Pet travel route
Taking a dog or cat from Belgium → Vietnam
What the official rules ask for on this route, for a family pet travelling with its owner. Enter your travel date and your pet’s details to turn it into a dated checklist.
Limited official guidance. The authority for leaving Belgium publishes little for this route. Everything it does say is here, with its wording. AFSCA's page gives no deadline, fee or booking route for the certificate. Ask your local control unit (ULC) early.
Limited official guidance. The authority for entering Vietnam publishes little for this route. Everything it does say is here, with its wording. Viet Nam's 2026 circular on animal quarantine sets out what happens at the border for a pet carried by a traveller, but it doesn't list what the exporting country's quarantine certificate must state (for example a rabies vaccination or its timing), and we found no official English page for pet owners. Ask the animal quarantine office at your arrival airport and your airline what the certificate must show before you travel.
How early to start
No fixed wait
if your pet has no microchip or rabies vaccination yet (the least time the official waiting periods allow)
No fixed wait
if it is already microchipped and vaccinated
Counted only from the officially fixed waiting periods. Vet, lab and paperwork appointment times are on top, so start earlier.
What your dog or cat needs
Paperwork
Quarantine (health) certificate from the exporting country
Your pet travels with the quarantine certificate issued by the exporting country's authority. The border quarantine office in Viet Nam checks it. The circular doesn't say how recent it must be or what it must state: ask the quarantine office at your arrival airport.
Details and the official words
Health certificate checked and certified by AFSCA (local control unit): In most cases the destination requires a health certificate for your pet. AFSCA's website lists the procedure and the types of certificate. Your local control unit (ULC) has to be able to check that the certification is possible.
AFSCA's page gives no deadline for how recent the certificate must be: the destination's rules decide.
“Cơ quan kiểm dịch động vật cửa khẩu thực hiện: Kiểm tra Giấy chứng nhận kiểm dịch của nước xuất khẩu; kiểm tra lâm sàng động vật;”
“Dans la majorité des cas, un certificat sanitaire est exigé par le pays de destination pour que votre animal puisse vous accompagner dans ce pays.”
“L’Unité locale de Contrôle (ULC) doit pouvoir contrôler que la certification sera possible.”
On arrival
Declare your pet at the border animal quarantine office
For up to 2 animals you bring as pets or on a trip (not on the banned list), declare them for import quarantine directly at the animal quarantine office at the border. It checks the certificate and examines your pet, and issues Viet Nam's import quarantine certificate within 1 working day if everything is in order.
Details and the official words
“Kiểm dịch đối với trường hợp mang theo người không quá 02 con động vật với mục đích để nuôi làm cảnh, sinh hoạt trong gia đình hoặc mang theo đi du lịch, công tác, quá cảnh và không thuộc Danh mục động vật cấm xuất khẩu, nhập khẩu theo quy định”
“Chủ hàng khai báo kiểm dịch nhập khẩu trực tiếp tại Cơ quan kiểm dịch động vật cửa khẩu;”
“Trong thời hạn 01 ngày làm việc kể từ ngày thực hiện kiểm dịch, Cơ quan kiểm dịch động vật cửa khẩu cấp Giấy chứng nhận kiểm dịch động vật nhập khẩu”
Paperwork
Bring proof of the destination's conditions to your local control unit
If the destination has its own conditions, or conditions AFSCA hasn't published, bring official proof that the destination's authority asked for them (with a sworn translation if needed) to your local AFSCA control unit (ULC) beforehand, not on the day of certification, so it can check that certification will be possible. Start preparing early.
Details and the official words
“vous devez présenter une preuve officielle attestant que ces conditions ont bien été exigées par l’autorité du pays de destination”
“Les conditions imposées par le pays de destination doivent être présentées au préalable”
Good to know
- The circular doesn't list the vaccinations a pet must have. At the border, the quarantine office vaccinates an animal that hasn't been vaccinated against dangerous infectious diseases, and takes samples from an animal suspected of an infectious disease (the certificate then comes within 1 working day of the test result).
- An animal with a dangerous infectious disease is destroyed near the border crossing, and an animal whose foreign quarantine certificate isn't valid is held.
- To travel outside the EU, the destination country's conditions apply. For some countries AFSCA publishes them; for others you must ask the embassy or the regional export-promotion organisations. It is your responsibility that the destination accepts your pet.
- AFSCA recommends a European passport, a microchip and a valid rabies vaccination. For a limited number of countries the rabies vaccination is not required, but AFSCA still advises it because it is needed to come back to the EU. Many non-EU countries count a vaccine as valid for one year, so check its date before you leave.
- Even after a short stay in a non-EU country, your pet has to meet the rules for entering Belgium from outside the EU when it comes back. Where a blood test is needed, the conditions are relaxed if you do it before you leave.
- Planning to bring your pet back to the EU? After a short stay in a non-EU country you can skip the 3-month wait after the rabies blood test, but only if, before you leave the EU, your pet was vaccinated against rabies, passed a successful titer test, and your vet recorded both in its EU pet passport. So do the blood test before you go.
Common questions
Does my dog or cat need a rabies blood test to go from Belgium to Vietnam?
No. The official rules we have verified for this route don't ask for a rabies blood test.
Do I need an import permit to bring my dog or cat into Vietnam?
No. The official rules we have verified for this route don't ask for an import permit.
Will my dog or cat be quarantined in Vietnam?
Not on the routes we have verified: the official rules list no quarantine for a pet that meets the requirements.
Does my dog or cat need a microchip?
The official rules we have verified for this route don't list a microchip requirement.