Pet Transport from Ireland to India

Every Irish pet owner holds an EU pet passport, and on this route it does nothing. The passport is a travel document for EU movements, not an export certificate, and India’s Animal Quarantine and Certification Services will not accept it in place of the certificate its own rules specify.

What AQCS wants is a certificate in its Annexure format, signed by the competent veterinary authority in the country of origin, certifying freedom from clinical signs of rabies, canine distemper, parvovirus and leptospirosis for dogs, with the vaccination record, microchip certificate, air ticket and passport copies attached.

There is a second gap to close. The department is explicit that Ireland does not keep information about destination countries’ entry requirements, so you must obtain India’s certificate model yourself and bring it to the RVO for checking. Ask when you first make contact, two months out, whether the office is content with the form you have; that conversation is the whole reason for the early deadline.

India treats pet import as restricted trade with one exemption. Relocating to India after two or more continuous years abroad lets you bring up to two cats or dogs as passenger baggage with no import licence. Anything else, a shorter stay, a third animal, or an unaccompanied shipment, needs a DGFT authorisation through Form ANF 2M, whose committee meets monthly, so allow around two months for that too.

Both routes converge on the AQCS Advance No Objection Certificate: applied for at least seven working days before departure and issued within one working day. AQCS is inconsistent about the fee, its SOP stating no charge for pet NOCs while its FAQ quotes Rs 1,000 per application, so ask when you apply. No airline will board the pet without the NOC.

Two details cause more trouble than they should. The rabies vaccination must be more than one month and less than twelve months old at departure, and the owner’s name on the health certificate must match the air ticket exactly. Book the flight before the certificate is drawn up, not after.

India admits pets only at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata, so check your arrival airport against that list when you book.

There is no Dublin to India nonstop. Every itinerary connects, typically via Doha, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Istanbul or London, at 13 to 18 hours in total.

Aer Lingus, the obvious first leg, carries no pets in the cabin on any aircraft and will not accept an animal at passenger check-in. Its animals move through IAG Cargo via an approved pet agent, which makes them a cargo shipment rather than accompanied baggage.

That interacts with Qatar Airways’ own rule: a pet connecting from another airline’s flight cannot travel as checked baggage and must be booked as air cargo. So the popular plan of hopping to Doha on a partner and joining a Qatar Airways flight onward turns the move into a freight shipment rather than accompanied baggage. A Doha itinerary built entirely on Qatar Airways aircraft avoids that.

Turkish Airlines via Istanbul is the only routing offering a genuine cabin option, for a pet and carrier up to 8kg in a container no larger than 23 by 30 by 40 centimetres, in economy. Emirates via Dubai is available as SkyCargo freight, since its checked-baggage product needs a Dubai origin. For a small cat or dog, the Turkish routing is usually the kindest; for a large dog, it is a cargo booking whichever hub you choose.