Bringing a Pet to Türkiye: Foreign Certificates

Cats, dogs and ferrets travelling with a passenger may enter Türkiye only through the entry points designated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The rules are in the regulation on animal health conditions for the non-commercial movement of pets, and official veterinarians at air, land and sea entry points check the animals before entry.

The certificate and the passport

The animal must be identified by a clearly legible tattoo or a microchip, and it travels with a passport issued by an authorised veterinarian. It also needs a veterinary health certificate on the model annexed to the regulation, issued and approved by the veterinary service of the country of origin. The model certificate is bilingual, in Turkish and English. If an official veterinarian signs it, no further approval is needed; if a veterinarian authorised by the competent authority signs it, the competent authority must approve it in the next section.

In the certificate the veterinarian confirms having seen official records of a rabies antibody test carried out in a laboratory approved by the European Union. The test is not required again for animals whose passport records an acceptable antibody titre and whose rabies vaccinations are up to date. The vaccine used must be an inactivated vaccine produced to OIE standards.

At the border

The certificate is accompanied by supporting documents, including the animal's identification, vaccination and serology records, or certified copies of them. The Trabzon Port border post adds that the documents must be issued separately for each animal and that the person responsible must provide the microchip reader during the check. Official controls are coordinated with the customs directorate; the Ministry of Trade says the veterinary health report, the vaccination record and any identity document are presented to customs. Only pets travelling with the passenger come in free of customs duties, and the ministry's circular limits pets to cats, dogs and birds.

Animals that do not meet the conditions are dealt with by the competent authority after consulting the official veterinarian; animals that cannot be sent back or isolated in quarantine are destroyed without compensation.

The regulation and pages we quote do not mention apostille or translation for veterinary documents. If a border post asks for a Turkish translation of a supporting record, we prepare it in Ankara through translators sworn before a Turkish notary. The border veterinary post decides on entry.