Bringing a Pet from Canada to Türkiye
Documents a dog needs to enter Türkiye from Canada, and what Canadian authentication rules say if an apostille turns out to be needed.
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To bring a dog to Türkiye from Canada, you need a veterinary health certificate on the model in Annex 2 of the Turkish regulation, issued and endorsed by the Canadian veterinary service, and the dog must be identified by microchip or a clearly readable tattoo. Veterinarians at the air, land or sea entry point check the dog and its documents before it enters Türkiye, in coordination with Turkish customs.
Does the Canadian certificate need an apostille?
The Turkish texts quoted for this procedure do not mention an apostille or a Turkish translation for the veterinary health certificate. They do not settle whether the border post expects either. Confirm this with the Border Veterinary Control Post Directorate at your planned entry point before you book travel, so you know whether any Canadian authentication step applies at all.
The Apostille Convention entered into force for Canada on 11 January 2024. If an apostille is required, the Canadian rules decide which office handles the certificate.
Which Canadian office would handle it
Global Affairs Canada (Authentication Services Section) authenticates documents issued by the Government of Canada. It also authenticates documents issued or notarized in provinces and territories that are not designated as competent authorities: Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Prince Edward Island and Yukon. A document notarized in one of these goes to Global Affairs Canada no matter where it was originally issued. Documents of Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan go to that province's competent authority.
The document types quoted from the Global Affairs Canada requirements page include birth certificates, court orders and judgments, college and university diplomas, and Corporations Canada documents. A veterinary health certificate is not among the quoted types. For a document not on that list, Global Affairs Canada states that, as a general rule, it must be notarized first to qualify for authentication. The quoted texts do not say whether a certificate endorsed by the Canadian veterinary service counts as a Government of Canada document that skips this step. Global Affairs Canada is the office to confirm that with.
The order of steps follows from this. First, settle with the Turkish border post whether authentication is needed. Second, if it is, establish with Global Affairs Canada whether the certificate needs notarization beforehand, and where it would be notarized, since the place of notarization can decide the competent office. Third, where the document belongs to Global Affairs Canada, submit the request through its online triage portal, launched on 30 October 2025. The physical certificate must still be sent by mail; no electronic apostille is described. Leave time for this mailing between the vet's endorsement and the dog's departure.