on Australia as an example, because it’s one of the more common moves I work on myself. If you have your dog in Bangkok, Thailand, you actually can’t travel directly to Australia — your pet has to move to an approved country and establish residency there for at least six months before travelling on to Australia. A common route I use is bringing pets from Thailand into South Korea, from which you can travel directly to Australia and establish that residency. But if you have a friend or family member in an approved country who your pet could stay with instead of going to a middle country on their own, that’s also a very good and viable option.
The first thing I’d recommend to anyone thinking about relocating with their pet is to understand your destination country’s requirements based on your origin country — specifically, how the destination categorises your origin country in terms of rabies risk. At the end of the day, a lot of the requirements come down to the rabies categorisation of your origin country and what the destination needs in order to accept your pet. Some countries require six to seven months of prep work; some only require a month.
But one thing I always strongly suggest, even if it isn’t a requirement where you live or where you’re going: get your pet microchipped, and have that microchip scanned at every vet visit — even if it’s just for a nail clipping or teeth cleaning. Scan it to ensure it’s working and hasn’t migrated. That can be a big factor in how far along you can get. If a pet is microchipped as a young puppy, the chip might migrate as their body changes, and sometimes, depending on the chip, it can stop working. If you can verify the chip is working and know exactly where it’s located in the months or even years leading up to a relocation, it helps you know what you’ve got to kick-start the process.
Generally, families should start looking at requirements early. Even if it’s only a month-long process for a pet, I’d still say give yourself around six to eight months to make sure everything’s in order — making sure vaccinations don’t lapse, and setting follow-up appointments for booster vaccines the day before they’re set to expire to ensure continuous coverage. Even a one-day lapse in a rabies vaccination — while it may not make a difference here in the States — means a lot in many countries. So you have to consider all these factors. That’s part of why I tell families: if you’re getting an inkling you’ll be relocating, start planning for your pets six to eight months ahead just to make sure all your ducks are in a row.
Carlie: It makes sense, too, when you think that if you’re planning a whole family move, that pet is just as important a family member as one of your children or your partner. Whatever you’d be doing to prepare them, however many months ahead — that’s the same attention you give your animals.
Giulia: Exactly. I call them the four-legged kids of everyone’s family.
Carlie: I fully appreciate that. Personally, I try to avoid the title of “cat mum” —
Giulia: Mm-hmm.
Carlie: — or calling my cat a “fur baby.” But that’s my own long, storied history of not liking cats and ending up with a cat.
Giulia: It’s the cat distribution system. You can never escape it.
Carlie: That’s absolutely what happened to me. It even came up at our wedding recently — that I was the most unlikely person to ever own a cat, and yet here I am.
Giulia: That’s always how it happens. Congrats on your wedding, by the way.
Carlie: Oh, thanks. I thought you were going to say congrats on your cat.
Giulia: Well — congrats on your cat as well.
Carlie: Thank you. Giulia, this has been such an interesting conversation. There’s so much to dive into, and I’m conscious that some listeners may have specific questions tied to their type of pet and the destinations they’re leaving from and heading to. So where can our listeners find you at WorldCare if they’d like more specific information?
Giulia: Just go to our website, worldcarepet.com. That takes you to our homepage, where you can navigate to some crucial preparation pages and contact pages. We have several country guides online you can review, and if your country isn’t listed, you can always contact us. We’ll get in touch to find the best service level and the best quote for your pet’s move.
When you work with us, you’re put in contact with a dedicated pet relocation counsellor specific to your pet’s move. You’re not going into a scenario where it’s one big email inbox and you hear from Giulia one day and John the next. You get a dedicated individual who learns everything they can about your pet — from you and from the vet records — finds the routes, explains timelines, stays in touch with your vet, and coordinates with all the airlines and drivers, handling the move for you.
We also have a great resource — I’ll send it through to you, Carlie —
Carlie: Yes, we’ll make sure it’s in the show notes.
Giulia: It’s called our ABCs of Pet Travel, and it walks through everything that goes into a pet’s journey: how to prepare, pre-travel tips, post-travel tips, carrier acclimation tips, how to measure your dog, what to look out for. We’ve curated those documents specifically for families, because even if you’re talking to us every day, you’re also talking to a lot of other people during an international relocation —
Carlie: It’s a lot, yeah.
Giulia: — the household goods, visas, cross-cultural training, and so on. So we have a lot of those resources online, and we share them as PDFs with families so they have access at every stage.
Carlie: Well, Giulia, this has been such a great conversation. Thank you so much for coming on the show.
Giulia: Thank you so much for having me. It’s been awesome, and I really appreciate it.
Carlie: That’s it for today. Have you moved a pet between countries? Let us know in the comments on our YouTube channel or on other social platforms — just search for Expat Focus. Stay up to date by signing up to our monthly newsletter; head to expatfocus.com/newsletter to subscribe. I’ll catch you in the next one.