Your dog or cat to Belgium: the EU passport, and the eight days that start after the border

Yes, your dog or cat comes along to Belgium without quarantine, without a titre test and without customs: a journey within the EU requires an EU pet passport, a microchip and a valid rabies vaccination, and nothing more. What it costs is the jab and the passport at your own vet, plus a registration of a few euros after arrival. The find at the source is that the Belgian obligation only starts after the border: a dog from abroad that is older than eight weeks must be registered in DogID within eight days of arrival, unless you stay in Belgium for less than six months. For cats the registration in CatID applies, and in Brussels the sterilisation status goes with it. The trap is that the Dutch chip and the Dutch passport are not enough for that: the registration in the Belgian database is a separate act, by a Belgian vet.

What do you arrange in the Netherlands?

The NVWA describes the journey within the EU in three steps at your own vet. An EU pet passport, which you request from a vet in the Netherlands or another EU country. A microchip, whose number is in the passport with the date of implantation. And a valid rabies vaccination, with four rules that set the order: a first vaccination is only valid after 21 days and a subsequent one immediately; the animal is at least twelve weeks old at the first jab; the animal already has the chip at the time of vaccination, otherwise the jab is not valid, though it may be on the same day; and every vaccination is in the passport. Have the animal re-vaccinated before the previous jab expires, so that a trip back to the Netherlands stays covered too.

What changes after arrival?

In Belgium dogs and cats must be identified and registered in a central database: DogID for dogs, CatID for cats, and only a vet may do that. Brussels Environment is clearest about the newcomer: dogs from abroad that are older than eight weeks on arrival must be registered within eight days, and that rule does not apply to whoever brings their dog and stays in Belgium for less than six months. A dog that only has a tattoo gets a chip after all. For cats in Brussels the rule is that they are identified before twelve weeks, that the vet validates the data within eight days, and that the sterilisation status goes into CatID. In Flanders the ages are the same: dogs chipped and registered before eight weeks, cats before twelve weeks, and CatID has been the only legal database for cats there since 1 November 2017.

The registration yields a definitive certificate in the form of a self-adhesive label that goes in section XII of the passport, and a "Change of details" card for later. Because that too is a duty: every move within Belgium you report to the database within eight days, so that a runaway animal comes back to you and not to your old address.

Which deadlines and fees apply?

Step	Deadline or amount
First rabies vaccination valid	after 21 days; a subsequent vaccination immediately
Minimum age for the first rabies vaccination	12 weeks
Microchip	before or on the day of the vaccination, number in the passport
Registering a dog from abroad (Brussels)	within 8 days of arrival, for a stay of at least 6 months
Identifying a cat (Brussels)	before 12 weeks; vet validates within 8 days
Dog and cat (Flanders)	chipped and registered before 8 and 12 weeks respectively
Registration of a dog (Brussels, since 1 October 2024)	€ 12.10 on paper, € 10.28 electronically
Registration of a cat (Brussels, since 1 October 2024)	€ 4.84
Reporting a move within Belgium to the database	within 8 days

Eight days is shorter than the waiting time at a Belgian vet. Make the appointment before moving day, with the EU passport and the chip number at hand, and ask explicitly for the registration in DogID or CatID. A vet who only "checks the chip" has not registered your animal yet.

What if you travel back to the Netherlands?

The passport remains the travel document, and the rabies vaccination must still be valid on the return trip. Only a vet in the EU may enter a vaccination in the EU pet passport, so a Belgian booster is simply valid for the trip to the Netherlands; that is different from destinations outside the EU. For an animal you take out of Belgium, the database issues no definitive certificate to a keeper abroad: the animal belongs registered in the country where it lives, and that is then the Netherlands again.

What else happens in moving week, from the inventory report to the low-emission zone, is in your household goods to Belgium; the pet's place in the order of the journey is in the step-by-step plan for Belgium.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 3 of 5 of the journey, step 3.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Belgium or go straight to step 3.1 in the open plan.