Best International Pet Transport Companies for Moving Abroad

The best international pet transport company is the one that is a member of IPATA, is registered with USDA, and routinely handles moves to your exact destination country. There is no single winner. Shortlist by destination expertise and credentials, then confirm both yourself before you pay a deposit.

Moving a pet abroad is not the same job as shipping one across your own country. Customs paperwork, import permits, quarantine rules, USDA endorsement deadlines, and airline live-animal cargo bookings all have to line up on a fixed calendar, and a mistake on any one of them can strand your pet at the border. This round-up gives you a shortlisting framework first, then honest notes on international relocation companies we have already reviewed. For the general criteria that apply to any operator, start with our guide on how to choose a pet transport company, then come back here for the international specifics.

How to shortlist an international pet shipper for your move

Rankings are close to useless for international moves because the right company depends entirely on where you are going. A shipper that runs dozens of moves a year into Australia may have almost no experience with Japan or the United Arab Emirates. Instead of chasing a best-overall label, score each candidate against your own situation:

• Destination track record. Ask how many pets they have moved to your specific country in the past year, and whether they know its current quarantine and import-permit rules.
• Door-to-door scope. A full-service relocation company should coordinate the vet appointments, USDA-endorsed health certificate, IATA-compliant crate, airline cargo booking, customs clearance, and delivery. Confirm which of those steps are included and which you handle.
• Airline and route access. Not every airline accepts pets as cargo to every airport, and some ban certain snub-nosed breeds. The shipper should already know the workable routes to your destination.
• Species and breed fit. If you are moving a flat-faced breed, a large dog, or anything other than a standard cat or dog, ask directly whether they handle it.
• Communication style. International moves span weeks. You want a named move manager and a clear update rhythm, not a generic inbox.

Work through those five points and most shortlists shrink to two or three real candidates. If you want the deeper questioning script, our list of questions to ask a pet transport company covers the full interview.

The credentials to verify before you shortlist anyone

Every company below advertises the right memberships. The point of this section is that you should never take an advertised credential at face value, because scammers copy exactly these claims. Three checks matter most for a move abroad:

• IPATA membership. The International Pet and Animal Transportation Association is a trade body whose active members are registered with the applicable authorities in their country and agree to follow the IATA Live Animals Regulations. Membership signals a professional shipper, but you must confirm the company is genuinely listed by searching the IPATA member directory yourself. See our explainer on what IPATA is for how the directory works.
• USDA registration. Businesses that handle live animals for transport in the United States are registered with USDA under the Animal Welfare Act. That registration is about welfare compliance, not a quality rating, which we unpack in our guide to USDA certified pet transport.
• IATA compliance. Air moves ride on the IATA Live Animals Regulations, which set the crate and handling standards airlines enforce. A serious international shipper builds every move around them.

Our step-by-step walkthrough of how to verify a pet transporter shows exactly where to run each check. Do it before money changes hands, not after. One more credential is easy to overlook on an international move: insurance and liability. Ask each candidate what coverage applies to your pet in transit, what the airline's own live-animal liability is, and what happens financially if a flight is cancelled or your pet is bumped from cargo. A serious operator answers these plainly and puts the terms in writing.

What full-service international shipping actually includes

The phrase full-service means different things to different companies, so pin it down before you compare quotes. A move abroad has more moving parts than a domestic one, and the gap between what you assume is included and what actually is can cost you days of scrambling. A genuinely full-service international relocation typically covers the following, though you should confirm each item in writing rather than assume it:

• Pre-move consultation and timeline. A destination-specific plan that works backward from your fly date through vaccination, testing, and permit deadlines.
• Veterinary coordination. Scheduling the exams and tests a USDA-accredited veterinarian must perform, and getting the health certificate endorsed by USDA APHIS.
• Crate sizing and acclimation. Sourcing an IATA-compliant crate in the correct size and giving your pet time to get used to it before travel day.
• Airline booking and routing. Reserving live-animal cargo space on a route and carrier that accepts your pet and species to your destination airport.
• Customs and import clearance. Handling or guiding the destination-country paperwork, import permit, and any required quarantine booking.
• Door-to-door ground legs. Collection from your home and delivery at the other end, or a clear handoff plan if that is not offered.

When two quotes look far apart on price, the difference is almost always in this list. A cheaper quote that leaves you to arrange the vet, the crate, and customs is not really cheaper once you value your own time and the risk of a missed deadline. Ask each operator to mark which of these steps are included, which cost extra, and which you handle yourself.

