Travelling with Pets to Turkey: Papers and Dates

Your dog or cat can enter Türkiye with four things, done in this order: a chip, a rabies shot after the chip, a blood test that shows enough rabies antibodies, and a health certificate from the last 2 days before you travel. The slow part is the wait after the blood test. Put your dates in the pet passport below to see the earliest day you can arrive.

The four steps in this order

These steps come from two pages of Türkiye’s Agriculture and Forestry Ministry (Tarım ve Orman Bakanlığı): the Trabzon Port veterinary border control point, page dated 16.05.2025, and the Istanbul Airport veterinary border control point. Do them in order. Each date counts from the one before.

1. Chip (mikroçip)A vet puts in a passive microchip that follows the ISO 11784 and 11785 standards, so a standard chip reader can read it. At the check, the person in charge of the animal must supply the reader. The Trabzon page also lists a clearly readable tattoo; the Istanbul Airport page asks for the chip.
2. Rabies shot (kuduz aşısı)Given on or after the day the chip went in. It must be an inactivated or a recombinant vaccine (a killed-virus or lab-made one, not a weakened live one). The shot day is day zero. A booster given after the first shot’s validity has ended counts as a first shot again.
3. Blood test for rabies antibodies (kuduz antikor titrasyon testi)At least 30 days after the last shot, a vet takes blood. It goes to a laboratory approved by the European Union for this test (the list). The result must show at least 0.5 IU/ml. Keep the original report: you carry it.
4. Health certificate (Veteriner Sağlık Sertifikası)The authority of the country you leave issues it within 2 days before you travel, one for each animal. Your vet knows which office does it.

What to carry one set per animal

Carry these at the border. Each animal needs its own papers, and a traveller may bring at most 2 animals. Both ministry pages say so.

Repeat trips and special cases

• Next trip. The lab test is not asked again for an animal whose passport shows a good result and regular, valid rabies shots (Trabzon page). The wait of 90 days counts for the first test only (Istanbul Airport page).
• A pet that comes from Türkiye, leaves and returns. If it has a result report from before it left, the 3-month wait does not apply (Trabzon page).
• Passing through. Travellers who pass through Türkiye to another country without entering it are not asked for these conditions. The destination’s health rules count (Istanbul Airport page).
• Under 3 months old and not vaccinated. The Trabzon page allows entry if the animal meets the health conditions the ministry sets for the country it comes from. Ask the veterinary border control point before you book.

Labs, and going back out where the test is done

Both ministry pages point to the European Commission’s list of laboratories approved for the rabies antibody test. Open the list and ask your vet which of them they send the blood to.

If your pet leaves Türkiye, the ministry’s Veterinary Control Central Research Institute describes the same order: shot after the chip, blood at least 30 days after the shot. The waiting time after the sample is the destination country’s own rule. The test alone is not enough: the vet health certificate comes from the provincial agriculture directorate (Tarım ve Orman İl Müdürlüğü). The institute’s page on the test.

By plane ask before you buy

Every airline sets its own pet rules, fees and limits on pets per flight. Ask before you buy a ticket, and again after you buy it. Pegasus’s own pages give the details below.

Train, ferry and bus what each company says

How do you travel?

TrainIstanbul ferryBus

TCDD Taşımacılık, the state train company, lists in its passenger-rights annex (dated 08.11.2019) the pets that may travel with you: cats, dogs and small singing birds, in cages. You put your animal in the place set for it, so that it does not block or disturb other passengers, and you follow the company’s carrying rules and checks.

TCDD Taşımacılık sets the carrying conditions and the fee and announces them. Ask at the ticket office or the company before you buy.

Şehir Hatları, the Istanbul ferry company, answers the question on its FAQ page:

• Dogs, small or large: any hour of the day, on a lead (at most 50 cm) and with a muzzle. They stay on the floor near you, never on the seats.
• Cats: in a bag, basket or cage made for pets. A school bag, a shopping bag, a box or your lap do not count.
• Small pet birds: in a cage.
• Not accepted: predators, reptiles, insects, primates, wild birds and farm animals.
• You pay for any damage and for cleaning up after your animal.

Other ferry lines have their own rules. Ask the company before you buy a ticket.

Each bus company has its own pet rules. Ask before you buy the ticket, and ask for the answer in writing if you can.

Evcil hayvanla seyahat edebilir miyim? Kuralınız nedir?Can I travel with a pet? What is your rule?

Breeds what the texts say

The ministry’s regulation on protecting animals names the Pit Bull Terrier and the Japanese Tosa as dangerous animals that may not be adopted, bred or sold in Türkiye. Its list reads “such as”, so it is not a full list. The text is about keeping animals in Türkiye, not about entry. Open the regulation.

Pegasus says it does not carry pets that may pose a risk to flight safety. Its own list names, among others: American Pit Bull Terrier, Fila Brasileiro, Tosa Inu, Dogo Argentino, American Staffordshire Terrier, Presa Canario, Rottweiler, Dobermann, mastiffs, American Bulldog, Caucasian Shepherd Dog, Neapolitan Mastiff and Chow Chow. Kangal dogs fly only up to 6 months of age. If your dog is one of these or a mix, ask the veterinary border control point and your airline before you book.

Quick answers

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