Your dog or cat to France: the passport for the journey, and to I-CAD within seven days

Yes, your dog or cat simply comes with you to France, without quarantine and without an import permit: a chip, a valid rabies vaccination and an EU pet passport in its name, and the animal may make the shortest drive of all destinations on the back seat. The costs sit with your vet, plus € 12 after arrival. Because that is the find on Service-Public that is missing from Dutch lists: a dog or cat that comes to France "must be registered with I-CAD within seven days of its arrival", the national identification file. The trap is the breed: category-one dogs are "totally prohibited" from entering, even in transit.

What has to be arranged before the journey?

Requirement	What exactly applies	Where it says so
Identification	a microchip; a tattoo only counts if made before 3 July 2011 and legible	Service-Public, Your Europe
Rabies vaccination	the first jab when the animal was at least 12 weeks old, and after the chip; valid from 3 weeks after that first jab; boosters on time	Service-Public, Your Europe
Passport	a valid EU pet passport	Service-Public
Number	at most 5 dogs or cats per traveller, non-commercial	Service-Public, Your Europe
Age	the animal is older than 12 weeks	I-CAD
Tapeworm treatment	not required for France	Your Europe

The order is not reversible: first the chip, then the vaccination, then waiting. If your animal is already chipped and the rabies vaccination runs on without a gap, the journey is a small step. If the vaccination has lapsed, the new jab counts as a first one and your departure date shifts by three weeks. For the journey itself, what Your Europe says for all EU countries applies, and France adds nothing to the journey — everything French comes after arrival.

Which dogs are not allowed into the country?

France divides dogs into categories, and the first category — the chiens d'attaque — is excluded from import, even for whoever is only passing through. According to Service-Public it concerns crossbreeds that by their characteristics resemble the American Staffordshire terrier (the "pitbull"), the Mastiff ("boerbull") and the Tosa, without pedigree. The second category — the chiens de garde et de défense: pedigree dogs of the American Staffordshire terrier, the Rottweiler and the Tosa, plus crossbreeds resembling a Rottweiler — may come, but under the rules that apply in France to that category. Every dog must, moreover, have at least one adult tooth, which rules out puppies younger than a few months. Cats know no categories: every cat may come.

If you have a dog anywhere near this list, look into it before you pack the car, at the French consulate or with I-CAD. This is not a procedure you sort out at the border.

What has to happen in the first week after arrival?

The registration with I-CAD, the fichier national d'identification des chiens, chats et furets, which is managed under delegation from the Ministry of Agriculture. In France identification is a legal duty for every dog before the age of four months and every cat before seven months, and an animal coming from abroad slots into that within seven days. How it goes according to Service-Public: you take the animal to a vet, who draws up a certificat provisoire d'identification — valid for a month — and submits it online with the scanned pages from the passport: the owner's details, the description of the animal, the chip, the rabies vaccination and the date of issue. You send I-CAD a cheque for € 12. Then comes the definitive identification card.

Seven days is shorter than any other clock of your arrival. The French home, the bank, healthcare — everything waits on a proof of address, but the dog waits for nothing. Make the appointment with the vet before departure, for the first week.

What I-CAD itself adds: if the animal stays in France longer than three months, the national duties apply in full — so the registration is not a formality for the first week only, but the start of a French file that you keep up to date at every move and every new telephone number. The ministry points out that an outdated address in the file is exactly what makes a found animal untraceable.

How does this fit into the drive?

France is one day by road, and that is the friendliest drive a dog or cat can make: back seat, done. Keep the passport to hand, because whoever is checked must be able to show it, and keep the first week free for the vet. In the roadmap for France the pet is a step of its own in the moving phase, next to the household goods and the car — with the three weeks before departure and the seven days after it watched.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 3 of 5 of the journey, step 3.3: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to France or go straight to step 3.3 in the open plan.