International pet transport companies we have reviewed

The table below lists six IPATA-member relocation companies we have researched, with the service focus and credentials each one publishes on its own site. We do not assign prices or star ratings here, because both change constantly and both are easy to fake. Treat the credential column as claims to confirm in the APHIS and IPATA directories, not as guarantees from us.

Honest notes on each operator

The value in a round-up is a best-for label that helps you pick, not a leaderboard. Here is how we would frame each company for someone moving abroad. Read the linked review for the fuller picture, and remember that fit for your destination matters more than any of these headlines.

• Air Animal Pet Movers. Best for owners who want a veterinary lens on the move. Its material emphasizes veterinarian ownership, which can be reassuring if your pet is older, has a health condition, or needs careful crate acclimation.
• Starwood Pet Transport. Best for military PCS orders and corporate relocations where you want a hands-off, concierge-style process. It positions itself around complex international and government moves.
• Pet Express. Best for owners who want a long-established family firm and value both IPATA and IATA membership stated up front for air-based international shipping.
• PetRelocation. Best for a high-touch, full-service move with an assigned manager. Its scale can help on unusual routes, though a bigger operation is not automatically a better fit for a simple move.
• WorldCare Pet Transport. Best for door-to-door moves and for less common species, since it advertises experience beyond cats and dogs.
• Happy Tails Travel. Narrowly best for United States military families relocating to the European Union, which is the only international lane it advertises. If you are a civilian or moving elsewhere, it is not a fit, and that honesty about scope is itself a good sign.

None of these labels is a ranking. A company that is perfect for a New York to London corporate move may be the wrong choice for a rabies-free destination like Australia that demands months of advance planning. This is also a different question from a general best-of list. For domestic and mixed moves, compare against our best pet transport companies of 2026 round-up, and see the full pet transport companies hub for every operator we track.

Match the shipper to your destination country

Your destination sets the difficulty, and difficulty should drive your choice more than brand. The same company can be an easy yes for one country and the wrong call for another, so weigh these patterns against where you are actually going:

• Strict quarantine destinations. Countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and the island of Hawaii have long, exacting import and quarantine timelines. Favor a company that can name recent moves there and knows the current rules.
• European Union moves. These are common and well-trodden, so many IPATA members handle them competently. Compare on communication and price rather than rarity of expertise.
• Rabies-controlled and permit-heavy destinations. Some countries require blood titer tests months ahead or import permits with fixed windows. A shipper that starts by asking about your timeline is thinking correctly.

The authoritative source for what your specific country requires is not the shipper. Confirm the export rules on the USDA APHIS export page, which explains the USDA-endorsed health certificate process, and read the U.S. State Department guidance on pets and international travel for the broader moving-abroad picture. A good operator will point you to these same sources rather than around them.

Red flags to rule a company out

International moves attract fraud because they are expensive, emotional, and easy to conduct entirely online. IPATA warns that scammers copy the websites and credentials of legitimate shippers, so verifying the company in the member directory is not optional. Walk away from any operator that:

• Demands payment by wire transfer, gift card, or a money-transfer service, which IPATA flags as a hallmark of pet shipping scams on its current pet scams page.
• Cannot produce a written contract that spells out the route, responsibilities, and liability.
• Quotes a suspiciously low all-in price for a complex destination, or pressures you to book before you can verify anything.
• Has no verifiable IPATA listing when you search the directory yourself, despite advertising membership.

Every legitimate company in this round-up will welcome these checks, and a professional shipper will often warn you about scams before you even ask, because protecting the industry's reputation is in their interest too. The point of a shortlist is to reach two or three operators you can compare on genuine merits, then verify each one before you commit a deposit. If a company gets defensive when you ask to see its IPATA listing, its USDA registration, or its insurance certificate, treat that reaction as an answer in itself and move on to the next candidate on your list.

What this round-up cannot promise you

We have reviewed these companies, but we cannot vouch for the quote, contract, or crew you will personally get, and neither can any list. Prices move, staff change, and a company that was excellent last year on one route may be stretched thin on another. Use this article to build a shortlist and to know what good looks like, then do your own verification in the APHIS and IPATA directories, read the contract line by line, and trust the operator that answers your destination-specific questions clearly. That is how you protect your pet, not by chasing whoever sits at the top of a list.

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