SkipQuarantine
Moving to Australia with a dog or cat
Ten days in quarantine, or thirty. The paperwork decides.
Nobody skips quarantine in Australia, and anyone who promises otherwise is selling you something broken. Every dog and cat from the US or UK serves a stay at the government facility near Melbourne. What you control is everything else: whether the stay is 10 days or 30, whether your 180-day clock survives to the flight, and whether the AUD $8,000-scale spend lands the first time. That is won or lost in the sequencing, months before you fly.
Check my pet for freeFull refund if it doesn't help
One sequencing mistake
30 days, or a restart
A draw before the identity scans means 30 days of kennels. A lapsed booster or a low titer voids the test and restarts a 180-day wait.
Every date right
The 10-day minimum
The shortest stay Australian law allows, AUD $1,060 less in daily charges, and your pet home three weeks sooner.
How it works
Answer a few questions
Your target date plus what's already done: microchip, vaccination, identity checks, RNATT test. Two minutes, no account.
See every gap, free
We check the department's Group 3 requirements for your origin country and show exactly what passes, what fails, and what's still unverified.
Get the dated plan
Every step dated backward from your arrival, through the permit queue and the 180-day clock, explained in plain language. $129, refunded if it doesn't help.
The two mistakes that cost people a month
First: the identity scans. The 10-day stay exists only when two different vets at two different practices verify your pet's chip before the titer blood draw. Most people learn this after the draw, when the only paths left are 30 days of kennels or a fresh test and a fresh 180-day wait. Second: the clock. The 180-day waiting period starts the day the laboratory receives the sample, days after your vet visit, and the test expires 12 months from the draw, with a government permit queue eating the front of that window. The checker below runs your real dates against the department's own rules, so you find out now instead of at the freight counter.
None of these clocks start until you act. Every week of waiting moves your pet's earliest legal arrival back a week.
Check your dog or cat against Australia's rules, free
The ways this ends
Every arriving pet gets exactly one of these outcomes, and the preparation decides which.
| Outcome | What happens | Stay charges |
|---|---|---|
| 10-day minimum | Both identity checks done before the blood draw, everything else in order. The best outcome the law allows. | AUD $530 |
| 30-day minimum | Everything in order except the pre-draw identity verification. Same facility, three more weeks, AUD $1,060 more. | AUD $1,590 |
| Extended, or refused | A document defect stretches the stay at AUD $53 per day. An unreadable chip, a banned breed, or a missing permit means the animal cannot enter at all. | Open-ended |
Why people trust this
- Every rule cites the department's own step-by-step guides, fee schedule, and identity-check pages, plus the USDA's Australia instructions for the US side. Blogs routinely miss the November 2024 UK identity-check change and the laboratory-receipt clock start; primary sources don't.
- If we don't know something, we say so. A missing fact stays flagged until you confirm it. Nothing gets quietly marked as fine.
- The plan models the two steps nobody can rush, the permit queue and the quarantine booking, with honest waiting windows instead of pretend precision.
- It recomputes itself when the department changes a rule and emails you before every deadline. If it still fails you, the $129 comes back.
SkipQuarantine is an independent planning service, not affiliated with the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry or any government. The department's word and your vet's are always final.
Common questions
Can my pet skip quarantine in Australia?
No. Every dog and cat arriving from the United States, the United Kingdom, and every other Group 3 country serves a mandatory stay at the Mickleham quarantine facility near Melbourne. Anyone promising zero quarantine for Australia is wrong. What the paperwork decides is the length: 10 days minimum when both identity checks happen before the rabies titer blood draw, 30 days when they don't, and longer when something goes wrong on arrival. This plan exists to land you the shortest legal stay.
How long does it take to move a pet to Australia?
Plan on 7 to 9 months from a standing start. The spine is a 180-day waiting period that starts the day a laboratory receives your pet's blood sample, and the import permit adds 20 to 40 business days of government processing you cannot speed up. Families who start 9 months out ride the clocks comfortably; families who start at 6 months have zero slack.
How much does it cost?
Government charges are fixed: AUD $603 for the import permit, AUD $269 reservation and AUD $1,078 importation charge at the facility, and AUD $53 per day of stay, so AUD $530 for 10 days against AUD $1,590 for 30. With laboratory work, vet visits, endorsements, and pet freight, families typically spend USD $5,000 to $12,000 all in, and freight is the biggest swing.
What unlocks the 10-day stay instead of 30?
Two identity verifications by two different authorized veterinarians at different practices, both completed before the RNATT blood draw. From the US both vets must be USDA-accredited with declarations endorsed through VEHCS; from the UK both must hold OV66 authorisation, a rule in force since November 2024. Drawn first means 30 days, and no paperwork after the fact flips it back without a fresh test and a fresh 180-day wait. It is the single most valuable sequencing fact in the whole process, and the plan puts it first.
Can my dog fly in the cabin?
No. Pets enter Australia as manifested cargo in an IATA-approved crate, landing at Melbourne International with no domestic onward connections. Cabin and checked-baggage travel are prohibited even for small pets, and plane changes are allowed only in approved countries, airside, under supervision. Biosecurity officers collect your pet from the aircraft and drive it to the facility; you reunite on release day.
Which breeds are banned?
Dogs: Dogo Argentino, Fila Brasileiro, Japanese Tosa, American Pit Bull Terrier and Pit Bull Terrier, Perro de Presa Canario, and wolf-hybrid breeds. Cats: hybrid lines including Savannah, Safari, Chausie, and Bengal, and Bengals lost their last entry pathway on March 1, 2026. Ordinary mixed breeds are fine, though a dog resembling a banned breed can draw questions after arrival.
When does the 180-day wait start?
The day the testing laboratory receives your pet's blood sample, printed on the laboratory report. It does not start at the vet's office, and courier time silently delays it. Export is legal from day 180 after receipt, the test stays valid 12 months from the draw, and the permit queue eats the front of that window. The plan holds all three clocks at once so you don't have to.
My pet already has an RNATT but no identity checks. Now what?
You have a real choice. Keep the test and take the 30-day stay, with every day of waiting you've already served still counting. Or restart for the 10-day tier: identity checks first, a fresh draw, and a fresh 180-day wait. The plan lays out both honestly and builds to whichever you pick. What it will never do is promise 10 days on a test that can't deliver it.