Need to move your pet to Lisbon, Portugal (LIS)?

Our Lisbon, Portugal pet shipping services include:

• Door to door transport, both international and domestic
• Assistance with health certificates, import certificates, and other travel documents.
• USDA endorsement of all relevant documents where required
• Airline approved flight kennels provided with personalized labels, identification and emergency notification instructions
• Customs clearance and delivery to your home
• Local pet taxi service to and from the airport, your home, veterinarian or kennel/boarding facility – available in the US and Portugal.
• Travel consultation and cargo flight reservations

We will inform you of your pet’s full itinerary before the trip and we will update you as your pet travels to or from Lisbon, Portugal (LIS).

Shipping a pet to Lisbon

Portugal requires pet owners to contact the authorities at least 48 hours before arrival and file a written notice of arrival. The notice must come from the owner or an authorized person, not the transport company, and the form and instructions are on DGAV’s arrival notice page; the notice organizes port-of-entry procedures and helps avoid delays (APHIS: pet travel from the United States to Portugal). DGAV’s Lisbon airport traveler entry point (PEV) is closed between 00:00 and 06:00, so the mandatory veterinary check for non-commercial pets arriving from outside the EU takes place outside those hours (DGAV).

Portugal applies the European Union’s pet travel rules to dogs, cats and ferrets arriving from the United States. The EU framework has three parts: identification by microchip, a valid rabies vaccination, and an EU health certificate issued by a USDA-accredited veterinarian and endorsed by USDA before travel (APHIS: pet travel from the United States to Portugal).

Paperwork and Veterinary Requirements

Microchip

Must be implanted before any rabies vaccination counts.

• Your pet must have a working microchip before it receives its rabies vaccination for travel to the EU, and the veterinarian must scan the chip before giving the vaccine.
• ISO-compliant chips are usually 15 digits long and meet ISO 11784 and 11785.
• If the chip is not ISO-compliant, travel with a scanner that can read it or have the veterinarian implant a second, ISO-compliant chip; both chip numbers go on the health certificate.
• Under EU rules a rabies vaccination does not count if the pet was vaccinated before it had a microchip, or without the chip being scanned first.

Rabies vaccination

• Rabies vaccines must be given by an authorized veterinarian.
• After a primary vaccination, your pet must wait at least 21 days, or the vaccine manufacturer’s recommended immunity period, before traveling; some manufacturers recommend 30 days.
• A primary rabies vaccination given in the United States is valid for one year even if a 3-year vaccine was used, so a booster is required within 12 months. Any lapse resets the vaccination to “primary.”
• A pet with a current booster may travel immediately, with no 21-day wait, as long as the primary vaccination is also listed on the health certificate.

EU health certificate

• Non-commercial moves (the owner travels with the pet, or an authorized person transports the pet while the owner travels within five days before or after it, confirmed by a written declaration) use the EU non-commercial certificate. The accredited veterinarian issues it through VEHCS, and USDA must endorse it within 10 days of the pet’s arrival in the EU.
• Moves that do not meet those conditions, such as a pet that flies unaccompanied without an authorized person traveling within five days of the owner, more than five pets, or a pet that changes owners in the EU, are treated as commercial and require a USDA-accredited veterinarian to examine the pet within 48 hours of departing the United States. A movement of more than five pets can still count as non-commercial when it is for competitions, exhibitions or sporting events (including training for them), with written evidence of registration and each animal over six months old (European Commission).
• New certificate forms took effect on October 1, 2026 for non-commercial movements and take effect on October 17, 2026 for commercial movements, under EU legislation 2026/131 and 2026/848.
• For Portugal, USDA must ink-sign and emboss the certificate; electronic signature is accepted from the veterinarian, but the original ink endorsement is required.

Entry rules change without notice.

Airport Information

Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS), usually called Lisbon Airport, is the main international airport serving Lisbon, Portugal. It is operated by ANA Aeroportos de Portugal; the Lisbon Airport official site also carries guidance for travelling with pets.