From the 1st January 2021, UK Pet Passports are no longer valid for travel to the EU or NI – you now require an Animal Health Certificate for travel. This document serves as evidence  that your pet meets the requirements for travel such as rabies vaccines, tapeworm treatments, that you are the owner of the pet and that your trip is for non-commercial reasons.

Our Standard Service is a minimum of TEN DAYS from the date of your application to your collection date. For example, if you emailed your application on the 5th, the soonest you could collect a Standard Issue AHC would be the 15th.

We always strongly recommend that you apply for your AHC as soon as possible as we may reach capacity for the date you would like to collect and we have AHCs confirmed for collection many months in advance.

We will only take payment once we are satisfied with the documents you have provided. Sending incorrect, incomplete or out-of-date documents will cause delays, which is why it is important that you read and follow the detailed information provided on this website.
We are a busy veterinary surgery and there is a limit to the number of AHCs that we can process and issue each day.

Once we have received your email application with the required documents you will receive an immediate auto-responder acknowledgement – if you do not receive this, then we did not receive your application (always check your Spam Folder after sending an application). We aim to respond as quickly as we can, but during busy periods this may be longer, so please be patient.

Lots of pet owners request their AHCs many weeks or even many months in advance, so leaving things to the last moment may mean we are unable to provide you with an AHC on the date you have requested.

Urgent Issue: we can provide urgent same day AHCs, but this is a limited service and generally requested by people that have been refused travel at the Eurotunnel Terminal because of incorrect paperwork.

No, a health check is not a requirement for issuing an AHC. If your carrier requires a “Fit to Travel” certificate please discuss this with us.

We can provide AHC certificates to pet owners and their pets without registration. However, if you live in the immediate area of Folkestone and wished to register with us, you would be more than welcome to do so.

1. An application form – downloaded from the “Standard”, “Urgent” or “Repeat issue” pages.

2. Certified documents that show your pet has a valid, in-date Rabies Vaccine and confirming that your pet’s Microchip was scanned and verified by a veterinary surgeon at the time the Rabies Vaccine was administered. This evidence can be provided in the form of an existing Pet Passport, a Microchip Reading & Rabies Vaccination Certificate certified by your vet or your Pet’s Clinical Record which must be emailed directly to us by your vet and this should include all of your pet’s details such as colour, sex, breed, DOB, etc. and include the owner’s name and address. We may need to contact your vet if any clarification is required.

What is a certified document? A rabies vaccination and microchip document is certified when the vet’s name is clearly written on the document along with the vet’s signature and has the vet’s practice stamp. If the vet who issued the document is an Official Veterinarian (OV) the vet should also include their SP number.

Documents that are not accepted include: Standard Vaccination Card, Record of Vaccination Card, Annual Health-check Card, Vaccine Invoice or Receipt, Microchip Certificate etc. These are all examples of documents that cannot be used as they are not certified documents.

You can request that your vet emails a copy of your pet’s Clinical Record directly to us. This must include the vaccine information (manufacturer, brand and date administered) and it must be noted that the microchip was verified at the time of vaccination. Alternatively, you can download a Declaration Form from the application pages that your vet can complete electronically and email it to us (please note your vet may charge a fee to complete the Declaration Form)

A maximum of 5 pets can be entered on a single AHC. The pets must all be owned by the same person and must be travelling together. They do not need to be the same species and you could have a dog, a cat and a ferret travelling on the same certificate.

If different Owners are travelling together as a group, they will each require a separate AHC for their own pet(s).

An Animal Health Certificate is valid for entering the EU and NI for up to 10 days from the date of issue, which is your confirmed collection date. Date of issue counts as day 1.
For example: if the collection date was 10th July 2025 you would have until the 19th July 2025 to enter the EU, so please ensure your travel date is within 10 days of your confirmed collection date.

The AHC is valid for a single entry into the EU & NI and cannot be re-used.

Once a pet has entered the EU, a pet can remain within the EU’s borders for up to four months, providing the rabies vaccination entered on the AHC is still valid.

Once a pet exits the EU a new Animal Health Certificate is required to re-enter the EU.

Please Note: If the rabies vaccine entered in the AHC expires before your return from the EU, your pet will not be allowed to enter Great Britain. Please ensure the rabies vaccine is valid for your entire journey.

Your pet can enter the EU 21 days after they have received a first rabies vaccine. This is also the earliest we can issue an AHC for collection as we are prohibited by the Government to issue an AHC until 21 days have elapsed. 
You can however order an AHC as soon as the rabies vaccine has been administered, as we require evidence of this to process your request. 

Your pet must have another rabies vaccine and you will need to wait for 21 days before travel. You can order an AHC anytime after the rabies vaccine has been given, but you can only collect the AHC after the 21 days has elapsed.

If your pet’s rabies vaccine was administered in GB, your pet will require an Animal Health Certificate to enter the EU, irrespective of the type of passport they have (EU or GB).  

A tapeworm is not required for exiting Great Britain or for entering common destinations like France, Spain, the Netherlands. A tapeworm treatment however is required before returning to Great Britain.

