Hoping to bring a dog from India to Australia? It must live somewhere else first

The wait is at least 180 days, and none of it can be spent in India. Since 1 March 2023, Australia has not accepted a cat or dog from a non-approved country such as India if it lived there at any point in the 180 days before export, however healthy or well documented. For anyone wanting to bring a dog from India to Australia, whether a family relocating or a migrant who left a pet with relatives, that means half a year or more in a third country before the animal can fly.

Then there is the bill. At Mickleham in Melbourne, where the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) runs its one quarantine facility for cats and dogs, three fixed charges now come to A$1,974 per animal for a 10-day stay and A$3,094 for 30 days, under prices that took effect on 1 July 2026. Permit fees are extra, and none of these figures covers airfares, veterinary work, pet transport agents or months of housing abroad.

A sample drawn in India no longer counts

The rule grew out of a review of rabies risk, released with an industry advice notice dated 12 January 2023. The notice pointed to significant changes in the volume of imports and increasing commercialisation of the trade, and said many countries, Australia among them, had reported “increases in detected and suspected fraudulent certification and other documents”.

Animals must now also complete all their preparation in an approved country, and the department no longer recognises reports from the rabies neutralising antibody titre test, or RNATT, on blood collected in a non-approved country. A sample drawn in India no longer counts, whichever laboratory tests it.

India is in none of DAFF’s three groups of approved countries. Group 2, a list of rabies-free countries and territories, includes Japan and Singapore. Group 3, where rabies is absent or well controlled, takes in much of Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and the United Arab Emirates. Even an approved country needs a veterinary health certificate negotiated with the department before any cat or dog can be exported from it to Australia. Jamaica and the Seychelles currently have none.

The clock starts at the laboratory

In DAFF’s Group 3 guide for dogs, an identity check by the approved country’s competent authority is optional, but it must come at least 180 days before export and before blood is taken for the RNATT, at a separate vet visit. The rabies vaccine must have been given when the dog was at least 84 days old, with three to four weeks between a first vaccination and the blood sample. A laboratory recognised by the exporting country’s government tests the sample, and the result must be 0.5 IU/ml or more.

Only when that sample reaches the laboratory does the count begin. From then, the guide says, a dog cannot be exported to Australia for at least 180 days, and “There are no exceptions to this mandatory 180-day waiting period.” It also says: “The 180 days in an approved country is NOT a quarantine period.” DAFF’s advice is to allow at least six months for the health checks, tests and paperwork.

Import permits have their own wait. Most are issued in 20 to 40 business days, according to the cat and dog permit page, though it can take up to 123 business days. Import conditions can change without notice, DAFF warns, and the permit will contain the definitive ones.

Ten days or thirty at Mickleham

The final 45 days before export bring more tests for dogs, among them one for Leishmania infantum, and two internal parasite treatments, the second within five days of departure. An official government veterinarian must endorse the health certificate within five days of export, and each page of the certificate and laboratory reports needs the competent authority’s original wet-ink stamp. Copies are not accepted.

Dogs from Group 3 must fly directly into Melbourne’s international airport as manifested cargo, not in the cabin, with no domestic transfers. The optional identity check can cut the minimum stay at Mickleham from 30 days to 10.

One quarantine bill, two permit pages

Per animal, the department’s price list from 1 July 2026 puts the reservation charge at A$282 and accommodation at A$56 a day, which is A$560 for 10 days or A$1,680 for 30. The importation charge, which the list calls confirmation of reservation, is A$1,132. The Mickleham fees page, last updated on 21 April 2026, still shows the 2025-26 rates: A$269 for the reservation, A$1,078 for importation and A$530 or A$1,590 for accommodation. That page says the reservation and importation charges are “non-refundable unless exceptional circumstances apply”, and that fees and charges are reviewed annually. It puts the airline’s release fee at A$170 to A$350 per air waybill.

Permit fees are separate, and two departmental pages give different figures. The cat and dog permit page, last updated on 19 August 2025, lists minimum charges of A$603 for the first animal in a consignment, made up of A$130 for lodgement and A$473 for assessment, and A$288 for each additional animal. The general page on import permit charges, updated on 1 July 2026, lists an A$135 application charge and assessment fees of A$82 to A$655 by category of goods. It places the first cat or dog in a higher category than later ones, but gives no total for a cat or dog.

A dog from India comes home through a third country

The rule binds pets leaving Australia too. One that has visited a non-approved country must be prepared for its return in an approved one, and if its rabies preparation was not completed in Australia, it must also wait 180 days in an approved country before coming back.

For a dog still living with relatives in India, not one of its 180 days has been counted yet.