Pet Transport from the UK to Singapore

Singapore limits how many animals you may keep, and the limit depends on what kind of home you are moving into. Non-HDB premises, meaning private condominiums and landed housing, allow up to three cats or dogs combined. An HDB flat, which is where the large majority of Singapore residents live, allows one non-specified dog or two cats. Specified dogs are not permitted in HDB flats at all.

A family arriving from Britain with two dogs and an HDB tenancy has a problem that no amount of paperwork solves, and it is far better discovered in Guildford than at Changi. Work out the housing first, then the pets, then the flights.

Worth noting that this is a keeping rule rather than an import rule, which is exactly why it is missing from most pet-transport guides. Those guides describe the border. Nobody at the border asks where you are going to live.

Put the three schedules side by side and the gap is stark.

A Schedule III pet, which covers everything not named in the first two categories, faces a rabies antibody test taken at least 90 days and within 12 months before export, then at least 30 days of post-arrival quarantine at the Animal Quarantine Centre, and gets vaccinated against rabies on arrival into the bargain.

A Schedule II pet, which covers most of western Europe, the USA, Canada, Japan and Hong Kong, faces the same antibody test and a minimum ten-day quarantine, though that can be served at home rather than at the centre if the conditions are met.

Schedule I faces neither. No titre. No quarantine of any kind. The UK’s position here is the single most valuable thing about this corridor, and it is why a British move to Singapore is quicker than a German or American one to the same address.

The import licence is applied for through the GoBusiness Licensing Portal before the animal travels. Normal service is S$50 and takes two working days; express is S$100 and takes one. Either way it stays valid for 90 days from issue, which is generous enough that most people get it done early and forget about it.

The arrival inspection is the step that trips people. It has to be booked at least five days before the animal lands. If it is not booked, the inspection becomes unscheduled and is charged at S$133 per hour, which is a bad way to start a relocation.

Both fees are small against the airfreight, and that is the honest shape of the budget on this route: the Singaporean state charges very little, and the aircraft charges a great deal.

Singapore Airlines is the obvious carrier and it carries no pets in the cabin, on any route, at any size. Everything travels as checked baggage, the animal must be at least three months old, and anything over 32kg including the container goes through a cargo agent instead.

Read its container rules before you buy a crate, because they vary by aircraft rather than by route: 70cm maximum height on the A350, 60cm on the A380, 101cm on the B777 and 111cm on the B787. Pets are not carried on Boeing 737s at all, since those aircraft have no temperature-controlled hold. The A380 limit in particular rules out a lot of medium dogs, so check which aircraft operates your date.

Brachycephalic breeds are prohibited outright: all bulldog varieties, pugs, Pekingese, Shih Tzu and similar, plus Persian and Himalayan cats and several other cat breeds. If that is your dog, the conversation moves to specialist cargo rather than a scheduled passenger service.

British Airways moves live animals as manifested cargo through IAG Cargo, with enquiries routed to a pet travel partner rather than booked with your own ticket. Qatar Airways via Doha is the main one-stop option, carrying pets as checked baggage up to 75kg combined with carrier dimensions to 300cm, on at least 48 hours’ notice.