This treatment must be administered by a veterinary surgeon a minimum of 24 hours and a maximum of 120 hours before arriving into Great Britain. If you are planning a trip to the EU and plan to return to GB within 120 hours, you could have this Tapeworm treatment administered in Great Britain.

Please remember that your dog will not be allowed to enter Great Britain if they have not received a tapeworm treatment.

Any vet in the EU can administer the tapeworm treatment and then complete the relevant section in the AHC, which for an AHC in French & English is found at the bottom of Page 4.

If you are travelling to Finland, Ireland, Malta or Norway, your dog will require a Tapeworm Treatment administered by a veterinary surgeon a minimum of 24 hours and a maximum of 120 hours before arrival into those countries.

If you would like to have a Tapeworm Treatment administered when collecting your AHC, Abbeywell Vets can provide this service. Please clearly state this in your email when submitting your application for an AHC.

Yes, we can arrange this for you. 

If you are applying for an AHC, please clearly state this in your email when sending your application form. If you are not applying for an AHC, please email your request for an appointment to info@ahc.online.

The fee for a veterinary appointment to administer the tape worming treatment and complete the relevant section of your dog’s travel document is: £55 for the first dog and £15 for each additional dog – up to a maximum of 5 dogs. The cost for the appointment also includes the cost of the worming treatment.

Your Animal Health Certificate will be collected from Abbeywell Vets in Folkestone.
The collection address is: 2-3 Majestic Parade, Sandgate Road, Folkestone CT20 2BZ.

The collection times are:
Monday to Friday: 9am – 7pm
Saturday: 9:30am – 2pm
Sundays & Bank Holidays: Closed. 

We do not offer appointments because people arrive from all over the country and there is potential for traffic and delays, so our team are waiting all day for you to arrive.
On the agreed collection date you will need to come to Abbeywell Vets in Folkestone with your pet. We will scan your pet’s microchip, finalise your document and witness you signing it. The whole collection process takes on average 10-15 minutes. 
If you cannot make the agreed collection date, we will hold the document for 10 days for you to collect.

You pet must be present at the time of collection as we must scan and verify their microchip before we can finalise and hand over the document. . 

Once the required information has been checked and verified, we will send you a confirmation email setting out some important information that you must check such as, Microchip Number, Owner’s Name and Collection Date and country of entry. This email also serves as confirmation of your AHC, pending successful receipt of payment.
You will receive a Payment Link immediately after the confirmation email is sent.
Once payment has been made you will receive an automated payment acknowledgement from our merchant services provider. This acknowledgement means your AHC is confirmed for collection on the agreed Collection Date. All AHCs go into an active file ten days prior to the confirmed collection date. Our Official Veterinarians process each AHC in the order they are added to the active List. Once your AHC has been prepared you will receive a text message confirming that your AHC is ready for collection on your agreed collection date – you can’t collect before this date. During busy periods, this text message may arrive as late as the evening before your collection date.

We only issue AHCs for collection at Abbeywell Vets in Folkestone. We do not issue AHCs for anyone else or for collection from any other location.
We are aware that is an ever growing number of websites offerining AHCs that have copied our information and used content from our website without permission and in an attempt to look similar. This can be misleading if you wish to use the AHC service provided by Abbeywell Vets, so please check carefully – the good news is that you are currently on the right website! The only two websites you can use for our AHC service are:
www.animalhealthcertificate.online
www.ahc.online

Yes, you can! The vast majority of pet owners collect their AHC en-route to the Eurotunnel Terminal or the Port of Dover. However, the AHC is valid to enter the EU for 10 days from your confirmed collection date, and some owners choose to collect their AHC in advance of their travel date if they are travelling overnight or very early in the morning. This is why it is important that you provide your collection date and not your travel date if it is different from your collection date.

There is free 2 hour on-street parking to the front of our surgery on Sandgate Road.
We have dedicated client parking in the car park to the rear of our surgery, this is accessed via Christ Church Road and has no height restriction.
There is also a Public Car Park opposite our surgery if you wanted to spend some time in Folkestone, this has a height restriction so is not suitable for motor-homes or caravans. Some people with large motor-homes and caravans choose to stop at the front of our surgery to drop-off the person signing the documents and then drive around the block.

The AHC must be collected by the Pet Owner as it is their name that appears on the document. We also need to scan your pet’s microchip on the day of collection so both the Owner and pet(s) need to be physically present at the time of collection of the document. Our service is designed for Owners travelling with their pets only. If the ‘Owner’ is not travelling with the pet, but a friend or family member is transporting the pet on the Owner’s behalf, we can provide this service but you MUST enquire about this when making a request for an AHC as additional checks and documents are required and the AHC must be completed differently.
Please note: We do not provide our services for pets being carried by pet transport companies, pet couriers etc. Please discuss your needs with your own vet or with the courier company.

It is prohibited by the Government to post or email an Animal Health Certificate. The Government Agency (APHA) state very clearly that your pet must be physically presented to the surgery be scanned for a microchip and identified as the pet noted on the AHC. We must also witness the signing of the Declaration in the Certificate.