Bringing your dog or cat to New Zealand.

Two things decide a move to New Zealand with a pet. Lead time is roughly 6 to 7 months, set by the sequence of vaccination, blood testing, and permit processing that all has to happen in order. Cost runs to several thousand dollars, with the biggest lines being air transport as cargo and the mandatory quarantine stay. Vet visits, the rabies titer, and Brucella testing for dogs make up much of the rest.

The catch that is specific to 2026: MPI issued a new Import Health Standard for cats and dogs that came into force on 1 July 2026, with a transition period during which both the old and the new requirements are accepted. So before anything else, confirm which standard applies to your move. The safest step is to ask MPI directly or check the current MPI guidance, because the pre-export identification checks and some tests and treatments differ between the two. Do not build your whole timeline on an out-of-date checklist.

Follow these in sequence and start well ahead. The permit alone takes MPI a month of working days to process once your paperwork is correct, and quarantine space has to be booked, so the front end fills up fast.

1. Microchip first. Your pet needs an ISO-standard microchip, and it must be in place before the vaccinations and tests that count, so that every record ties to the same chip number.
2. Rabies vaccination. A current rabies vaccination is required, recorded against the microchip.
3. Rabies blood titer test. A blood sample is tested to confirm the vaccination worked, with the lab report endorsed by APHIS. This is a gating step, so it has to be done in the right window relative to the vaccination and to travel.
4. Brucella canis testing for dogs. New Zealand no longer accepts the 2ME-RSAT test on its own. The approved tests are RSAT (not the 2ME-RSAT), TAT, CPAg-AGID, and IFAT, and the lab reports must tie to the microchip.
5. Parasite treatments. Specific external and internal parasite treatments are required, from MPI's current approved list, done in the required window before travel.
6. Book quarantine and apply for the import permit. Book a place at an MPI-approved quarantine facility, then apply to MPI for the import permit. MPI needs about 30 working days to process the permit once documentation is correct, and recommends applying roughly six weeks before travel.
7. Two vet certificates, endorsed. A USDA-accredited vet completes Health Certificate A, and APHIS issues and endorses Health Certificate B, with the endorsed lab reports.
8. Advance notice and arrival. Contact MPI at least 72 hours before travel for the arrival inspection. Cats and dogs needing quarantine can only arrive at Auckland or Christchurch.

Quarantine is mandatory and is a defining feature of this route. Your pet must stay a minimum of 10 days at an MPI-approved facility, and pets requiring quarantine can only enter through Auckland or Christchurch. The facility handles the MPI arrival notification for you. Because the final release inspection happens during normal business hours, pickup may not land exactly when the 10 days end, so plan a little slack. Quarantine space is limited and can be the bottleneck that dictates your whole timeline, which is another reason to book early.

Note also that some breeds are barred entirely. Prohibited dog breeds include the Brazilian Fila, Dogo Argentino, Japanese Tosa, Perro de Presa Canario, and American Pit Bull Terrier, along with hybrids. For cats, hybrids are prohibited except Bengal cats with documentation showing five generations of domestic ancestry. If your pet is a listed breed, it cannot be imported, so check this before you spend on anything else.

One recent easing worth knowing: for pets from the mainland US arriving from 1 March 2026, crate seals are no longer required. It is a small simplification in an otherwise strict process.

No insurance product reimburses mandatory quarantine. Not pet health insurance, not travel insurance with a pet add-on, not a shipper's own protection plan. If your destination requires a quarantine stay, treat that boarding bill as an out-of-pocket cost and budget it from the start. Nationwide is the one US pet insurer that reimburses vet care at any licensed vet worldwide, and even it excludes boarding, which is what quarantine is.

US pet insurance is written around a pet that lives in the US. Most policies carry a policy territory, typically the US and sometimes Canada or Puerto Rico, and even the ones that reimburse vet care worldwide generally require your primary residence to stay in the US. So a policy may well pay a vet bill on a trip abroad and still lapse the day the move becomes permanent. Read your own policy's territory and residency wording before you assume it travels with you, and for a permanent move plan on taking out local pet insurance in your new country.

As a rough sanity check on any quote, and this is our read of current market pricing rather than an official figure: a standard international pet move tends to run about $1,500 to $6,000, while destinations with mandatory quarantine sit higher, roughly $3,000 to $12,000 and up. Australia in particular often lands between $5,000 and $15,000 once quarantine and the limited set of approved flights are counted. Full-service door-to-door typically costs 30 to 50 percent more than a transport-only booking where you handle the vet work and paperwork yourself.

The costs people forget are the small ones. USDA APHIS charges a user fee to endorse an export health certificate, currently $101 where no test verification is needed, $160 for a certificate covering one or two tests, and $206 for three to six tests, with rabies vaccination not counted in that tally. These rates rose on 10 January 2025, the first APHIS fee adjustment since 2012. Add an airline-compliant crate (roughly $50 to $400), the travel vet visits themselves, boarding on a layover, and summer heat surcharges.

Pet shipping attracts scammers, so verify any company before you send money. IPATA, the International Pet and Animal Transportation Association, is a trade association: its members ship under their own company names, IPATA itself does not ship pets, and there is no legitimate shipper with "ipata" in its name. Scammers clone real shippers' sites, logos and testimonials, so check the company in the member directory at ipata.org rather than trusting a logo on a website. Treat these as red flags: a quote dramatically below every other quote, a domain registered less than six months ago, email coming from a gmail address rather than the company domain, and any request to pay by Western Union or MoneyGram.

Good news for the return trip: because New Zealand is rabies-free, a dog flying home to the US is on the simplest path. The CDC is the primary authority for dogs entering the US, and from a rabies-free country the usual requirements are a CDC Dog Import Form receipt, a microchip, a minimum age of 6 months, and a healthy appearance, with no titer test and no quarantine. Cats have no federal requirement returning to the US.

For the full detail on the return, see our guide to bringing a dog into the US, and for how New Zealand compares with other destinations on lead time and cost, see traveling with a pet.

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