Exporting a dog from Singpaore can be an easy process as long as you are fully prepared in advance. Before starting the process of leaving Singapore it is vital that you check the requirements of the country you are going to. Each country has different requirements and some are more strict than others. Originally I was going to go to Japan and they have very strict requirements. It can take 6 months to follow the process correctly so it’s vital that you begin your research early on.
I ended up travelling to Thailand first, and their rules were a lot more simple. You can read more about that here. As I had started the process to go to Japan I had most things in place already. For example my rabies vaccine and rabies titer test which made it very easy.
Exporting a dog from Singapore is very simple and easily done on your own. The NParks website has a lot of very good information and easy to follow.
1. Apply for an export licence
The first stop in exporting a dog from Singapore is that you must apply for an export licence via the Go Business Licensing Portal. This must be done within 30 days of leaving Singapore. So you need to make sure you get your timing right.
The cost is $50 and has a standard turnaround time of 2 working days after submission of your documents. You can pay $100 for an express service which gets you the document the next working day, but if you plan correctly there should be no need to pay for this service.
The export licence application is very simple and there is a full step by step guide you can follow here. You will need to fill in your information, your dogs information and upload the dogs vaccination records.
Once the application has been approved, you will make your payment and then you can print out the document at home. You should save this document as well to have a back up available.
2. Get a veterinary health certificate
Every country will require you that have a health certificate issued by a veterinarian in your departure country. Again, the exact details required from the certificate will vary depending on which country you are going to, so you will need to get the requirements from the arrival country and pass to your vet. As Singapore has lots of expats who move around, most vets will know the requirements for each country. However, it’s best to give them the details as sometimes things will change and best to have the most up to date information from the arriving country.
3. Get the certificate endorsed by AVA
For Thailand, the health certificate must be issued or endorsed by the local governing body. This seem to be standard for most countries. In Singapore this is AVA.
This means that after your local vet has provided you with the health certificate, it must be submitted to AVA for endorsement.
3.1 Submit Certificate to AVA
To do this, you must again apply via the Go Business Licensing Portal. There is another step by step guide on how to complete the application here.
Once you have completed the application, you need to go to the service centre and submit the originals of the veterinary health certificate, vaccination records and rabies titer test (if required). We took along copies of passport and the import certificate for Thailand too but these weren’t required. There is also a checklist that you need to fill in and submit along with your application which can be found on the above link.
The service centre is located on Level 1 of the JEM Office Tower which is located at Jurong Gateway, next to the JEM shopping mall. Our friend was kind enough to take us since we lived in East Coast and we parked in the shopping mall itself. It’s quite easy to find but if you get lost (like we did) the security will help you out.
When you enter the service centre you will need to take a ticket and wait your turn. The place was pretty deserted when we went, but it still took quite a while for our turn. We handed over the documents and were told the certificate would be ready in 2 working days. The total was was $23. Again there is an express service which costs $46 and is ready the next working day, but I don’t think is worth it either unless you’ve left the planning to the last minute.
3.2 Collect Certificate from AVA
We received an email confirmation when the certificate was ready and we had to make the payment online. We then had to go back to the service centre at JEM to collect the paperwork. This time we took the MRT to Jurong East and had some lunch in the mall once we picked up the certificate.
Again, the service centre was pretty quiet and we took a ticket and waited our turn. The whole process was very smooth. You are able to print off your own certificate if you have a watermark enabled printer, but I am not sure many people have one of those, so you will have to go collect yourself from the service centre if not.
4. Pre Import Inspection
Some countries require you to do a pre import inspection. As we didn’t have to do this we don’t have any experience of this part, however, there are clear instructions on how to arrange this on the NParks website. You can book an appointment for the inspection via the Intelligent Food Approval & Safety Tracking System (iFast) at least 5 days prior to your departure. You are able to just turn up without an appointment but you will then incur an additional fee.
The inspection must be during office hours which are Monday – Saturday 8am – 10:30pm excluding the lunch hour from 1pm – 2pm when they are closed.
The address is Changi Animal & Plant Quarantine Station, Gate C7, Airport Cargo Road, Changi Airfreight Centre, Singapore 918104 and the contact number is +65 6545 7523.
5. Arrange the ground services with your airline
The final step in exporting a dog from Singapore was to contact our airline (Bangkok Airways) to help arrange the ground handling services for the day of departure. The airline were able to do this and arranged everything required for the departure day.
On the day of departure you will need to bring with you;
- Your dog!
- An IATA approved hard crate with water with enough room for your dog to stand up and turn around in
- The export licence
- Original endorsed health certificate
- Copy of your passport
- Import certificate from the importing country
6. Day of travel
On the day of travel we arrived 3 hours prior to the flight time just to make sure we had plenty of time. Just in case we had forgotten something or needed to do something extra. You can watch my travel journey on my Youtube channel. This includes behind the scenes footage of me at Changi airport.
We did everything ourselves rather than use an agent for the process which saved a lot on costs. The process is very simple to follow and there is plenty of information and guides to help you along the way. Every office we contacted were super helpful. As long as you prepare, exporting a dog from Singapore is a pretty painless process.
If you are simply transiting through Singapore, check out my blog page of how to apply for a transshipment licence.
Any questions you may have about my experience please write to me at wylie@wylietraveldog.com. Or you can reach out to me on any of my social media pages.
Woof woof, Wylie x
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