Can a Canadian Pet Get a Pet Passport?

While you live in Canada, your dog or cat cannot get a European pet passport.

The European Commission’s answers on pet travel, read 22 September 2026, say the passport “is exclusively intended for pets whose owners habitually reside in an EU country as their primary place of residence”. The CFIA’s page for taking an animal to the EU, read that day too, says “Canada is not involved in issuing EU pet passports.”

For the EU, a dog or cat leaving Canada travels on an EU animal health certificate. England, Scotland and Wales ask for a Great Britain pet health certificate. This guide covers what the passport is, what each document asks for, and when an owner can get one.

An EU pet passport is an identification document for dogs, cats and ferrets travelling with their owners between EU countries. The Commission lists what it holds: the microchip number, identification and owner details, and “its mandatory rabies vaccination history”. An owner gets one from a veterinarian authorized by the national competent authority in their EU country.

It covers those three species and no others: the Commission’s answer about guinea pigs says the passport “is only issued to pet dogs, pet cats and pet ferrets whose owner resides within the EU.”

No. The Commission answers the question for an owner who lives outside the EU and has a house inside it: “Residence is what matters, not nationality or property ownership”. An owner resident elsewhere, it says, follows the rules for bringing a pet in from a non-EU country, which means an animal health certificate.

Nationality does not change it either. The test is where you live.

An EU animal health certificate, completed by your own vet and endorsed by the CFIA before your pet leaves Canada. The CFIA’s page says it “can't endorse or issue a certificate if the animal(s) is/are no longer in Canada”. That page also says the document has to be completed in English and in the official language of the Member State where the pet first enters the EU.

The Commission sets two windows on the certificate. It is valid for 10 days from issue by the official veterinarian to the documentary and identity checks at an EU travellers’ point of entry, longer by the length of any sea crossing. From those checks it stays good for onward journeys inside the EU for 6 months, or up to the expiry of the rabies vaccination if that is sooner.

Two declarations go with it. One, signed by the owner or an authorized person every time, says the movement is non-commercial. The other is needed only when someone else accompanies the pet, and it authorizes that person in writing; your own journey then has to fall within five days before or after the pet’s.

The appointment and the paperwork are set out in our guide to the CFIA pet export certificate.

Not for a direct move. The CFIA’s EU page says the titre test is “Not required for pets travelling directly from Canada”, and the Commission’s list of non-EU countries puts Canada among those whose animals need none. A pet routed through certain other countries may need one, the CFIA adds, and the destination’s veterinary authority is the one to ask. Our rabies titre guide covers the destinations that do ask for it.

The CFIA’s EU page sets these out in order:

The CFIA’s page also says requirements can change without notice, and recommends asking the destination country’s embassy or veterinary authority before you travel, about breed restrictions among other things.

The pet goes through a travellers’ point of entry designated by the EU country, and the owner contacts the competent authority there for the document and identity checks, the Commission says. If those checks find the animal does not comply, the CFIA’s page lists what EU rules allow: returning it to the country it came from, isolating it under official control for as long as it takes to meet the conditions, or, where neither can be done, putting it down, “at the expense of the owner and without financial compensation.”

A Great Britain pet health certificate. Gov.uk’s guide to bringing a pet to Great Britain, read 25 September 2026, gives a table of documents by country, and the entry for Canada names that one certificate. The CFIA’s Great Britain page sends owners to gov.uk for the requirements.

Great Britain also shows how the residency test works in practice. The Commission’s answers say EU pet passports held by residents of Great Britain “have not been valid for travel from Great Britain to the EU since 31 December 2020”, whenever and wherever they were issued. Our United Kingdom destination guide covers the rest of that route.

Yes, once an EU country is where you habitually live. The Commission says an owner gets the passport “from an authorised veterinarian in your EU country”, and from then on the animal can move between EU countries on it.

So the certificate is the document for the move itself, and the passport is for the travel that follows.

Only in one case. The Commission says a passport can be used to re-enter the EU “after a short stay” outside it, provided it shows the pet met the rabies conditions before leaving. An owner who now lives outside the EU cannot use it, the Commission adds, even when moving back after years abroad for work. The CFIA’s page says a pet kept in Canada longer than its rabies vaccination is valid needs an animal health certificate, with the passport as supporting documentation.

Ten, on the Commission’s list read 22 September 2026: Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic; Switzerland and Liechtenstein; and Andorra, Gibraltar, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City State. Canada is not on it. Canada is on the Commission’s second list, of countries whose animals need no rabies titre test, which is a different thing.

Pet Travel Advisors prepares and checks the export and import paperwork for a move from Canada, and can book the flight as well, or only the part you need. Request a quote with the destination and the date.