Really need help / advise to bring over my cats

[Kaliafibun]

Hi all,

Im in the process of starting to relocate to Singapore. I was wondering if someone could help give me a no nonsense guide to the requirements needed for me to bring my cats.

Heres what i know

I live in the UK, both cats are over 1yr old and have been micro chipped and had the standard vet vaccinations, and i know they don’t need quarantine.

The standard vet vaccinations they have had to date are Feline Infectious Enteritis , Feline Calcivirus & Feline Rhinotracheitis

Do they need to have the rabies jab / blood test?? (everything on line only refers to dogs for this)


I know about the import licence that required but is there anything else?

Do my cats need anything else?

I have been through the internet and am getting more and more confused. Defra website didn’t help me and my local vet didn’t know.

Any help would be greatly received

[sundaymorningstaple]

Veterinary Conditions for the Importation of Dogs and Cats for countries under Category A (1/4) (Australia, New Zealand, Republic of Ireland, United Kingdom)

It's a Word document from Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) which will guide you quite sufficiently I would think.

[Kaliafibun]

thank you moderator. Appreciate the help. Seems that rabies is NOT required for cats entering the country from the UK.

[sundaymorningstaple]

[saltwater]

We recently relocated to Singapore from Australia and imported our one year old kitten. If you're coming from a zone A country (UK / Australia / NZ) it is relatively easy as no quaranine is required, having said that we did work with a pet relocation company on the Australian side who helped us with the injections, and also arranged the paperwork for the airline (which is quite involved) before she left.

To save some cash we arranged a DIY import, which wasn't too bad. All you need are the details on which flight they're booked on, you then need to apply to AVA for a licence to import the cat, along with the vet certificates. This will only be valid for one month so you need to get your timing right. Try and book in advance as flights will be designated to carry either dogs or cats, but not both. Also A380 aircraft cannot carry live animals, so your options in having your pet arrive on a given day can be quite limited.

One it arrives you'd need to head to the Cargo terminal (nowhere near the passenger terminal) with the import certificate and your passport. Collect the cat from the airline cargo office then head to AVA for quarantine clearance (they just scan the microchip and have a quick look to make sure its in healthy condition). Then head over to customs with the forms and pay the GST on the import certificate, and you'll be good to go. All up it takes about an hour, so if you haven't got a car you might want to find a friendly taxi driver that's prepared to wait around while you go through the formalities. All up this probably saved around S$500 on the whole process, for about two hours work, so is worthwhile.

By the time we got back into town we had a very unhappy cat on our hands, but she was unhurt and seems to have forgotten about it already. It took us a long time to make up our minds to bring it but we're glad we did, as it would have been heartbreaking to leave it back in Sydney with friends or family. Having said that she is young, I'm not sure I'd put an older cat through all that, and the flight from Sydney to Singapore is only seven hours so not as bad as the LHR - SIN flights.

Good luck with getting the cat (and yourself) out here.