18/04/2026
Until Friday, it was believed that EU issued pet passports would be accepted until the worming sections were filled. On Friday, APHA/DEFRA announced that no EU passports will be accepted for travel from the U.K. to EU as of Weds 22/4, unless you are normally resident in the EU, and for the predominant part of the year (live more than 6months per year in EU). APHA advice is now to travel with an AHC unless you are normally resident in the EU (more than 6mth in a year, regardless of whether you own property or your own nationality). You can return to the U.K. on a pet passport if you are currently in the EU though.
Until Friday, leShuttle were saying they would accept existing EU issued passports, as long as the address used in them was an EU one, as they couldn’t monitor where people are resident. This might all change with the newly issued APHA directives, they may need proof of your country of primary residence now if you use an EU issued pet passport, or they might apply for a transition period until the biometric controls are up and running (planned across April to May for ports etc) and they can monitor primary residence that way. But that also brings uncertainty as to when they’ll start refusing to accept EU passports. No one knows what will happen on Weds, except to say APHA have advised travelling with an AHC as they won’t allow EU passports.
It is therefore worth considering using an AHC again if you are travelling in the next few weeks - to save time at the border and not risk possibly being turned away. Hopefully it’ll all become clearer soon and further advice will be available! Until then, if you’d like to be sure everything goes smoothly with upcoming travel, I’d be happy to help with an AHC (even if your rabies vaccination was done in the EU). I charge £120 for followup AHC’s (£180 for initial paperwork) as home visits (and £20-40 for additional animals in the AHC). Please get in touch if this affects you and imminent travel plans. Unfortunately, I have no further knowledge as everything beyond this government issued advice is pure speculation currently.
Best wishes
LeeAnn
www.travellingpet.vet
[email protected]
