Your dog or cat to Sweden: the EU passport, and into the register within four weeks

Yes, your dog or cat simply comes along to Sweden, without quarantine and without a health certificate: the European pet passport suffices, provided the animal is chipped before the rabies vaccination and there are 21 days between the first vaccination and the trip. What it costs is a vet visit in the Netherlands and afterwards one obligation most Dutch people don't know: in Sweden dogs and cats must be in Jordbruksverket's register, within four weeks, for 40 kronor per animal. The trap is in the chip: from 22 April 2026 a chip placed in Sweden must be on the list of approved chips, and an unreadable chip at the border can lead to the animal being sent back.

What has to be in order before the trip?

Jordbruksverket prescribes the order, and the order is the trap: chip first, then vaccinate. A rabies vaccination given before chipping does not count.

Requirement	What Jordbruksverket asks
Chip	placed by a vet or approved chipper, before the vaccination; date and number in the passport; a legible tattoo from before 3 July 2011 is also accepted
Age	at least 12 weeks at the primary vaccination
Rabies vaccination	a primary vaccination of one or two jabs, with a vaccine approved in the country of vaccination
Waiting period	21 days after the primary vaccination: jab on 1 January, travel from 22 January; with two jabs the second counts
Booster	revaccinate in time within the validity: then no new waiting period; too late, and it counts as a primary vaccination and you wait 21 days again
Document	the European pet passport; at most five animals per traveller

What Sweden does not ask for: the treatment against the fox tapeworm. Under the EU rules that applies only to Finland, Ireland, Malta, Norway and Northern Ireland — anyone travelling on from Sweden to Norway or Finland meets it there. Jordbruksverket advises travellers to bring their own chip reader: a chip that cannot be read at the border can mean the animal is sent back to the country of origin or placed in quarantine.

Why does the animal have to be in the Swedish register?

Sweden has a registration obligation for dogs and for cats, and it is separate from the chip from the Netherlands: the Dutch registration is not visible in Sweden. The rule is the same for both animals: an animal is marked and registered before it is four months old; whoever takes over or brings in an animal older than three months registers as owner within four weeks. A later transfer to a new owner must also be reported within four weeks, with the previous owner's personnummer and the chip number.

Registration with Jordbruksverket	Dog	Cat
Deadline	within four weeks of arrival	within four weeks of arrival
Via the e-service, paying by card or Swish	40 kronor	40 kronor
On paper, by invoice	100 kronor	100 kronor
Change of owner	40 kronor (e-service) or 100 (paper)	40 kronor (e-service) or 100 (paper)

A cat registered via the e-service is visible in the register within an hour; a paper application only once Jordbruksverket has processed it.

The four weeks don't wait for your personnummer. Via the e-service you pay by card or Swish; anyone who cannot or does not want to use the e-service takes the paper route — 100 kronor, and slower. Put the registration in the same week as the report to Skatteverket; how that chain runs is in personnummer and BankID.

Which chip does it have to be?

An animal chipped in the Netherlands has a chip approved by the Dutch competent authority, and that suffices for the trip and the passport. The new Swedish rule only affects animals chipped in Sweden on or after 22 April 2026: that chip must be on Jordbruksverket's list of approved chips, otherwise the animal gets no EU passport and has to be chipped again. For a puppy or kitten you buy in Sweden, that is the question you ask the breeder.

What deliberately isn't here

Banned breeds, the rules for ferrets and transport in the car differ per situation and are not in the sources above; check them with Jordbruksverket before you book a trip. The vet visit belongs in the moving phase, at least three weeks before departure if a vaccination is still needed; the registration belongs to the first weeks. The step-by-step plan at /zweden puts both in their place.

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 Sweden or go straight to step 3.3 in the open plan.